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LATIN AMERICAN POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SECURITY ISSUES
PARAGUAY AND PERU

POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
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LATIN AMERICAN POLITICAL,
ECONOMIC, AND SECURITY ISSUES
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LATIN AMERICAN POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SECURITY ISSUES
PARAGUAY AND PERU

POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
KARLA SANTIAGO
EDITOR
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Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Chapter 1 Building the City of Kings:
Environmental Consciousness and
the Construction of Colonial Lima, Peru, 1535-1625 1
Kathleen M. Kole de Peralta
Chapter 2 Makers of Waterscapes:
Water Abundance, Discourses and the Market
in the Ica and Pampas Basins, Peru 25
PatriciaUrteaga-Crovetto
Chapter 3 The Environmental Aspects of Bioenergy
Production in Peru 61
Juan Camilo Solarte Toro and
Carlos Ariel Cardona Alzate
Chapter 4 Paraguay’s Dramatic Land-Use Change in
the 20th Century: Concerning Massive
Deforestation and Crawling Reforestation 97
Julia Szulecka
Chapter 5 Citizen Participation in the Local Governments
of Paraguay through Social Networking Sites 123
Juana Alonso-Cañadas, Alejandro Sáez-Martín
and Carmen Caba-Perez
vi Contents
Chapter 6 Paraguay: Where Corruption and

Poverty Hamper Development 153
Peter Marko Tase
Chapter 7 Assessing Paraguay’s Possible Futures 161
Roberto Codas
Index 179
PREFACE
Chapter One examines natural resource management during the settlement

and construction of Spanish Peru’s capital city from 1535-1625. Chapter Two
discusses how the upstream Pampas basin (Huancavelica) was socially
constructed as a water-abundant region to justify building a diversion canal
that would conduct water to fulfill the increasing water need for agro exporting
Ica. Chapter Three analyzes, from technical and environmental points of view,
how the biodiesel and bioethanol production can improve environmental
indicators of Peru in comparison with those derived of the use of oil-based
products. Chapter Four discusses the reasons and scale of deforestation in both
of Paraguay’s very divergent vegetative regions: Eastern Paraguay and the
Chaco. Chapter Five analyzes the online practices (through Facebook) of local
governments in Paraguay, and to examine the factors that influence these
practices. Chapter six covers the current socio-economic reality of Paraguay
by sharing valuable information and real life examples that were experienced
in the ground by the author over the last year. The final chapter discusses
Paraguay’s possible futures, considering authoritarian rule has been the norm
throughout Paraguay’s 207 years of independent history.
Chapter 1 - This chapter examines natural resource management during
the settlement and construction of Spanish Peru’s capital city from 1535-1625.
Soon after its foundation, Lima became South America’s center of
communication, commerce, and culture in the Americas. The author base their
investigation on a careful examination of archival data such as the early
records of the city’s Spanish government, land titles, notarial documents, and
administrative reports. Three frameworks comprise the most recent trends in
environmental history studies: transnational, cultural, and sensory. The author
builds on these models by reconstructing a local environmental study of Lima,
viii Karla Santiago
Peru during its foundation and edification. This case study helps us rethink the
history of the Spanish conquest and the role the local environment played in
shaping a colonial town. Construction demands placed incredible stress on
Lima’s coastal desert environment, and in particular the demand for trees and
adobe. The author argues that while building the City of Kings, Lima’s town
councilmen demonstrated what scholars today identify as an early-modern
environmental consciousness. They articulated this via policies enacted to
manage the extraction of trees and adobe; and the development of a local
architectural style.
Chapter 2 - In this chapter the author analyzes how the upstream Pampas
basin (Huancavelica) was socially constructed as a water-abundant region to
justify building a diversion canal that would conduct water to fulfill the
increasing water need for agro exporting Ica. While surface and ground water
users downstream agreed on the necessity to build this infrastructure, the
upstream communities contended that it would hamper their livelihoods and
ecosystems. The article explores the material and symbolic aspects of this
water conflict in central Peru.
Chapter 3 - Bioenergy is defined as the largest renewable energy source
produced from recently living biological matter or biomass. Its production
improves environmental indicators related with the air, water and soil
pollution. Therefore, bioenergy inclusion in new strategies to diversify the
energy matrix allows proposing or modifying environmental policies of
developing countries according to international targets. Nowadays, Peru is
promoting the development and use of clean energy sources and technologies
with low greenhouse gases emissions. The above, it is avoiding the
degradation and explotation of natural resources through the formulation of
energy projects in accordance with the National Energy Policy Peru 2010 –
2040. For that reason, an increase in biofuels production is expected in coming
years. The main biofuels produced in this country are biodiesel from palm and
jatropha oils, as well as, bioethanol from sugarcane bagasse. Thus, it is
necessary to evaluate if the implementation of these technologies can really
reduce the environmental impact caused by the use of oil-based products such
as gasoline and natural gas. The aim of this chapter is to analyze, from
technical and environmental point of view, how the biodiesel and bioethanol
production can improve environmental indicators of Peru in comparison with
those derived of the use of oil-based products.
Chapter 4 - Over the last century, Paraguay was among the top countries
worldwide regarding absolute and relative natural forest loss. According to
FAO data, in 2011 66.8% of GHG emissions in Paraguay came from land-use
Preface ix
change and forestry (FAOSTAT 2011). That is more than three times the
global average and requires special attention. Efforts to introduce and
implement adequate laws to stop dramatic deforestation were slow and poorly
executed. At the same time reforestation initiatives remain rather limited, and
both national (public), corporate (private), and smallholder efforts at tree
planting are small scale compared to programs implemented by neighboring
countries. This chapter analyzes the reasons and scale of deforestation in both
of Paraguay’s very divergent vegetative regions: Eastern Paraguay and the
Chaco. While the dramatic forest loss in Eastern Paraguay occurred mostly
between 1945 and 2004 (until the introduction of the Zero Deforestation Law),
land conversion in the Chaco region is a relatively new phenomenon, but
dramatic in scale and pace. The chapter focuses on forest issues but the
analysis is linked to other relevant social, legal, political, economic and
environmental aspects. It looks at the driving forces for deforestation (illegal
timber trade, land conversion for soybean cultivation and cattle breeding) and
its actors. Finally, it assesses the initiatives to stop deforestation in the Eastern
and Western regions and evaluates the development of forest plantations.
Before concluding, the chapter points to the main constraints for the
reforestation initiatives and concludes with some prospects for the future.
Chapter 5 - Local governments view social networking as a mechanism
with which to involve and engage citizens in government. The aim of this
study is to analyse the online practices (through Facebook) of local
governments in Paraguay, and to examine the factors that influence these
practices. The results obtained show there is a low level of engagement, and
that the popularity and virality of municipal Facebook pages are greater than
their followers’ degree of commitment. Factors that influence local
governments’ Facebook practices include the level of internet access, the
economic capacity of the local inhabitants, their level of literacy and the
activity and interactivity of the municipal Facebook profile.
Chapter 6 - As one of the many Least Developed Countries and one of
only two Landlocked Latin American Nations, the political leadership of the
Republic of Paraguay has steadily demonstrated and fostered a high degree of
government instability, corruption in the public administration, a weak foreign
policy and been unable to address a rampant nutrition crisis that affects its
vulnerable rural population predominantly children and teenagers. This article
aims to analyze and depict the current socio-economic reality of Paraguay by
sharing a valuable information and real life examples that were experienced in
the ground by the author over the last year. Its objectives are to shed more
light on the institutional independence that exists between the legislative and
x Karla Santiago
executive branches of government, a prerogative that is clearly outlined in

Paraguay’s National Constitution.
Chapter 7 - Paraguay’s history displays regularities that merit research and
analysis. Of these, the main feature to be considered is that in its 207 years of
independent history, authoritarian rule has been the norm. Attempts to govern
“democratically” were generally aborted by coup d’etats. The longest period
under democratic rule is the current one, which began in 1989 after 34 years of
the Stroessner dictatorship.
As a key component of authoritarianism, the intent of most powerful
rulers has been to remain in power, regardless of the replacement rules in
place. A few succeeded, most notably Gaspar de Francia (1814-1840) and
general Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989). Stroessner’s 34-year tenure shaped
the Paraguayan state and its society in many aspects that did not see radical
change after his fall from power, and thus continue to shape the options for the
future.
Some of the features that may lead the path to transformation in the
coming years relate to the fact that a majority of the population is young and
may not simply adhere to the current historical prevailing schemes; also the
country will be growing with increasing economic diversification.
Will Paraguay remain a democracy, but with significant authoritarian and
conservative features that shape its evolution in the current historical period?
Or will some of the historical regularities no longer prevail and see the country
enter a period of more significant transformation? What will be the key
economic, social, and other relevant systemic features in each case?
In: Paraguay and Peru ISBN: 978-1-53612-214-5
Editor: Karla Santiago © 2017 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Chapter 1
BUILDING THE CITY OF KINGS:

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND
THE CONSTRUCTION OF COLONIAL LIMA,
PERU, 1535-1625
Kathleen M. Kole de Peralta*, PhD

