Update, October, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

                                                      

 

                                                     The beautiful Dulcepamba River, drying out in the summer months

              

          Greetings to all of you wonderful Friends, Family Members, Peace Builders, and Change Makers who have supported the Dulcepamba water rights project! We wanted to send you all a little update on our progress, and some photos so you can dive into the experience through pictures.The project is still very much on track, although it will be a bit of a race to the finish with data collection. Thanks to the University of Maryland's Landscape Architecture and Plant Sciences Department, our four internet-enabled weather stations are sending daily satellite data weather feeds to UMD computers, which run it through a crop modeling program to generate daily crop water needs estimates for the 10 principal crops in the watershed. We have measured volumetric flow rates at eight strategic points in the watershed's rivers and tributaries regularly for over a year now, and local farmers continue to collect regular stream gauge data. We have entered the critical stage of socio-economic/agricultural surveys, which we are administering throughout the watershed, in order to better understand farmer's water use, the distribution of their crops, and the effect that losing their water will have on local and national Food Sovereignty.

  

          We have recruited community members, two Pitzer College graduates, several recently graduated environmental professionals from Quito, and several other part-time volunteers to help out with the surveys for the next two months. It has been such a blessing to visit dozens of farmers in their homes to administer the survey; many of us have never experienced such genuine hospitality on such a regular basis; we are met with offers of food (and local moonshine), genuine care and interest, and plenty of stories at each home we visit. Our drive for this project has strengthened as each family we meet shares with us their anxiety about water access. We will work to complete the data analysis and to write the major project report between December and February.

 

        We will spend the next several months organizing community meetings throughout the watershed to disseminate the study and to work with farmers to use the data we have acquired to inform decisionmakers like the National Advisory Board on Electricity (CONELEC) and the Ministry of the Environment (MAE) of local realities. We will also train farmers in how to use the crop water needs estimates to irrigate efficiently. We hope that our efforts to "make the pie bigger" through water efficiency measures and our comprehensive environmental and social review will allow for constructive negotiations around this water conflict to occur. 

 

        Over a year has passed since the study began with the support of the Fulbright Commission and Pilgrim Place in Claremont, California. The project has involved hundreds of people in one way or another (including all of you!). Everyday we are astounded by the power of community fuel—we are overwhelmed by the endurance of a collective voice that seeks to sing a song of grassroots change. Our hope is that as our words take flight and land in your homes and communities that you also feel the ripples of our collective journey towards water security! As your friends, sisters, peers, daughters and community members, we are asking for your support in whatever way this comes to you.With overwhelming gratitude,The Dulcepamba Team!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                      

                 

 

 

 

          Darwin, and Danilo, farmers from San Pablo de Amali, who have joined the team to work on the agro-economic surveys. In the background, Julio, from Cochabamba, Bolivia, who has also joined the team to work on every aspect of the project while at the same time writing his master's thesis on the conflict around the San jose del Tambo hydroelectric project.