From Where Life Flows: The Local Knowledge and Politics of Water in the Andes

Whilst a large number of foreign and state initiated water management systems have failed for various reasons, locally developed water harvesting systems have proven their viability by surviving for hundreds of years. Whilst there has to be some recognition of the geographical limits and some questions asked about the quality of these water supplies, even with these detractors accounted for these systems often remain superior to those imposed by political and private interests, not only in terms of their reliability, but also in terms of their flexibility and more equitable control. This book aims to offer a closer look at local flexible strategies for securing water resources under demanding climatic conditions and during environmental changes. The research dealt with here aims to identify a range of initiatives that have been created by and for members of indigenous communities to address such challenges, such as traditional structures for collecting run-off and rainwater. It poses the questions: How have these strategies been formed and made to operate? What positive and negative lessons can be learned from the interplay between local knowledge, subsistence strategies, and the influx of knowledge and initiatives from the outside? As well as describing the function and social significance of water harvesting systems, a further aim of this book is to highlight the wider political and economic context of local knowledge about water harvesting and its uses, and the impact of contrasting management strategies on social development in the local communities involved. Water harvesting and irrigation systems form an important part of the vast knowledge that indigenous and local populations have of their natural environment. Such knowledge is embedded within complex social organisations, and forms the basis of both formal and important non-formal social networks. Indeed, together with the management of land, the management of water resources frequently provides the basis of social institutions and relationships to which ideas of belonging and community membership are tied. Indeed, water resources, along with other natural resources, comprise not only a vital element of subsistence, but also a vital field of social and political inter-action and practice.John-Andrew McNeish is the author of 'From Where Life Flows: The Local Knowledge and Politics of Water in the Andes', published 2006 under ISBN 9788251921442 and ISBN 8251921449.