Department of History, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID, US
ABSTRACT
This chapter examines natural resource management during the
settlement and construction of Spanish Peru’s capital city from 1535-
1625. Soon after its foundation, Lima became South America’s center of
communication, commerce, and culture in the Americas. I base my
investigation on a careful examination of archival data such as the early
records of the city’s Spanish government, land titles, notarial documents,
and administrative reports. Three frameworks comprise the most recent
trends in environmental history studies: transnational, cultural, and
sensory. I build on these models by reconstructing a local environmental
study of Lima, Peru during its foundation and edification. This case study
helps us rethink the history of the Spanish conquest and the role the local
environment played in shaping a colonial town. Construction demands
*
Corresponding author: Kathleen Kole de Peralta, kolekath@isu.edu, History Department, Idaho
State University 921 S. 8th Ave, Stop 8079 Pocatello, ID, USA.
2 Kathleen M. Kole de Peralta
placed incredible stress on Lima’s coastal desert environment, and in

particular the demand for trees and adobe. I argue that while building the
City of Kings, Lima’s town councilmen demonstrated what scholars
today identify as an early-modern environmental consciousness. They
articulated this via policies enacted to manage the extraction of trees and
adobe; and the development of a local architectural style.
Keywords: Colonial Lima, early-modern Lima, environmental consciousness,

environment, adobe, trees, architectural style, municipal policies, town
council, Peru
INTRODUCTION
Amid thin bands of forest, and dry, sunbaked earth, Spanish explorers
began anew; in 1534 Francisco Pizarro ordered the residents of Jauja, Peru to
relocate to the Rímac River Valley.1 In addition to living in a coastal desert
with a limited fresh water supply, residents faced a shortage of firewood and
building materials. Despite these odds, Lima, The City of Kings, became one
of the largest urban centers in the Spanish Americas: by 1614 its population
reached over 25,000 people. The city grew owing to an influx of Spanish
colonizers, indigenous migrants moving to the city in search of work, and the
transatlantic slave trade. At the center of Lima’s urban growth was the
municipal government, or town council, which carefully negotiated the
relationship between humans and landscape.
Scholars of the Spanish conquest, often characterize this period as a three-
way struggle among Spanish, Indian, and African people (Lamana, 2008),
(Koch, 2007), (MacQuarrie, 2012), (Prescott, 2013), (Restall, 2004), (Stern
1993). This emphasis, however, overlooks a more nuanced aspect of the
Spanish invasion: how did conquistadors adapt to a new environment.
Moreover, how did they manage the supply of natural resources in order to
build a thriving capital in the middle of a coastal desert? Based on a careful
analysis of Spanish records contained in Peru and Spain including town
council meetings, tithes, ground rents, and secular reports from 1535-1625, I
reconstruct one town’s edification at the crossroads of empire. These sources
1
This new settlement was their second attempt at a colonial town in less than two years. With the
consent of the local indigenous leader, Taulichusco, the settlers moved in alongside his
subjects. Archivo General de las Indias, hereafter AGI, Lima, 204, N. 22, f. 8v. “Probanza
de don Gonzalo cacique de Lima,” (6 December 1555) and (Morgado, 2007, p. 114-117).
Building the City of Kings 3
are not new to scholars, but I read the evidence with different questions in
mind, examining the archival record for discussions of environment and
themes such as construction, urban growth, deforestation, and brickmaking.
While the modern environmental movement is commonly associated with a
rising popular consciousness in the United States during the 1960s (Altan &
Christensen, 2012) and (List, 2000), a cohort of early-modern and ancient
historians (Estok, 2016), (Hiltner, 2011), (Hussey and Thompson, 2002),
(Clason, 2012), (Radkau, 2008), and (Thompson, 2004) demonstrate that the
concept of environmental consciousness is nothing new. Humans have always
been intimately linked to their environs. In this vein, I argue that in response to
natural resource demands while building the City of Kings, Lima’s town
councilmen demonstrated what recent environmental studies (Clason, 2012, p.
229), (Estok, 2016), (Penna, 2016) classify as an early-modern environmental
consciousness. This awareness was articulated by the policies enacted to
manage the extraction of trees and adobe; and the realization of a local
architectural style. I develop this argument through a discussion of the
secondary literature, Lima’s foundation, urban growth, and the local
environmental influence on building materials and architectural design.
HISTORIOGRAPHY
Until the cultural turn of the 1990s, environmental historians emphasized
two versions of the Spanish conquest and its environmental consequences:
environmental determinism and declension. Environmental determinism
suggested that climate and geography influenced culture, a theory applied
broadly from the collapse of the Ancient Maya (circa 750 to 900 C.E.) to the
superiority (military, intellectual and genetic) of European societies in global
expansion (Diamond, 2002) and (Webster, 2002). Both Carey (2009) and
Sedrez (2009) observe environmental historians’ reiteration of declension
theory, or the idea that environmental history follows a trajectory of failure,
decline and decay. Examples of this include Warren Dean’s classic With
Broadax and Fireband (1995), which traces the erosion of Brazilian forests
under colonization. Dean writes that Brazil’s forests were displaced and erased
by a number of ecological invaders, including cattle ranching, coffee
plantations, mining and slash-and-burn farming. Similarly, many
environmental histories fault capitalistic enterprises for the Atlantic Slave
Trade and destructive mono-crop farming such as coffee, chocolate, bananas,
and sugar (Adams, 1914), (Ayala, 1999), (Barham & Coomes, 1994),
(Brannstrom, 2000), (Charlip, 2003), (Dean, 1987), (Hecht and Cockburn,

2010), (Russell-Wood, 2002), (Soluri, 2005). On the other hand, Crosby
(2004) blames ecological, not human actors, for the environmental degradation
of the Americas. Crosby (2004), Belknap (2014), and Melville (1994) posit
that the introduction of new invasive plants, animals, and diseases devastated
South America’s native ecosystems and accelerated Spanish colonization.
Recent environmental studies shift to examine three broad trends:
transnational environmental history, cultural environmental history, and
sensory environmental history. The first trend, investigates the environmental
histories by looking at the connections and intertwined histories of multiple
countries, and setting aside the political boundaries that might typically divide
fields (Ariye, 2013), (Boyer, 2012), and (McNeil, 2000). The second trend
encompasses the cultural construct of nature, or what nature means to different
societies at different moments in time. This research examines how humans
construct nature from their own unique cultural context (Arch, 2016), (Herron,
2016) and (Seeley & Skabelund, 2016). The third blends environmental
studies with sensory history. This body of literature examines the past through
touch, smell, sound and taste (Hoffman, 2016), (Classen, 2012), (Howes,
2003) and (Mack, 2015).
Investigations into Lima’s environmental history are sparse, but overall;
they emphasize the central role of the town council in Spanish Lima’s
edification. Among the important contributions are Ricardo Mariategui
Olivia’s study (1956) on the Rímac River, Gilda Cogorno Ventura’s
examination of Lima’s town council (2005), and María Rostworowski’s
(2005) Recurso naturales renovables y pesca. All three reconstruct the
relationship between power structures and the natural world. In particular, they
portray the city as a managed landscape. Town councilmen are at the center of
this narrative; they developed the city’s physical infrastructure with bridges
that overcome treacherous seasonal floods and paved roads that bore the
weight of oxen and carts.
I contribute to the existing body of environmental histories by
demonstrating how a local history of Lima, Peru can help us rethink the
Spanish conquest of the Americas. There would be no Spanish conquest,
social transformation within colonial society, or even the Peruvian Civil Wars
without the most basic aspects of imperial expansion: the physical construction
of colonial settlements and the management of natural resources in unfamiliar
environments. This chapter places those issues at the forefront of the
investigation. It demonstrates that during the creation of a colonial city,
municipal elites exercised an environmental awareness that would protect,
conserve, and control the supply of trees and adobe used in constructions, and
advocate for edifices that were intelligently tailored to the local environment.
FOUNDING THE CITY OF KINGS

In 1534, Francisco Pizarro and his cohort uprooted from Jauja, a town
located in Peru’s central highlands, and relocated to a coastal desert near the
Pacific Ocean. This new settlement was the second attempt at a colonial town
in less than two years. Early cabildo (town council) records described Lima’s
location as a promising home, “Because the region is very good, it has a fine
supply of water and firewood, and similar lands and it is airy, clear,
unencumbered and to everyone it seems that it [the land] is healthy, and a
convenient [place] to found a town so that it perpetuates.”2 And indeed, the
river valley possessed many qualities that made it suitable for settlement. The
Rímac River channeled fresh water, albeit intermittently, from the Andes
mountains to Pacific Ocean. Moreover, native peoples living in the valley such
as those under the jurisdiction of Lima’s indigenous chief Taulichusco (de
Diez Canseco, 1978) channeled its water to irrigate hundreds of miles of land;
creating a hydraulic network that supported life for numerous tree species such
as avocado, quince, lúcuma, orange, lemon, and lime. The river’s thick, clay
banks provided ideal conditions for alder wood and willow trees (Hughes,
2009, p. 108).
Pizarro and the early residents of Lima looked upon a landscape flush with
trees and imagined how they would turn those forests into homes, bridges,
ships, and firewood. The alder’s soft and porous wood was useful in
construction, especially boats, because it did not rot under water. And like
legumes, alder trees enriched the earth around them, replenishing the soil and
rendering it fertile for new crops and seedlings.3 It is likely that the alder wood
forests were not native to the area. Chroniclers’ accounts as well as
archaeological pollen studies indicate that the Incas practiced agroforestry, and
2
“...En el asiento del cacique de Lima, en dónde juzgaron que debía asentarse la ciudad
proyectada, porque la comarca es muy buena y tiene muy buena agua y leña y tierra para
sementeras y cerca de la mar e asiento airoso e claro e descombrado que a todos parecía ser
sano y tal cual conviene para hacer el dicho pueblo para que se perpetué.” Cabildo de Lima,
Libros de Cabildos, 1:2. Unless otherwise noted, all citations of the Libros de Cabildos
refer to the 1935 edition.
3
Both willow and alder were used in the production of charcoal and gunpowder (Wells, 2010, p.
15).
planted trees to transform the landscape. Hughes (2009, p. 108) writes that the
Inca did this “...to surround temples, to provide amenities in towns, to shade
roads and canals and to protect soil from erosion.” Thus, before the Spanish
even arrived, local indigenous communities were familiar with re-shaping the
landscape to meet human needs.
With the consent of Lima’s indigenous chief, Pizarro laid the plans for a
city. His design followed the traditional Roman military plan implemented in
colonial cities across Latin America (Bethel, 1984, p. 68), (Barrenchea, 1935,
p. 26), (Kagan, 2008), MacCormack, 2007, p. 133). With a central plaza at its
center, streets extended outward, intersecting at right angles. The plan created
one hundred and seventeen blocks, divided into four sections called solares.4
Pizarro then distributed land to men in his party, and designated spaces for
government buildings, offices, convents, and hospitals (Cobo, 1629, p. 44-45).
Lima’s Spanish landowners became vecinos (citizens who owned land), a
status that distinguished them from moradores (residents), who did not own
property. 5 When setting up the town council, comprised of all the city’s
vecinos, Pizarro took advantage of a legal loophole to appoint Lima’s
municipal officers for the entire year.6 The following January, cabildo
4
Each block measured 137 meters squared. (Bromley & Barbagelata, 1945, p. 51) and (Cobo,
1629, p.45)
5
All municipalities within the Spanish Empire followed a basic legal structure consistent with
Iberian municipalities. This included the system of classification, membership restrictions,
and participation. Iberian law ranked municipal governments and their respective
jurisdictions according to size and significance, issued a coat of arms, and granted special
favors to municipal governments. In November 1536, the Crown approved Lima’s coat of
arms featuring three crowns for the biblical wise men (hence the name City of Kings), the
Star of Bethlehem, the Spanish imperial eagle, and the monarchs’ initials “I” and “K.”
(Saldamando, 1935, p. 321) and (de la Rosa, 1935, p. 340).
6
Almost all of the men whom Pizarro appointed to Lima’s first council received a plot within the
traza. These plots occupied the most desirable locations, in those blocks that boarded the
central plaza. Two councilmen, the alcalde Juan Tello and the royal agent Cristóbal de
Peralta did not receive urban solares, but obtained encomiendas outside of Lima. Peralta
accepted an encomienda in the coastal district of Pisco. Juan Tello de Guzmán may have
received an encomienda in Peru, but by 1607 he had served as teniente general of the
Philippines and was battling exile for an illegal execution performed during his tenure
(Moore, 1954, p. 50), (Negrón, 1947, p. 80), (Tato, 2012), (Howell, 1967, p. 39), and
Newberry Library, Edward E. Ayer Manuscript Collection, Real Audiencia Chancillería,
Testimonio de Autos Seguidos en 1606 por don Juan Tello de Guzmán, Teniente General de
las Indias Filipinas (1606); and Isirio García Tato, Las encomiendas gallegas de la orden
militar de San Juan de Jerusalén (Galicia: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas,
2012), 676.
members held their own elections.7 By limiting officer participation by

