By Daniel Erbo / danielerbo@udec.cl
/ Photographies: Daniel Erbo
When it is said that water is life, it not only refers to the fact that its consumption is essential for the subsistence of human beings and nature, but also that all forms of life revolve around it: from us, humans who build our towns and cities around bodies of water, to their presence or absence marks our rhythm of life, the seasons, work and rest times, among many other aspects that have gone unnoticed because of the force of habit.
In addition, the relationship of water is not the same with all people or human groups, since some people use it to irrigate their crops, others to bathe, others for rituals, among many other uses. Therefore the importance of the decisions made about it, that is, water governance.
Since 2020, the Universidad de Concepción, through a project called “Monitoring system for local participation in integrated watershed management, SIMOL”, has been working together with the Communal Union of Rural Potable Water of the city of Ránquil, in the Region del Ñuble, designing a tool that seeks to strengthen the participation of local communities in water governance in their territories.
ORGANIZACIÓN PARTICIPATIVA
PARTICIPATORY ORGANIZATION
In order for most people to be able to exercise their right to decide on water, there must be a model that makes it easy. This is why in the first year of execution of this project, the professionals of the team devoted efforts to anticipatively design a tool that would contemplate both, technical and academic perspectives, as well as the local perspectives of the users of the water committees.
Due to the change of scenery because of the health crisis, online platforms were used to reach an agreement about the components and indicators which measure the biocultural relations with the basins, the uses given to water and its accessibility, which has been very relevant in terms of the context of water crisis that crosses rural areas in the country.
Within these online initiatives, the Online Training and Research Program for SIMOL monitors was highlighted, in which an active group of inhabitants of the Itata basin was formed, committed to strengthening local water governance, who will be in charge of the review, validation and execution of the pilot; and the radio program Comunidad de Pares, a podcast of interviews in which the current possibilities and limits for water governance were analyzed from different perspectives, the abilities of living community organizations to do monitoring, the role of institutions, public services and academia.
Another essential activity for the validation of the monitoring system was the virtual course “Sociocultural aspects in local water governance”, in which researchers and SIMOL monitors participated as reporters, who presented the governance approach from their perspectives and experiences, norms and public policies which govern water, and its dimensions as a human right, heritage and common good.
In parallel, case studies are being carried out in the different Ránquil water committees in order to subject the variables considered in the creation of the system to the academic scrutiny.
Noelia Carrasco, director of the project, explains the importance of participating in the construction of SIMOL since, after contributing to this, the group of monitors was constituted as a separate team called Creators SIMOL, who was able to revalidate the tool through a series of surveys.
Finally, SIMOL will obtain the form that will guarantee its usability and transfer, and will be available to the public so that the territorial organizations of the different basins throughout the country, which today face difficulties in their participation, can influence the governance of water. This allows to obtain the background and tools to organize the available information and to be able to develop analyses, approaches and demands from their perspectives.
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Last modified: 2 de junio de 2023
