INTERNATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM

TECHNOLOGY FOR INTEGRATED WATER MANAGEMENT

2012

Portfolio Paper of the module: Sustainable Use of Water

by Favio Portilla

Portfolio submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the International Training Program Technology for Integrated Water Management

Technology for Integrated Water Management

SUSTAINABLE USE OF WATER

Sustainable Use of Water in rural communities of Ecuador

Its about sustainable water services, not just about pumps and pipes. That was one of the main messages (and title) of the presentation on monitoring water services in Ghana, presented by Marieke Adank from IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in the Judge us by our outcomes session during the World Water week in Stockholm 2012. Participants in the 2nd World Water Forum (WWF2) in 2000 recognized that the water sector has largely been technology-driven and focused on engineering solutions. It has tended to ignore the social context of resource use, particularly the differing roles of women and men, poor and rich communities, and minority and majority cultures. (Aguilar, L. 2003). In fact the present paper will try to figure some sustainability aspects of water in rural Ecuador, instead of making an analysis of fresh water management techniques, since is considered important to have an approach according to the previous citations and interest of the author. The water has not been a recent issue of concern among Ecuadorian rural people, who use it for domestic consumption and agriculture, but it has not yet reached optimal and efficient levels respect to administrative, environmental, economic and social aspects. Disequilibria in water services has translated in that most of the lower income population in rural areas receive lower quality services, and however pay for them a significant percentage of the family income, higher than household urban sector that have better service. Also, in most of the cities, especially small ones, there are serious problems in the continuous supply of service, due to deficiencies in the sanitary infrastructure, inadequate or nonexistent technical treatment processes, thus results in low physical, chemical and bacteriological water supplied, existing also neglect disinfection processes, and limited technical and financial Figure 1. The consumption of nonresources for the operation and maintenance work.
potable water in rural communities is a recurrent problem.
Source: www.lahora.com.ec

Sustainable Use of Water in rural communities of Ecuador

Technology for Integrated Water Management

The percentages of both population with unsatisfied basic needs and population in extreme poverty are high. It is conceivable that the population in rural areas, and within it the indigenous population, faces the most adverse situations on poverty.

The organizational framework for water management in Ecuador is well oriented since it decentralizes towards the municipalities the provision of services, but this scheme is still incomplete as it does not include a proper regulation of quality and price, and an adequate system of information enabling institutions and users, compare the quality and price of the services they deliver and receive respectively. These deficiencies are serious, because these aspects do not assure nor sustainability neither growth potential of services. Despite the obvious importance of water quality, many rural water sources are not adequately protected increasing the difficulty in order to provide clean water of sustaining quality. When water treatment is included it is most often reduced to slow sand filters because of financial limitations; slow sand filters are not normally adequate to resolve the varying water quality conditions. Since drip chlorination of water is the only dosing method available in rural areas, this dose level varies widely and hence disinfection of water supplies is generally not sustained due to taste issues.

On the other hand, regarding geographic distribution of water, this aspect plays a crucial role in the development and diary life of settled communities along the rivers basins, in terms of economic, social and environmental issues, since most of the water sources born in the highlands, to descend to the lowlands, but reducing the quantity of
Figure 2. Ecuadorian Andes Source: http://www.agua.gob.ec

fresh water. In that sense, it has been proposed the concept of a social basin as a unit of analysis for understanding the social relations, power use and conflicts around water, between people located in the highlands and the many users who are in the middle zones and low Andean watersheds. This social construction of the basin also defines an appropriate framework in order to negotiate conflicts and to prepare proposals to protect and finance environmental services of the basin in long-term and determine a physical space of action. This notion is also
Sustainable Use of Water in rural communities of Ecuador

Technology for Integrated Water Management

strategic to both show the cultural, environmental, social and productive particularities of the Andean basins and to suggest a model of effective and equitable rural management of water by multiple users. Conflicts in basins often are related in irrigation issues; since the economically active population which engaged in agriculture are the majority in the country and since of it depends, highly, the production of basic foods, the issue of irrigation is essential. In Ecuador there are three types of irrigation systems: The private made up of estates owners, individual entrepreneurs or private
Figure 3. Working in irrigation canal.
Source: www.lahora.com.ec

companies; the comunitarios are those that group small and medium farmers and indigenous; the state irrigation systems are built by the state and benefit both farmers, but also medium and large businesses units. Private systems have 63% of the cultivated area and monopolize the 64% of the available water. At the other extreme, however, are the peasants and indigenous community systems, which represent 86% of the families of users, irrigate only 21% of their land and have only 13% of available water (Garca, n/d). Needless to say then, that the vast majority of the land cultivated by farmers and indigenous lacks of irrigation, although in theses areas there is water availability and even though this type of agriculture is destined to grow crops for internal consumption.

Models of water management therefore must include mainly: community organization and training, selection of preferred service level and management, complete engineering designs, hygiene education campaigns, equitable negotiation and allowing beneficiary communities to make their choice in relation to their willingness to pay and sustain the services. A key institutional arrangement to achieve social development outcome is the team composition at the provincial, municipal and community levels to ensure that every step be looked at from a social angle.

Rural water supply models should integrate a range of technical service options, (from simple hand pumps and rainwater catchments to small piped systems), direct user benefits: time savings and savings that result from the elimination of individual water treatment, health benefits and benefits from increased water consumption estimated by the willingness

Sustainable Use of Water in rural communities of Ecuador

Technology for Integrated Water Management

to pay for the increased consumption for users who without the project would use less effective and more costly alternatives. The models also must focus on achieving service sustainability through intensive user education in effective use, administration operation and maintenance of the systems. Nowadays, Ecuador does not have an effective policy for the proper and sustainable water management, a situation that responds to the prevailing power relations, according to which, the decisions on water resources are taken in the interests of the groups with pressure capability, sometimes above and sometimes through, legal and institutional regulations. According to the existing Water Law, the water is a national public good and all people have the right to use it, but in practice the possibility for accessing to water supposed not only the specific needs but also the political and social capacity to do it. A social policy consequent with appropriate and democratic water management must recognize the needs and possibilities of all social actors, but especially for the disadvantaged. Poverty, lack of education and culture of environmental protection of water resources is closely linked to environmental degradation in a vicious circle that can be broken only by management interventions using watersheds as planning units and involving social plans and economic policies.

Elaborated by: Favio Portilla December 3rd, 2012

References

Aguilar, L. The unavoidable current: Mainstreaming gender in the water sector. Moving Water, IUCN Bulletin. Gland, Switzerland. 2003. Online. Available at https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/water_en.pdf, (Accessed 29 October 2012). Chamorro et al. Anlisis de contexto para la gestin integrada del agua en el Ecuador. Informe Final. Fundacin Ambiente y Sociedad. October 2005. Online. Available at www.protos.be/temas-en/Informe_GIRA_NUEVO.pdf (Accessed 28 November 2012). Garca, D. Los problemas del agua en el Ecuador. Foro de los Recursos Hdricos de Pichincha. n/d. Online. Available at www.idl.org.ec/documentos (Accessed 10 September 2012). Secretara Nacional del Agua-Ecuador, http://www.agua.gob.ec

Sustainable Use of Water in rural communities of Ecuador