geographic, social, and economic qualifiers, Lima’s municipal government
created a self-perpetuating oligarchy at the local level (Schenck, 2002).
URBAN GROWTH
The pace of Lima’s expansion indicates that large sections of the city were
consistently under construction. By 1537, Lima’s urban plan included physical
spaces designated for Spanish landowners, ecclesiastic institutions, political
buildings, and different groups of indigenous peoples (Morgado, 2007, p.
174). Pizarro and other vecinos encroached on and usurped indigenous lands in
the Rímac River valley, including areas belonging to Taulichusco (Lima’s
indigenous chief) and his heirs (Morgado, 2007). According to Morgado
(2007), Lima expanded in several phases. First, the physical city filled in the
original traza (city center based on a grid plan around a main plaza) plan from
1535-1542; then moved outside the traza from 1543-1552; and shortly
thereafter it expanded to the east and northern bank of the Rímac River (1552-
1564).
The city grew significantly in the mid-sixteenth century. In 1557, sailor
Hernán Lamero Galleo de Andrade projected Lima’s population at 3000
Spanish men, 300 vecinos, and a “large quantity of Spanish and mestizo
women,” in addition to an uncounted number of people of African descent,
mostly enslaved.8 Additionally, Lamero counted 20 encomenderos and “…a
large number of rich merchants who provide merchandise from Spain to every
part of Peru…”9 By 1600, Lima’s inhabitants surpassed 14,000 people
(Bromley & Barbagelata, 1945, p. 63). But the population boom did not stop
there, official headcounts nearly doubled by 1614. At that time, Peruvian
7
Not every vecino could become an officer. The municipal government restricted this role to
men with social and economic distinction. During the medieval era, Seville’s cabildo
described officers as “el más perteneciente” [the most belonging] “el más destacado,” [the
most outstanding]; these descriptions implied that the individual was wealthy and would not
need to corrupt municipal activities for personal gain. In that vein, Lima’s records used the
term, “desinteresado,” [selfless] to describe functionaries. Offices were also restricted to
elite men such as knights, hidalgos y citizens (Schenck, D.K., 2002, p. 189).
8
“Hay gran cantidad de mujeres en esta ciudad y mestizas…” Library of Congress, The Kraus
Collection of Sir Francis Drake, s.f. image 9, “Relación de Hernán Lamero Galleo de
Andrade,” (1553).
9
Hay también muchos mercaderes muy ricos de aquí se proveen de todas las mercaderías de
España todas las partes de Perú. Ibid.
chronicler Diego de Ocaña recorded that there was no longer any space for
new constructions and crossing the city [on foot] could take hours.10 The
official census estimated the total population at 25,454 persons. This figure
broke down into (Contreras, 1613) 10,386 Africans (5,857 of whom were
women and 4,529 of whom were men); 9,616 Spaniards (5,257 men and 4,359
women); 1,978 Indians (1,116 men and 862 women); 744 mulattoes (418
women and 326 men); and 192 Mestizos (97 men and 95 women). Thus, by
the early seventeenth century, Lima emerged as a regional capital of industry
and commerce. It is with this trajectory in mind that I turn to the physical
demands this growth placed on Lima’s environs.
BUILDING MATERIALS
Lima’s residents looked to the local environment for lumber and mud
bricks for homes, businesses, churches, monasteries, hospitals, bridges, and
plazas. As Cobo (1629, p. 52) observes, the majority of the materials used
came from the valley. Adobe bricks were formed within the city, and rough
mangrove and alder were chopped down on its outskirts. Most of Lima’s
homes used adobe bricks (Cobo, 1629, p. 51). Stone was very expensive to
import, and therefore only found in churches and elite homes. Locals also
imported oak from Guayaquil, Ecuador and Chile for use for decorative
features such as doors, balconies, and church choir lofts (Cobo, 1629, p. 53).
The wood used in the majority of the city’s constructions drew on a
relatively thin supply of trees, necessitating the intervention of the municipal
council. Town councilmen worried about issues such as deforestation and
landscape rehabilitation from the Lima’s earliest days. The documentary
record reveals a concerted effort to negotiate how residents extracted
construction materials from the local environs. As the city grew, the demand
for materials, and the need to regulate became a more pressing concern for the
municipal government, leading to a continuous cycle of policies to manage
tree and adobe resources. This included the space allotted to brickmaking,
controlling the scope of tree felling, and planting programs.
Given that there were no significant stone quarries in the area, two of the
most abundant resources, sand and clay, were used to create adobe mud bricks.
Furthermore, because of the high salt content of the sand near Callao and the
10
Described in Osorio (2008, p. 7).
coast, brick makers took soil from the land in and around Lima proper. Adobe
bricks were easy and economical to produce; the process can be likened to
mixing concrete, where the sand acts as an aggregate and clay serves as a
binder (Boudreau, 1971, p. 13). To form blocks, a brick-maker mixed sand,
clay, and water together, then added straw to prevent cracking. When the mud
reached a paste-like consistency, he spread the mixture into rectangular forms
and scraped away the excess. After waiting a short period of time, about 15-20
minutes, the form was removed, and the bricks baked for five to six weeks in
the hot desert sun.11 Once completed, they were examined and sold to
carpenters and masons, who incorporated them into walls, roads, and other
structures.12
Town councilmen shaped an urban landscape that balanced the need to
extract large amounts of soil across the city with the pragmatic needs of
transportation. Within the first five years of Lima’s inauguration, municipal
elites maintained production sites away from roads and neighborhoods. The
process of extracting soil created large pits in the ground, which complicated
the movement of people, goods, and animals traveling to and from the city. In
the event that someone dug a pit illegally, the cabildo hired someone to fill it
in immediately. If the brick maker continued to dig and use unauthorized pits,
he forfeited all the blocks on site.13 In 1539, the town council began a
licensing system that regulated who could create adobe bricks and where they
could operate.14 As a point of contrast, limestone, widely used in irrigation
canals, did not warrant the same type of oversight. Master builders used
limestone in mortars and plasters, but because it was extracted from the
riverbed, and in much smaller quantities, it was not licensed.
Although, capable of subverting secular law because they answered to a
higher legal and spiritual power (de Peralta, 2016), the records show that
Lima’s local religious organizations followed municipal construction
11
The total drying process can take five to six weeks, and it requires several steps: first, the
blocks dry for three to four days in the shade; second, the bricks are exposed to the sun,
stood up on one side, and left another three to four days; third, the bricks are set up in
spacious rows and allowed to dry for several weeks. Ibid., 26-27.
12
For example, to build a wall the mason laid a row of bricks flatly upon a gravel foundation.
Then he covered those blocks in a layer of mortar anywhere from 1-4” thick. The mortar
bonded each row of bricks together, and when it dried, the mason used a mud mixture like
plaster to smooth out the surface- a process that from start to finish took as little as 21/2
months to complete.
13
19 February 1537 in Cabildo de Lima, Libros de Cabildos de Lima, 1:136.
14
11 January 1539 in ibid., 292.
guidelines. For example, in 1549, the Canon approached the town council to
request a worksite to produce adobe bricks for Lima´s main church.15 And on
another occasion, the friars at the St. Augustine monastery obtained a license
and received permission to dig a pit right behind their building.16
As the city expanded, town councilmen upgraded central thoroughfares
with adobe roads. Adobe better withstood the wear and tear of wagon wheels
and hooves. In 1555, one town council meeting revealed, “The street [that
leads from Lima to Domingo de la Presa] is in ruins. There are many bad
sections needing repair, that one paved the road with adobe bricks, advising
that it be done, “In such a way so that there are no quagmires, nor rough
passes, and so that water cannot enter or destroy the road.... and so that a
person can walk along it without danger or effort.”17 Town councilmen
smoothed the path to urbanization, avoiding the pitfalls of hazardous worksites
and promoting the pavement of busy city streets.
Just as the municipal government sought to preserve the integrity of
Lima’s road network, they also conserved the tree population. For example,
they implemented special legislation to protect fruit trees. Perhaps more
tellingly, the concern for preservation and the protection of certain species
appears in the town council record in January 1535, just days after the city’s
official inauguration.18 The ordinance forbade anyone from cutting down fruit
trees for the purposes of construction, or sending a third-party (such as a slave
or hired hand) to do so. The scribe noted that the loss of fruit trees in particular
harmed the wellbeing of the city and the valley’s indigenous peoples.19
Another environmental protection act, passed in April 1535, began the
first of many tree-planting initiatives in and around town.20 The proposal
called on every land-owning citizen to contribute to a program that would
plant five hundred trees within a six-month period. The penalty for not
15
The councilor awarded the church a piece of land that neighbored Ana Suárez’s orchard,
located near a foothill see entries for 24 and 27 September 1549. Archivo Histórico
Municipal de Lima, hereafter AHML, Cabildo de Lima, Libros de Cabildos de Lima 3:ff..
55r, 68t.-68v.“La santa iglesia sitio para adobes.”
16
23 June 1553, Cabildo de Lima, Libros de Cabildos de Lima 5:46.
17
Y que dentro de ocho días primeros siguientes empiecen a adobar y reparar los dichos malos
pasos del dicho camino y los dejen adobados de manera que no queden atolladeros ni malos
pasos ni se pueda entrar ni romper ni entrar agua en el dicho camino y quede tal que sin
pena peligro ni trabajo se pueda caminar… Ibid.
18
30 January 1535, Cabildo de Lima, Libros de Cabildos de Lima 1:17.
19
Ibid.
20
3 April 1535, Ibid., 1:22.
participating came with a hefty fee of ten gold pesos.21 Six months later,
municipal leaders passed another mandate, ordering the plantation of three
hundred willows, fruit, and other tree varieties.22
The concern for natural resources at multiple levels of Spanish governance
suggests that environmental awareness broadly permeated the Iberian-colonial
Latin American colonization discourse. This attitude is most prevalent in the
records left by the Council of the Indies in Seville, Spain, the supreme
governing body over the Spanish Americas. This legislative body sent its own
list of ordinances to Lima’s town council, all of which King Charles V signed
and authorized. Within the list, one decree noted that owing to the shortage of
firewood in Lima, all of the vecinos and caciques (indigenous chiefs) would
plant 1,000 feet of trees in the fields and lands surrounding the city.23 Spanish
conquistadors and their political superiors in Spain wanted to protect and
preserve resources vital to colonial Peru’s physical occupation.
Municipal elites demonstrated an environmental awareness that valued
nature’s presence within the city. Trees-lined parks and walkways formed
spaces of leisure and diversion. In the early seventeenth century, Lima’s
viceroy ordered the creation of an alameda (tree-lined walkway) outside of the
Franciscan Monastery in Lima’s San Lázaro neighborhood. According to
Cobo (1629, p. 64), the alameda spanned nearly two hundred feet along the
river, contained several species of trees, three stone paths, and three stone
fountains. At the time Lima’s viceroy wrote, “…In this city, this form of
public recreation is more important and necessary than other [cities] because
its inhabitants amuse themselves in a range of private and hidden [activities]
that offend God and upset the vecinos.”24 The viceroy indicated that public
recreation provided the added benefit of keeping residents out of trouble.25
Plantation programs achieved more that the mere recuperation of lost forests,
they also improved the aesthetics and quality of life within the city.
Unregulated clear-cutting raised concerns over jurisdiction and to whom
natural resources belonged. When Spanish inhabitants or African slaves
21
3 April 1535, Ibid., 1:22.
22
6 November 1535, Ibid.
23
In Ibid., 51-52.
24
“Era esta recreación común más importante y necesaria que en otras por divertir a los
habitantes en ella de muchas particulares y ocultas con que se ofende Dios y se inquietan los
vecinos. AGI, Lima, 275, f. 469r. “Carta del virrey que hizo plantar una alameda a
recreación común de que tenía Lima mucha necesidad,” (11 April 1611).
25
Ibid.
harvested trees on indigenous lands, it created conflict between two

