​Just Water Allocation in the Dulcepamba Watershed

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

       Greetings to family, friends, colleagues, mentors, and supporters of the Dulcepamba Water Justice Project! I hope that you find yourself in good spirits, and I send you all my love from Washington D.C. where I am home in the snow, working for a few months on data analysis for the project. 

I (Rachel Conrad) am writing to share a brief update, and an exciting journal publication about our efforts! First, the article! Then, the update.

 

        I am overjoyed to share with you all that we were invited to write a journal article for the NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America's) Report on the Americas about the water justice issues in the Dulcepamba watershed, and the national and global context within which this is taking place. The article was written by me (Rachel Conrad) and is now available online and in print! Please check it out and share it with anyone you think might like to learn about this issue!

 

Link to the article: How 'Green' Water Concessions are Failing Ecuador

Link to the article's side bar: "An Interview With the Anti-Extractivist Mayor Ramiro Trujillo"

 

        Now, about the project: we are working very hard to analyze the mountain of hydrological, meteorological, geographical, and agro-economic data that we have acquired in the last year and a half. Once we finish, we will use our data in the final, critical stage of the project; nine months of community water adjudication/efficiency trainings, and the dissemination of information in the legal and political spheres. This is the stage where we can push for precedent-setting legal and political decisions to be made that recognize the hydrological, climatic, and agricultural realities of a water-stressed farming region, and that uphold the Constitution’s Human Right to Water and Right to Food Sovereignty. Our goals for this final stage are: 

 

1. Train farmers to use both crop water demand data and hydrological data to apply for water adjudications from the National Secretariat of Water (SENAGUA). Many of the region’s farmers have never obtained official papers that recognize their water rights, because the government has not informed rural farmers of the need to apply for these papers. It is of utmost importance that farmers now apply for these papers, because in doing so, they may be able to guarantee future access to water. Without data on water supply and water needs, it would be very difficult and time-consuming for farmers to apply for water rights. They would have to wait for months or years for government technicians to come to their properties and to (inaccurately) estimate hydrological realities during their brief visits. However, with our long-term water supply and needs data in hand, it is our hope that water adjudication decisions will be made more quickly, and in an informed manner. Our goal, then, is to organize community meetings across the watershed where, among other things, we will help farmers to use our hydrological and crop water demand data to fill out water adjudication applications on the spot. We plan to carry out meetings for 6 months, with an average of 5 meetings per week and reach over half of the watershed’s households. 

 

2. Water adjudication applications en masse: Because of Hidrotambo’s large water concession, some individual farming families from the watershed have applied for water rights and been denied. However, if farming communities apply en masse for water adjudications, we hope that their action will generate sufficient political pressure to inspire the government to right the unjust water allocation in the Dulcepamba watershed. Thus, we plan to work with local leaders, many of whom have already expressed interest and commitment, and some of whom have worked on the project for the past two and a half years, to organize a watershed-wide collective action in which thousands of farmers apply for water adjudications at once.

 

3. Bring two court cases: We will bring one case to nullify Hidrotambo’s Hydroelectric Generation government Contract on the grounds of Administrative, Constitutional, and Procedural violations, and the other case to nullify or re-negotiate Hidrotambo’s water concession, in order to assure access to water first and foremost for local farmers. *Thanks to a grant for $5,000 for a local lawyer, we have been able to begin these legal processes. 

 

4. Dissemination of environmental and social data at local, regional, and national levels: We plan to inform government officials involved in water allocations and hydroelectric development (the Ministry of the Environment, the National Advisory Board on Electricity, the National Secretariat of Water, etc) of the local agricultural, hydrological, and socioeconomic realities.   

 

5. Make the pie bigger: water efficiency measures: Currently, the watershed’s 72 communities are quite inefficient in their application of irrigation water. One principal reason is that farmers lack data on how much water each crop needs at different parts of the year, and so they apply water to their fields in an imprecise manner when the weather gets dry. With our real time crop water demand data for the watershed’s 10 principal crops, farmers can understand precise crop water needs for each day or week of the year, for each one of their crops, and with this understanding, they can apply only the water that is needed, and no more. Many farmers have recently been planting more profitable crops like blackberry, tomato, and tree tomato, all of which require irrigation. These farmers will be able to use our crop water demand data to decide which hose sizes to purchase, how to gauge their water applications, etc. On a larger scale, we plan to provide the two counties’ mayors (one of whom has supported this project from the start) and the province’s prefect with this crop water needs data and hydrological data, so that their administrations can collaborate on a watershed-wide irrigation plan.  

 

        The project has amazing potential. Since the Fulbright grant period and the Napier Award period ended in June of 2014, we have continued our work entirely from your donations to the gofundme site. As cost of living is low in rural Ecuador and many of the more expensive pieces of equipment and material were purchased with Fulbright and Napier grant money or were donated, we were able to eat, sleep, repair our car when needed, and continue gathering data, planning with community leaders, and analyzing that data with $7,000 dollars for all of 6 months. We are now looking for the means to do what we have been preparing for for years: use all of the data, tools, and connections we have gathered to support water allocations that uphold the Human Right to Water.     

       

        I am filled with an overwhelming combination of excitement, dedication, fear, admiration, and anticipation as the pieces of this complex effort come together, and as each of the dozens of individuals now directly involved in the project repeatedly demonstrate their commitment to bringing this to fruition. 

We once again ask for your support, whether through spreading the word, donations, or sharing advice with us!   

 

Please send me an email with any questions or advice to rachelelizabethconrad@gmail.com.

 

With gratitude, 

 

Rachel Conrad