Abstract
Improving water governance in the Andes is one of Peru's biggest challenges. This article examines the state's role in the water supply of an Andean community. Thirty years ago the community resisted the state's interference in its water management but now it has adopted a state model. The present article examines this change in the context of 2 occasions: the Peruvian state's investment in a new channel in the area and the community's confrontation with the state to gain access to this infrastructure. In the article, it is suggested that rather than viewing the confrontation as a form of resistance against the state's interference in Andean irrigation, we can see it as a way of opposing the state's water policy that privileges Peru's coastal desert at the cost of the country's highlands. It argues that, paradoxically, the community's success in challenging this policy and gaining rights to new water sources has prompted it to recognize the state as a legitimate water governor. The article concludes that, to overcome Andean communities' distrust of the state, the state must allow communities to play an active role in water management and assure water equity in Peru.
Highlights
Andean communities have resisted the Peruvian state’s attempt to introduce formal water governance frameworks, and, in many parts of Peru, water user communities continue to manage water by use of collective practices such as electing their own water allocators and organizing communal works to maintain the irrigation systems (Poupeau and Gonzalez 2010; Isch and Boelens 2012)
The 1983 confrontation with the state through which Cabanaconde gained the right to water from the Majes Canal constitutes a key event in this development
Rather than viewing the incident as a form of resistance against any form of regulation as described by James Scott and reflected in the work of some Andean scholars, I have suggested that we see it as an act of opposition to a water policy that, in the eyes of the water users, is illegitimate
Summary
Open access article: please credit the authors and the full source. Improving water governance in the Andes is one of Peru’s biggest challenges. It is suggested that rather than viewing the confrontation as a form of resistance against the state’s interference in Andean irrigation, we can see it as a way of opposing the state’s water policy that privileges Peru’s coastal desert at the cost of the country’s highlands. It argues that, paradoxically, the community’s success in challenging this policy and gaining rights to new water sources has prompted it to recognize the state as a legitimate water governor.
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