constituencies with distinct outlooks on how to use and appropriate natural
resources.26 On the one hand, Iberian legal customs often delegated forestry
policies to local governments such as the fueros or town council (Wing, 2012).
On the other hand, an indigenous chief such as Taulichusco of Lima, oversaw
the use and distribution of natural resources within his jurisdiction.27 When the
Spanish founded the City of Kings, they were allotted a specific area of land
that did, and they were not granted the right to take trees from anywhere in the
valley they pleased. Tensions over land became so pronounced that
Taulichusco’s heir, don Gonzalo, filed a complaint with the Crown claiming
that Spanish colonizers occupied many indigenous lands that were never
awarded to them.28 Colonizers who usurped lands and trees on indigenous
lands undermined the cabildo’s authority over its citizens’ actions.
One measure implemented to ease the tensions over indigenous lands and
resources versus Spanish Lima’s was a ban on how far residents could travel
to fell trees. Depending on one’s occupation and needs, the council authorized
different terms of agreement. For example, charcoal collection was limited to a
space within a two-league radius of the city. The ordinance targeted the
livelihood of artisans such as bakers and blacksmiths who relied on thick,
slow-burning logs to make bread or manipulate metal. Additional prohibitions
forbade sending slaves to collect kindle or logs on the city’s outskirts.29
However, the demand for building materials and fuel seemed to outweigh the
locals’ fear of enforcement. Consequently, the municipal government revisited
its policies a number of times, implementing new punishments such as
charging offenders according to the height of the tree they chopped down,
regardless of species.30
26
7 February 1535, Ibid., 1:18.
27
AGI, Lima, 204, N. 22, f. 8v. “Probanza de don Gonzalo cacique de Lima,” (6 December
1555).
28
Ibid., f. 12v.
29
6 November 1535 and 15 December 1536 in Cabildo de Lima, Libros de Cabildos de Lima,
1:18, 116 and “Ordenanzas para el buen gobierno desta ciudad de los reyes por el señor
emperador Carlos V en año de 1551,” Cabildo de Lima, Libro primero de Cabildos de
Lima, (1888, pp. 51-52) vol. 1 of Cabildos, Enrique Torres Saldamando ed., 51-52.
30
28 September 1554. Cabildo de Lima, Libros de Cabildos de Lima, 5:202.
ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON
ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
A hybrid architectural style emerged in Lima, one that blended Iberian
traditions with environmental cognizance, especially its air and seismic
activity. For example, denizens intentionally used southward facing windows
to channel healthy, fresh airs indoors. A 1581 report poetically penned that
everyday the morning dawn woke up Lima’s fresh, earthly winds.31 Two
different chroniclers who lived in colonial Lima discussed the importance of
air quality. In his Chronicle of Peru, Pedro Cieza de León (1553) lauded that
Peru’s air quality matched that of Spain. Cobo (1629, p. 53) wrote about Lima
several decades later, claiming that urban inhabitants intentionally built south-
facing windows, “…to enjoy freshness in summer and benefit from a healthy,
pleasing breeze.”32 These observations support collaborate the idea that local
residents were mindful of the valley’s distinct natural features when designing
homes.
The valley’s frequent seismic activity also informed architectural designs,
especially the development of homes that were one or two stories high, with
light thatched or wooden roofs. These design aspects were selected because
when buildings or roofs collapsed, lighter materials caused far less damage.
Furthermore, inhabitants had a better chance of surviving a roof collapsing if it
were made from reeds. The only exceptions to this general architectural trend
were the churches and cathedral, which were not required to follow secular
building codes. One observer summed up Lima’s skyline as follows:
The view of the city [Lima] from a distance is not impressive

because the houses lack roofs; as they are not needed to protect against
rain, their coverings are flat or they are roof terraces without any
ostentation, although they do offer enough protection. And the
tremors...do not allow high towers nor raised hospitals. 33
31
Archivo General de la Nación de Perú, hereafter ANP, Diversos-Colecciones, 44, N.85, f.2v.
“Descripción de Lima,” (1581).
32
“Miren las ventanas al sur…tengan su correspondencia para gozar de fresco en el verano,” 53.
33
La ciudad vista de lejos no es hermosa por carecer sus casas de tejados; que como no se
previene contra las lluvias sus cubiertas son terrados o azoteas de ninguna ostentación
aunque de bastante defensa y como son los temblores,,.no permiten torres altas ni hospitales
levantados que aun en lo templos se excusan por el riesgo. ANP, Diversos-Colecciones, 44,
N.85, f.2v. “Descripción de Lima,” (1581).
As this passage indicates, Limeños built two-story homes in response to the

regularity occurrence of earthquakes.
The frequency and intensity of Lima’s earthquakes (1555, 1586, 1609,
1655, 1678, and 1687) ensured that the cabildo would prioritize the
construction of seismically sound buildings. Two different earthquakes, one in
1555 and another in 1586 highlight how the town council responded to
tremors. After the 1555 quake, the cabildo required inspections of all urban
homes to ensure they were architecturally sound. When municipal leaders
reviewed the issue, they found that many homes were neglected with cracked
walls and in danger of collapsing. Furthermore, if those walls fell, the notes
warned, they would kill the people living within.34 Therefore, the town council
dispatched the inspectors with carpenters and builders to identify “mistreated
homes,” and repair them at the homeowner’s expense.35 These measures were
implemented to guarantee a certain level of safety both for homeowners and
the integrity of the city’s infrastructure.
On July 8, 1586 an 8.6 magnitude earthquake rumbled through the City of
Kings, killing 22 people (Alva-Hurtado, 1994, p. 252). It leveled large sections
of Lima, and its port city Callao. The ensuing tsunami reportedly produced
waves as high as 84 feet (Harris, 2003, p.29), and flooded the coast as far as
six miles inland (Garcia, 1976, p. 5). Immediately afterward, the town council
met with the viceroy to create an emergency action plan.36 It recommended
that all new constructions follow specific guidelines to reinforce the buildings’
infrastructure, so that it might withstand the shaking earth tremors (Felix,
2002, p. 174). This included using lighter materials in roofs and ceilings.
Several builders also started using light reed mat roofs in lieu of heavier
materials. Even the cabildo installed wooden roofs on official buildings.37
Lima suffered from repeated earthquakes, some so powerful they turned
large sections of the city to rubble; yet, the response of ecclesiastical officials
was not always consistent with the simple architectural style mandated by the
town council. When the earth trembled in 1609, the archbishop pondered how
to build a grand cathedral given Lima’s “infestation” of earthquakes (Proaño,
Scaletti, Zavala, Olarte, Quiroz, Cuba, Lazares, & Rodríguez, 2007, p. 161).
Several project consultants suggested ways to reinforce the structure and
34
18 November 1555 Cabildo de Lima, Libros de Cabildos, 5:350.
35
AGI, Lima, 108, s.f. “Carta del cabildo de Lima al rey,” (10 May 1589).
36
AGI, Lima, 108, s.f. “Carta del cabildo de Lima al rey,” (11 September 1586).
37
AGI, Lima, 275, ff. 469r.-469v (12 April 1611).
prepare it for earthquakes, this included widening the structure, replacing the
tile roof with reed or wood, and replacing stone archways with wood.38
Although the municipal council implemented municipal building codes, it
could not technically dictate the design of religious institutions. Pedro Blasco,
the cathedral’s master builder, balked at the idea of using wood instead of
stone in 1614. He objected on four counts: redoing finished sections of the
cathedral wasted time and money, existing pillars would have to be modified
or moved to accommodate wooden beams, a shortage of braces might threaten
the structural integrity of archways, and finally, it was only a matter of time
before wood worms would eat away at the beams and panels.39
After the archbishop reviewed the reports, he decided to keep the basic
structure of the cathedral and incorporate smaller adaptations; adaptations he
believed would enhance the cathedral’s performance during a quake. The
exterior walls were redone in stone, the naves’ vaults were lowered, and the
archways were reconfigured from masonry vaults to full arches (Proaño,
Scaletti, Zavala, Olarte, Quiroz, Cuba, Lazares, & Rodríguez, 2007, p. 2).
Finally, two church towers were shortened by thirty percent because they were
vulnerable sections and suffered repeated damage.40 Although wood did not
replace stone archways, or the ceiling or roof; over the long term the
cathedral’s reconstruction set a precedent for compromising the traditional
grandeur of a Catholic cathedral with an environmentally cognizant design.41
When the archbishop commenced on the fourth attempt to complete the
cathedral in 1622, he selected stone for the final exterior façade. At the time,
most builders in colonial Lima believed that stone better withstood tremors.
Yet, the incredible cost of the materials meant that such choices, even if
structurally sound, were out of reach for the average citizen.42 The cost of
these materials was enormous sum of 36,000 pesos. This sum covered the
stone, tools, transportation, and labor.43 After its completion, in 1625, the
38
Archivo Arzobispal de Lima, hereafter AAL, Papeles importantes, L.6, Exp. 17, s.f. “Reparo
que se hicieron por el temblor de 19 de septiembre de1609 en esta santa iglesia,” (15
noviembre 1609); ., s.f. “Carta de Pedro Blasco maestro de albañil,” (16 noviembre 1609).
39
AAL, Causas Civiles, L.15, Exp. 11 (1614).
40
AAL, Papeles importantes, L.6, Exp. 17, s.f “Carta del virrey sobre la reconstrucción de la
catedral,” (22 noviembre 1609).
41
ANP, Notarial, Serie S. XVII, Leg. 31, f. 2637v. “Instrucciones de Tomás de Parrales sobre la
obra de la santa iglesia,” (26 marzo 1626) and ANP, PL40, “Diseño de la portada de la
catedral de Lima, (1626).
42
The master builder at the time suggested purchasing bricks from a quarry in Cañete (south of
Lima). ANP, PL40, “Diseño de la portada de la catedral de Lima, (1626).
43
Ibid., ff. 2638v.-2639r.
Peru’s described the cathedral as a “Quite a sumptuous building,” (Ballesteros,

1969, p. 34). For almost sixty years the cathedral stood tall against the
backdrop of the city center’s two-story adobe buildings. It endured the quakes
of 1655 and 1678, but not that of 1687. Thus, despite the town council’s best
efforts to restrain Lima’s architecture, and the archbishop’s expenditures on
stone façades, the event proved that no material, no matter how expensive or
strong, could withstand the seismic shifts of the Rímac River Valley.
CONCLUSION
This chapter demonstrates that the processes of colonization and the
construction of new urban settlements was inextricably tied to the question of
how humans interacted with their natural environs and managed their natural
resources. Lima´s colonization begins quite literally with the mud bricks and
timber that created the urban infrastructure for cities, streets, and plazas across
the city. Municipal leaders demonstrated an environmental consciousness
represented by their concerns over deforestation, landscape degradation an
architectural response to wind and seismic activity. The history of Spanish
conquest of the Americas is incomplete without an examination of the physical
underpinnings of colonial societies. Without managing natural resources, there
could be no town, and without a town, there was no platform to sustain the
conquest and subjugation of Peru.
When we turn to documentary record in order to study the past, scholars
such as (Esok, 2016) and (Clason, 2012), advocate for an environmentally in-
tune analysis, one that they have labeled “eco-centric.” Clason (2012, p. 229)
writes this “ecological perspective considers human beings as part of the
ecosphere…” While modern readers may be surprised at the level of
environmental awareness articulated by the early-modern residents of Lima,
Peru, perhaps these sentiments are not anachronistic at all. We cannot read into
the past with the present in mind. When set aside presumptions about the past,
what surfaces is the continuity rather than the emergence of environmental
consciousness. The instinct to survive and preserve essential resources has
been a fundamental concern for most of human history.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Kathleen Kole de Peralta, PhD
Department of History, Idaho State University
921 S. 8th Ave. Stop 8079 Pocatello, ID 83209
Education:
2015 Ph.D. Latin American History, University of Notre Dame
2012 M.A. Latin American History, University of Notre Dame
2009 M.A. American History, University of North Florida
2007 B.A. Spanish, University of North Florida
2007 B.A. History, University of North Florida, awarded suma cum laude
Professional Appointments:
2015-Present Assistant Professor of History, Idaho State University
Honors:
2016 Idaho Humanities Council Grant, National Endowment for the
Humanities
2016 Diversity Resource Center Mini-Grant, Idaho State University
2016 Research Grant, Idaho State University
2010-2014 Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education
2010 Newberry Library Renaissance Center Stipend

2007 American Museum of Natural History Research Grant
Publications from the Last 3 Years:

2016 “Public Health and Municipal Water Policies in Colonial Lima,
Peru, 1535-1635,”Journal of Water History 8:2 (2016): 115-
136.
Chapter 2
MAKERS OF WATERSCAPES:
WATER ABUNDANCE, DISCOURSES
AND THE MARKET IN THE ICA
AND PAMPAS BASINS, PERU
Patricia Urteaga-Crovetto*, PhD

Law Department, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima, Peru
ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author analyzes how the upstream Pampas basin
(Huancavelica) was socially constructed as a water-abundant region to
justify building a diversion canal that would conduct water to fulfill the
increasing water need for agro exporting Ica. While surface and ground
water users downstream agreed on the necessity to build this
infrastructure, the upstream communities contended that it would hamper
*
Corresponding author email: purteaga@pucp.edu.pe. I thank my colleagues from the
Interdisciplinary Water Group: Gerardo Damonte, Iris Domínguez, Ismael Muñoz, Teresa
Oré and Armando Guevara. I am grateful to Barbara Lynch for her insightful comments and
generosity. I also thank Eder Lara, Doris Valdez and Vanessa Schaeffer for helping me to
get important data in the field. My gratitude goes to Frida Segura, who helped me to
translate the interviews. I am grateful to the people of Ica and Huancavelica who kindly
provided us with information. Special thanks to the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del
Peru, who supported financially this study. Finally, I thank Armando, Sebastian and Alonso
who are and will always be my inspiration.
26 Patricia Urteaga-Crovetto
their livelihoods and ecosystems. The article explores the material and
symbolic aspects of this water conflict in central Peru.
It is of course much easier to build a dam

or drill deep for water than to undertake
the kind of education and social mobilization
that the transformation [of thinking] calls for;
but that way lies disaster.
Ramaswamy R. Iyer (2008).
INTRODUCTION
Since the 1950s, Iqueños in the central coast of Peru have contended that
the upstream basin had the water they needed for agriculture. At that time, the
Choclococha canal that conducted water from the upstream Pampas river basin
had disastrous consequences for upstream peasant communities located in
Huancavelica, whose ecosystem and livelihoods were dramatically
transformed. Despite these facts, sixty years later diversion canals are still an
option to fulfill the increasing water need for agroindustry in Ica. As many
other water conflicts currently triggered by the increasing global search for
commodities, this one particularly demonstrates that water is a contested
terrain because it not only entails competence on physical resources1, but also
implies symbolic contests to define who has better grounds for water access.
This paper deals with the way ideas on water scarcity and abundance in the
Pampas and Ica basins construct waterscapes. Drawing from Political Ecology
and Anthropology, here I argue that mythical construction of Huancavelica as
an abundant water region is aimed at using water from the upstream Pampas
basin to irrigate lands in Ica for agro export.
Research for this article was conducted during 2011-2013. Data was
collected from first sources in Huancavelica and Ica through informal and
structured interviews to water experts, regional authorities, engineers, local
water leaders and farmers. I also relied on field observation and recording field
notes in Huancavelica. Similarly, I went through secondary sources, such as
archival and statistical data found at the regional Office of the Ministry of
Agriculture and the Carhuancho community, both in Huancavelica. I also
reviewed related literature. Although in this paper I focus mainly on some
1
See Boelens and Zwarteveen, 2003; Boelens, et al., 2005; Mollinga, 2008; Boelens et al., 2010.
Makers of Waterscapes 27
peasant communities of Huancavelica located in the upstream Pampas basin,

the results leads us to conclude that the basin approach is necessary to
understand how political, social, economic, ecological, and technological
changes in the upstream are intrinsically related to transformations
downstream, and vice versa.
Here, I first draw on the anthropological and political ecology study of
water scarcity and abundance. Secondly, I describe the water struggle between
Ica and Huancavelica departments (downstream and upstream basins) that
followed the mythical construction of the upstream as a water abundant region
wherefrom to transfer water for agroindustry coastal lands. Then, I analyze
how discourses on water scarcity and development downstream are contingent
to the discursive crafting of water abundance. Here, I focus on the state
intervention in the process of myth-making. Finally, I offer some conclusions
regarding the role of the state in generating the conflict between Ica and
Huancavelica.
WATER SCARCITY
Water scarcity and abundance are produced by particular material-
symbolic dynamics driven by local, national and international forces with
political and economic power differentials that contend different
representations, cultural practices and politics regarding water. In what
follows, I deal with ideas of water scarcity and abundance to unveil how they
are shaped by cultural practices, economic and political interests to determine
specific ways in which water should be distributed in the specific area of the
Ica and Pampas basins.
Johnston (2005) considers that water scarcity may occur at any level of
supply or demand. Accordingly, it depends on several aspects that are not only
material. The fact that it can be socially, culturally and politically constructed
together with the fact that it depends on several factors such as climate, soil,
etc., contributes to its inherent contingency. As such, its importance lays not
only on its material aspect but also on the fact that it “might reflect the
economic ability to pay for water, or the customs, social conditions, and
relationships that privilege access to some while withholding access from
other” (Johnston 2005: 136). Therefore, water scarcity is “a consequence of
social relationships and historical and contemporary transformations within the
struggle for water control” (Ahlers, 2008: 8).
For Political Ecology “such inequitable hydro-social configurations” are

“fundamentally socially produced” (Swyngedouw 2009: 57)2. Historically,
water scarcity has been used to foster particular political and economic
interests (i.e., market opportunities for investment, energy scarcity to develop
hydroelectric power, water mismanagement to make necessary the
development of new administration and policies that allow public subsidy on
private sector) (Bakker 2000; Johnston 2003, 2005; Ahlers 2008). Johnston
(2005) criticizes the alarming voices within the United Nations System and
International Financial Institutions, such as the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund, that raise the issue of water scarcity to promote a
particular recipe to overcome the urgency: “At times, the scarcity is created as
a by-product of resource decision making that prioritizes one use over another.
At other times, the perception of scarcity is manufactured to fuel and further
various political agendas” (Johnston, 2005: 140).
Based on case studies, Bakker (2000), Ahlers (2008), Mehta (2003, 2007),
and Budds (2008, 2012) demonstrate how scarcity is socially constructed to
benefit certain political and economic processes. Bakker (2000) describes how
the 1995 drought in Yorkshire, England, was the perfect excuse to re-regulate
and privatize water. Corporate mismanagement of potable water –she calls it
“governance failure”- set the stage for a re-regulation that obliterated the state
and empowered the market. Ahlers (2008) shows how drought in the north of
Mexico was the result of an increasing water demand due to commercial
agriculture, the extension of the garment industry (maquiladoras), and other
uses. Due to the withdrawal of a state subsidy, peasants felt severely the
drought. Mehta (2007) demonstrates how in the peninsula of Kutch in the
district of Gujarat, India, scarcity is usually attributed to low rainfall and
frequent droughts, for which decision makers relied on the Sardar Sarovar
Project, a large multi-dam project constructed on the Narmada river for
irrigation and hydroelectric purposes. Scarcity was discursively naturalized to
respond to the interests of powerful actors interested in the construction of the
dam. This not only obscured the anthropogenic nature of droughts due to
increasing water consumption, but also concealed historical local responses to
deal with temporal droughts. Finally, Budds (2008, 2012) analyses La Ligua
valley located in central northern Chile, to prove how scarcity is socially
contested. While those living on the valley floor and in the downstream valley
assert that scarcity is caused by users located in the upstream valley (who use
2
See also Swyngedouw, 2006, 2007.
extensively ground water to irrigate their lands for export agriculture), the later
think that water scarcity is impossible in Chile. As usual, a reservoir is seen as
the solution to scarcity. Here, the framing of scarcity as a result of
hydrogeological conditions obscures the fact that is was caused first and
foremost by increasing water consumption for agricultural export.
The case analysis here shows that the particular social construction of
water scarcity in Ica is intrinsically connected to the social construction of
water abundance in Huancavelica. During the late 1990s, PETACC3 and other
stakeholders in Ica proposed a hydraulic model similar to the one that
overcome the 1950s’ water crisis in Ica. The canal was supposed to transfer
water from upstream Huancavelica to downstream Ica. Little consideration
was given to the actual water demand upstream, eventual impacts on the
ecosystem, and/or future water imbalances. Here, I argue that both water
scarcity and a convenient “water supply approach” were part of the discursive
construction of water abundance upstream to justify the intervention to transfer
water to Ica. The discursive game emphasized the importance of supplying
water to Ica, a burgeoning agricultural region that will bring about
‘development’; and, simultaneously, portrayed Huancavelica as a water
abundant “terra nullius”. In the next section, I will trace the relationship
between water scarcity, development and discourses.
WATER SCARCITY, DEVELOPMENT AND DISCOURSES

The political manufacture of water scarcity in Ica and water abundance in
Huancavelica recalls Ferguson’s (1994: XIV, my italics) argument when
analyzing the development industry in Lesotho:
“Development” institutions generate their own form of discourse,

and this discourse simultaneously constructs Lesotho as a particular kind
of objet of knowledge, and creates a structure of knowledge around that
object. Interventions are then organized on the basis of this structure of
knowledge, which, while “failing” on their own terms, nonetheless have
regular effects, which include the expansion and entrenchment of
bureaucratic state power, side by side with the projection of a
3
PETTAC is the acronym of Proyecto Especial Tambo Ccaracocha. It is a state technical
institution in charge of the Pampas Project. It was created in 1990 as a decentralized
institution of the National Institution for Development (INADE).
representation of economic and social life which denies “politics” and, to

the extent that it is successful, suspends its effects.
Political ecology has explored the intermingling relationship between

development and water4. In talking of dams, Baghel and Nusser (2010)
mention that just after political independence South Asia postcolonial
governments envisioned the construction of dams as a token of modernity5. It
was assumed that the domination of nature legitimized modern governments.
Nowadays, they state, “such gigantic technological hydroscapes continue to
symbolise human dominance over nature, lauded as they are as icons of
modernity and national prestige” (Ibid.: 231).
The structure of knowledge created around the idea of water scarcity may
contribute to create perceptions of scarcity (and abundance) which influence
social practices and political decisions that aim to transform waterscapes in
order to achieve “development”. Historically, hydraulic infrastructure, as a
response to discursive water scarcity, has been pretty much linked to
development. The construction of discursive devices to socially legitimize the
necessity of water infrastructure to achieve progress contributed to processes
of state formation6. From the 1980s on, neoliberals associate development to
the boost of the private sector and the market economy for which the state
should provide the foundations (i.e., hydraulic infrastructures).
This does not mean that water scarcity is something unreal7. Undoubtedly,
it can have catastrophic consequences. Social construction of water scarcity
point basically to two social phenomena that might be useful to distinguish:
relative or absolute scarcity can have anthropogenic causes and can also be
discursively constructed8. Here I contend that water scarcity (and abundance)
as an idea and a discursive device (Nader 1997) could have similar
catastrophic consequences, not only because it allows the transformation of
nature for “progress”, but also because it could endanger those who are not
favored with such deeds9. Representations deployed through discursive
strategies may generate effects of truth with political and social
4
Escobar 2010, Martinez Allier 1998, Arrojo 2010, Swyngedouw 2009, Lynch 2013.
5
See also Reisner 1993, Khagram 2004, Prakash 1999.
6
Wittfogel 1957, Reisner 1993, Swyngedouw 2015.
7
See Baghel and Nusser (2010) for an analysis of the Bakhra command area where a new
irrigation infrastructure was unnecessary due to the existence of canals. Here, water scarcity
was completely made up.
8
See Swyngedouw 2009.
9
See Wali 1989.
consequences10. In fact, “while physical hydrological conditions can produce

water scarcity, the discourses of ‘scarcity’ and ‘abundance’ are used to
mobilize different […] interests” (Budds 2008: 72), that are usually
detrimental to some. In this regard, “Particular attention […] needs to be paid
to social power relations (…) through which hydro-social transformations take
place. This would also include the analysis of the discourses and arguments
that are mobilized to defend or legitimate particular strategies” (Swyngedouw
2009: 57, my emphasis). Here lies the importance of an analysis of discourses
that contribute to understand how “discursive strategies […] create ‘effects of
truth’” that transforms reality (Alonso, 2006: 35). In the next section, I
describe the upstream basin in the Huancavelica department.
HUANCAVELICA AND THE PAMPAS BASIN

It is interesting to notice how things have turned around for the people of
the Ica and Pampas basins. While the Ica valley has long been known as an
agricultural region where particularly wealthy aristocratic families led
commercial agriculture (Ore 2006), until the 1970s in the department of
Huancavelica located in the upstream basin, lands between 4,000 and 5,000
meters above sea level were used only for self-sustaining agriculture and
herding. This imbalance created a specific power relation between downstream
and upstream that transcended the material aspects of it. From 2000 on,
transnational and mixed agribusiness companies established huge plantations
of asparagus, vines, and other export crops in Ica (Damonte 2011). The
extensive use of ground water pressure by export agribusiness (Muñoz 2011)
is transforming both the landscape and the aquifer, which is running out of
water (Ore, et al. 2010, Progressio 2010). This picture is changing the
historical power imbalance between these regions because as water becomes a
valuable item power is in the upstream basin, and those who had meager lands
with plenty of water are now seen as holding the most precious good.
Huancavelica is located in the middle Peruvian Andes. With a population
of 475,693 inhabitants (INEI 2009), and 309,262 rural population, it is the
poorest department of Peru with a poverty incidence of 66,1%. It was severely
hit by the political violence of the 80s and 90s, which has significantly
10
See Alonso 1988, Mitchell 1991, Urteaga 2012.
influenced its meagre development11. Huancavelica has a complex and diverse

geography, with five natural regions going from the 1,900 to the 5,000 meters
above sea level. Only the Mantaro basin has thirty ecological areas. Main
activities are subsistence agriculture and herding, with crops that are cultivated
at the highest altitudes12. Land owners are Peasant Communities13 and small
farmers. Legally recognized peasant communities reach 573, whereas those
with land deeds are only 505. Pastures cover between 27% and 37% of the
regional territory14 (Aquino 2011: 69). Herding is performed in the Puna,
where wetlands ecosystem makes possible to raise cattle, sheep, pigs and goats
but especially llamas and alpacas, whose production reaches 473 thousand
animals. For this reason Huancavelica is regarded as the third producer of
alpacas and llamas in Peru (Ibid.).
Huancavelica shares river basins with other regions. Its political territory
is not only part of the Pampas river basin (Tayacaja, Huancavelica and
Angaraes and the northeastern zone of the Castrovirreyna province), but also
of the Ica and the Mantaro river basins. This geographical fact is an important
component of a historical conflict that worsened as Ica has run out of water.
Quantitative data about water supply in the shared basins of Huancavelica are
scarce, at the best, confusing, unreliable, and outdated15. Nonetheless, annual
rainfall has been calculated on 683.9 mm, of which 50% evaporates, 10%
infiltrates and 40% is water runoff. Huancavelica also has 4003 lakes in the
Atlantic side and 225 lakes in the Pacific area that feed six basins16. No
information on water flow exists.
Contrary to the idea that Huancavelica is a water-producing region, not all
provinces of Huancavelica enjoy water abundance. In some areas such as
11
It has attracted many State social and development programs funded by international
cooperation agencies and the state.
12
Products, such as green peas, potato, maize, coffee, avocado, peaches, orange, lemon, barley,
broad bean, and wheat.
13
Peasant communities are indigenous communities that were legally recognized since early 20 th
century. Legally, they have been named differently, from “comunidades de indígenas” to
“peasant communities”.
14
Although, according to Postigo (2005: 9), pastures cover 76.3% of Huancavelica’s surface.
15
This has happened as regards to hydrological balances and water quality, with serious
consequences because the State continues granting water Rights on water that actually is not
available, and the problem is that the State cannot prove that the place does not have water
anymore because it lacks scientific evidence. Dourojeanni (2011) asserts that “information
is necessary for water Management at every level”, but the problem remains that the
information and registration systems are weak, do not exist or are obsoletes.When scientific
information does exist, the State does not use it for decision making.
16
De La Cruz 2010.
Castrovirreyna, Acobamba, among others, water is scarce even for human

consumption, and farmers have had to rely on rain fed agriculture17: “Water
scarcity generates conflicts. The upper part of Castrovirreyna and Huaytará
has claimed Ica’s water users’ organization should pay them a water fee and
share water with livestock and fishing areas” (Postigo 2005: 15).
In spite of this critical reality, mythical construction of Huancavelica as a
water abundant region forms an important aspect of the water conflict with
Ica. Actually, the idea of absolute scarcity downstream and abundance
upstream, together with lack of hydrological information has contributed to the
development of projects to divert water from Huancavelica to the Ica valley
since the 1950s18. The problems this infrastructure has posed for the
environment and highland indigenous communities in Huancavelica are
manifold19. Transformation of nature led to transformation of communities,
who had not only to relocate their town and dwellings but also to develop new
economic activities that did not depend much on the use of wetlands flooded
by the Choclococha system. The construction of the Ingahuasi collector canal,
which was part of the Pampas project20, would risk Carhuancho peasant
community, as well as wetlands ecosystems that allow alpacas reproduction.
All this configures a critical water scenario for several highland communities
in Huancavelica as we shall see next.
WATER CONFLICT BETWEEN ICA AND HUANCAVELICA

AND THE STATE INTERVENTION
Current water conflicts between Ica and Huancavelica departments are

mostly the result of, on one hand, a burgeoning agribusiness development and
an aggressive and uncontrolled water exploitation in the Ica basin21, and, on
the other hand, the unrelenting commercialization of alpaca fiber that
17
Augusto Olivares Huaman, vice president of the Regional Government of Huancavelica.
Personal communication, February 2012.
18
Special Project Tambo Ccaracocha (PETAC in Spanish) has annually reserved approximately
492MMC water from the Ccaracocha and Choclococha lakes and tributaries located in
Huancavelica to irrigate Ica valley for agricultural export (Macassi 2009).
19
See Quispe 2008b, Macassi 2009.
20
The “Pampas Project” includes several hydraulic works, one of which is the Ingahuasi
collector canal. It is part of the so called “Choclococha Desarrollado”. See Ore 2010.
21
Oré 2006, 2011; Muñoz 2011, Bayer 2007, Progressio 2010, Pastor 2007, Macassi 2009,
Quispe 2008 y 2010, Cardenas 2012, Guevara 2016.
demands an extensive use of water upstream for pastures. Generally, when a

water user physically controls a water source it is difficult for users in the
middle or downstream basin to balance the situation (See Iyer 2008, Budds
2008). This is not the case in the history of Ica-Huancavelica water conflicts
because even though Huancavelica physically controls the sources of water,
political control has mostly remained on Ica’s side.
Historically, water scarcity in Ica has been one of the main concerns of
both national and regional governments. Since 1966 approximately 23 national
and regional bills have passed to control water “crises” (see Annex N° 1).
Despite evidences of the aquifer vulnerability, the promotion of export
agriculture during the 1990s led the government to pass Decreto Legislativo
N° 65322, and Decreto Supremo N° 048-91-AG to promote ground water use
in Ica. Extensive groundwater use for agroindustry during the 1990s raised
concerns for aquifer depletion. The Autoridad Nacional del Agua (ANA) has
found that “water demand largely outdo water supply (surface water and the
exploitable reserve of groundwater)” in the Ica aquifer23. This explains why 17
of the 23 bills to control the water crises were passed from 2000-201124. A
local water officer in Ica complained: “legal rules differ from reality: on one
hand groundwater wells are banned, but on the other investment is promoted”.
State concern for Ica’s water condition is closely linked to Iqueños’
political connections with different governments. In 1990, during Alberto
Fujimori’s first term, the then Ministry of the Presidency launched a Special
Project called Tambo-Ccaracocha (PETACC) by Decreto Supremo Nº 021-90-
MIPRE and Decreto Legislativo Nº 556, which was issued the last days of
Alan Garcia’s first term (1985-1990), when Rodolfo Beltran Bravo was
Minister of Presidency.
In March 2011 an asparagus exporter who I interviewed commented of
then minister of Agriculture, Alfredo Benavides: “he is one of “us”, he is from
Ica. That is why Proinversion25 will prioritize any activity coming from Ica,
from rio Seco.” During Benavides’s term in office the project referred to by
22
Ley de Promoción de las Inversiones en el Sector Agrario.
23
Current administration of the Autoridad Nacional del Agua (ANA) has devoted a special
attention to a diagnosis of the aquifer depletion in Ica. For more information, see
http://boletin.ana.gob.pe/main.php?K=8&id=104.
24
Coincidentally, ANA states that the groundwater exploitation in the Ica aquifer went up from
2002. In the Villacurí aquifer water table went down 1.5 meters per year particularly since
2002. In the Lanchas aquifer the exploitation of groundwater doubled from 2005 up to now.
See: http://boletin.ana.gob.pe/main.php?K=8&id=104.
25
Proinversion is a public institution in charge of investment promotion.
the exporter was approved. The exporter remarked that the recently elected
regional president had also committed himself to the Pampas project and had
declared a state of “water emergency” in Ica. Finally, he was sure that then
president Alan García (2006-2011) would pass a Decreto Supremo to waive all
the legal obstacles for the development of the Pampas project before he left
office. And so he did26.
The Pampas Project was aimed at building infrastructure in regulated
waters of the Ccaracocha and Choclococha lakes, located in Huancavelica, to
increase irrigated water supply for agricultural development in Ica. The works
included increasing the storage capacity up to 100 MCM of the Choclococha
dam (by 6.5 m high and 320 m long), building 73 kilometers of the collector
canal Ingahuasi, which maximum capacity is 15 m/s, rehabilitating 11.678 Km
of the Choclococha canal and 467 m tunnels of the Choclococha system,
training of water users to guarantee the sustainability of the project, and the
infrastructure maintenance plan (Quispe, 2008a; Macassi, 2009).
From August 2003, without due consultation to Huancavelica regional
government and stakeholders, PETACC, the institution in charge of the
Pampas project, was transferred from the Central Government (INADE) to the
Regional Government of Ica27. From then on, it has been managed by a
Directive Board with representatives from the Central Government, the Ica
Regional Government and the ‘civil society’28 of Ica. Peasant communities in
Huancavelica unmistakably thought that their waters were being ceded to Ica
by decree. Indeed, 22 days before president Alejandro Toledo’s29 end of term,
in July 6th 2006 Manuel Manrique Ugarte30, Ministry of Agriculture at that
time, issued a Decree31 whereby through the construction of the “Ingahuasi
collector canal” a water volume of 52,00 MMC from the Ingahuasi sub basin
would be reserved for two years in favor of PETACC (Ica Regional
Government). Not only did he reserve a considerable water volume for Ica, but
26
A lawyer from Huancavelica, Ivonne Macassi, asserts: “The Garcia administration had a
political commitment to the Integral Project Choclococha Desarrollado. To the end of his
term, he passed two decrees Nº 001-2011 and Nº 002-2011 bypassing environmental
regulations. Luckily, they were considered illegal.” Personal communication. October 2012.
27
On the basis of the Decreto Supremo Nº 021-2003- VIVIENDA, the Ley de Bases de la
Descentralización, and the Ley Orgánica de Gobiernos Regionales.
28
See Ferguson (2006) for a critique of the term civil society.
29
Alejandro Toledo was president of Peru from 2001 to 2006.
30
Manrique issued the Decreto Supremo 22 days before the end of Alejandro Toledos’
administration. He was a member of the Logia Masonica. In 2007, the Ica’s branch of the
Logia Masonica incorporated Manrique as a member.
31
Decreto Supremo 039-2006-AG.
the day before through Resolución Ministerial 0586-2006-AG he also changed

the limits of the Ica Irrigation District, with two subdistricts Ica and La
Achirana-Santiago de Chocorvo, in order to include the Choclococha system
for “trans-boundary purposes”.
The end result of the hydraulic project was clear for huancavelicanos,
particularly herders from upstream communities: “this kind of engineering
works only responds to the agricultural needs of the coast, not to the highland
communities’ water use for herding, neither to the necessities of the middle
and upstream basins” (Macassi, 2009: 12). State intervention openly supported
Ica’s water need for agribusiness by legally approving the construction of the
Pampas project to the detriment of local upstream communities. What interests
me here is the assemblage of discursive devices in order to accomplish the
intervention. In the next section, I turn to the way water scarcity is socially
constructed by different water users in Ica.
MAKING UP WATER SCARCITY IN ICA

Surface water users are the only ones who blame agricultural exporters of
depleting the aquifer for greed. The president of one sector of La Achirana
canal clearly states: “By enlarging agricultural frontier, agribusiness has
worsened the water problem because their big farms use wells 24 hours a day.
That is why the level of the wells has diminished”. A resigned leader of La
Achirana canal explains “surface water users blame agro-exporters32 of
diminishing water level because they use water 24 hours…but it is the way it
is, in the end capital is the one who rules”.
Agroexporters rarely explain Ica’s water scarcity in terms of the extensive
use of groundwater for agroindustry. The ultimate cause of water scarcity for
them is inefficient water management, which they think characterizes surface
water users. A leader of the JUASVI, organization of agro-industrial
groundwater users, says: “Inefficiency of the Surface Water Organization
(Junta) passes on the aquifer recharge. The problem is inefficient use of
surface water that passes on the depletion of the aquifer. Agro-exporters are
not the only ones to blame in this conflict, but also the inefficient management
of surface water users”. Actually, they do not complain from water scarcity
because they know technology can solve the problem within their farms: “each
32
Here, he meant agro exporters from Pueblo Nuevo, where there are 121 groundwater wells.
company should store water…the solution to the problem is here. ‘We’ must
build recharge wells. Agrokasa, for instance, has invested S/.70,00033 soles in
its project. ‘We’ are talking of a renewable resource. Water scarcity is not a
problem for agro-exporters.” Likewise, a representative of the Beta
agroindustry farm explains:
“Scientifically, the problem is not water scarcity but inefficient water

management. For example, Ramón Llamas points out: “if I use water to
produce something that is not profitable, then I am using water
inefficiently”. Why shall I use expensive water to produce an inexpensive
good? Then, the problem is not water scarcity. Water should just be well
managed”34.
For them no evidence exists to assert that there is a water scarcity problem
in Ica; “there is not scientific data”, they state35. This is consistent with their
argument that an important volume of water flows to the sea: “We have gone
to the tale of the Ica River and we have verified that plenty of water gets lost
in the sea”36. They argue that falling water table has created the illusion of
water scarcity in Ica. Scientific evidence is missing to demonstrate that water
is scarce, they think. For them, the situation is not dramatic37. Among one of
the many technical solutions they manage is recovering water flows to the
sea38. But the fact is that some users really feel water scarcity. Surface water
users who have been impacted by the aquifer depletion are precisely those who
cannot afford technological improvements. An officer in charge of surface
water says: “there is no water availability; each year the level diminishes one
meter: the 5th and 6th sectors (of La Achirana) seldom irrigate. There is even
one peasant community, Señor de Luren, with 3000 Ha who wants to irrigate
800 Ha with excess water but can’t. Pueblo Nuevo, Pachacutec and Tate are
critical zones in terms of water availability”. Los Aquijes, Pueblo Nuevo and
Santiago are the most affected Ica districts because of falling water table39.
Blaming each other for water problems in Ica turned out to be a deadlock,
so groundwater (export companies) and surface water users (farmers) decided
33
Approximately, $30,000 dollars.
34
Emphasis added.
35
Representative of the JUASVI.
36
Representative of the JUASVI.
37
Representative of Fundo Beta.
38
For instance, Agricola Manuelita agroexport company.
39
Engineer Mendoza, in charge of ground water.
to face the situation together. During the last years, Río Seco, La Achirana and
Yacurí water user organizations have been gathering together to develop
projects to avoid water collapse in Ica40. This does not mean that agro-export
companies would abandon technological projects in their farms. By
diversifying solutions, agro-exporters face relative scarcity while at the same
time avoid confrontations with surface water users, who are the real victims of
water scarcity.
Ica regional government encouraged this initiative, for it could get more
allies to propose a definite solution to water scarcity and present a unified
regional front in its negotiation with Huancavelica. According to regional
authorities in Ica water will deplete at any moment for water scarcity is a
reality41. Although they identify different causes42 of water scarcity, they all
agree that the development of Ingahuasi project in the Pampas basin could
solve it, as happened with the Choclococha canal during the water crisis in the
1950s: “between 1959 and 1970, surface water was exhausted in the coast due
to raining problems. Those years the Choclococha Developed Project and the
Pampas Project came up”43. A leader of La Achirana says: “we overcame the
1950s water crisis by developing an extension of La Achirana canal”44. A
medium-sized farmer agreed upon the project: “people move the river several
times”45. Ica’s authorities strongly believe that water should be transferred
from Huancavelica to Ica and the canals should be extended46.
Under a water supply approach, the Juntas of La Achirana-Santiago de
Chocorvos, La Achirana (surface water) and JUASVI (groundwater) contend
that PETACC should develop the Pampas project. As the goal is to expand the
agricultural frontier, this project is an important part of the plan. A leader of
the Junta of La Achirana explains: “due to the deficit of the Aquifer we have
to make infrastructural projects to bring in more water to Ica. The Junta of
groundwater users and the Juntas of surface water users are united to face the
40
Junta de Usuarios [Water Users Organization] La Achirana.
41
For instance, regional authorities assert that only one of the five lakes in Ica is recharging
superficially.
42
Some mention that the cement of the canals and technical irrigation do not permit the recharge
of the aquifer by gravity, others point to the cut of huarango forests during 1930s-1950s to
cultivate cotton which affected infiltration; some blame climatic changes, others points to
the overexploitation of the aquifer due to lack of rains, while others note that the problem is
lack of forest protection.
43
Local Water Authority, Ica, 2011.
44
Interviewed on January, 20th, 2011.
45
Interviewed on January, 20th, 2011.
46
See Newspaper La Voz de Ica (2009).
problem and therefore have elaborated joint projects”47. JUASVI, on the other
hand, explain that to the extent that for them it is a technical problem, the
solution they propose must be also technical. “The goal is to raise surface
water supply. Projects, such as the one of PETACC, must be boosted. The idea
is to generate more development. With Pampas alone, agricultural expansion
would be limited. That is why public-private alliances are important.”48 In
order to convince the upstream communities of the benefit of the Ingahuasi
project, “we have to generate confidence, empathy, in order to open the
negotiation door. We have to develop highways to connect Ica with the
upstream basin, strengthen business ties to give them more possibilities”49. An
exporter from the Beta Farm agrees on the fact that agribusiness has created an
economic dynamic between Huancavelica and Ica50. For him “the Pampas
(Ingahuasi) project is the solution and some institution should be in charge of
its promotion”.
Local discourses to set up better grounds for water access also imply a
process of identity formation to establish who need water and for what
reasons. Most authorities and water users in Ica believe that upstream basin
communities do not use water intensively, for which water is not necessary:
“We have analyzed that water is being lost. Up there, they raise a few goats,
pastures are all frozen, it is freezing up there, forget it…their plan is to be
compensated, a retribution for the water of the lake that we will use, that is the
plan of a few political [local] leaders.”51 Most people in Ica agree that the
population of the upper basin is a small group of scattered people up in the
mountains because most of them have migrated to Ica, where they are offered
jobs and education:“there is nothing up there”. However, when they were
asked if upstream communities use water the response was: “they take half
water of Choclocha (canal), they use a lot of water that is meant to be for Ica
and besides they do not pay for it”52. A leader from the Junta of La Achirana-
Santiago de Chocorvos claimed: “Huanvelica discourse is that Iqueños take
47
Interview to Jose Bartolin, president of La Achirana Water Users Organization. January 20th,
2011.
48
Interview to the technical manager of the JUASVI (Ground water Users Organization of
Villacuri), that reunites agro-industrial water users.
49
Interview to the technical manager of the JUASVI.
50
He goes further and states that Peru should follow Colombia to pass a bill that ban people to
live in places located more than 3500 meters above sea level.
51
Water authority of the Autoridad Autónoma Agua(AAA, Tambo).
52
Ica water user, March 2012.
their water. But they also use water; Huancavelica has signed a covenant with
a Chilean company to set up a trout farm in the Choclococha lake.”
ICA’S DISCOURSE ON WATER ABUNDANCE IN

THE UPPER BASIN
Discourses on water abundance upstream have been intensely political, as

were also used during the electoral campaigns. During 2011, Iqueño
congressman, Eduardo Cabrera, presented the project N° 143-2011-CR for the
construction of irrigation canals for Ica, including the Ingahuasi canal. At a
meeting in Ica, he insisted on the necessity of building the Ingahuasi canal
because it would bring development. No reference to upstream water users:
“Now we have to build not only the Villacuri canal but also the
Ingahuasi canal, which is very simple. Let’s talk of numbers. Currently
we have the Choclococha lake in the upstream basin that supplies
approximately 160M cubic meters…Ingahuasi has 70 km according to
the project. But it could have 146 km. As an open basin it would collect
more water given that the area where the Choclococha lake is located is
rainy, with which we could have 180 cubic meters. With losses, we
would get 100 cubic meters coming in the Choclococha canal.”
PETACC presents the upstream basin as an area of abundant water supply.

The EIA of the Pampas Project states:
“lakes are important water bodies in the area. The Choclococha lake
has 10 km long and 2,0 km wide, with more than 200 depth. It has a
storage capacity of 62,16 MCM. In the upstream basin there are more
than 20 lakes of different size and storage capacity. The Pampas river has
permanent runoff; its flow has been reduced by the water transfer from
the Choclococha lake to the Ica river basin through the Tambo-
Ccaracocha project” (Lahmeyer Agua y Energía, 2007: 25).
When describing the Ingahuasi canal, PETTAC points out that it will
“collect the runoff produced by the rains over 4500 masl, and will conduct it to
the Choclococha lake for storage” (Ibid.: 71), and “the third part of 23
stretches of the canal is located in wetlands and ravines” (Ibid.: 27).
According to a water supply approach, PETACC considers water sources,

runoff and precipitation. The project calculates annual precipitation in the
upstream basin reaches an average of 814.4 mm. When describing the climate,
the report mentions that it is “moderately humid and cold”, but stresses that it
has a “slight water deficiency during the year and a great water excess with a
low thermic concentration during the summer” (Ibid.: 32). Finally, it remarks
that the “non-regulated basin that is transferred to the Choclococha canal has
an extension of 105 km2 and an annual average of 45.79 MCM. The regulated
basin in the Orcococha (92 km), Choclococha (149 km), and Ccaracocha lakes
and the Ccaracocha canal (56 km) has an extension of 297 km2 and yields
approximately 113.89 MCM annually” (Ibid.: 33).
Although the project notes the upstream basin’s potential for water supply,
it barely mentions that water bodies are actually and increasingly being used
by local people and other users: “Rivers are used for domestic uses, livestock,
fishing, and rearing trout” (Ibid.: 25). Neither has it explained whether that
water is being used, by whom and how. By disregarding actual water uses and
volumes, the project ignores the fact that a water balance should consider
supply and demand at different times. By stressing water abundance, the EIA
hides the fact that the proposed Ingahuasi canal “surrounds the Palomo glacier
which is located at 5.188 meters above sea level. The Ingahuasi canal would
collect water coming from wetlands and pastures of seven communities
located along the 73 kms of the canal.” The transfer of 52 MCM of water from
the Pampas basin to Ica53 would make “these waters […] unavailable for the
use of local communities54 that have almost 146,000 Alpacas, Llamas and
sheep. Together with the communities of the Ascension district in
Huancavelica which would also be affected, the livestock adds up to more than
199,300 heads of cows” (Bayer, 2008: 1). The next section accounts for the
importance of water for herder communities in the upstream basin.
PEASANT COMMUNITIES, ALPACAS AND THE MARKET

Peasant communities are the majority of the population in Huancavelica,
occupying approximately 900,000 hectares or 70% of the region. Most
53
By Supreme Decree 039-2006-AG, 52 million cubic meters of water were authorized to be
transferred from the Pampas basin to Ica through the Ingahuasi canal project.
54
That is, Carhuancho, Choclococha, Santa Inés and Pilpichaca.
important natural resources are part of their territory, such as pastures55, lakes,
and wetlands, among others56; which favors alpaca and llama production.
However, recently mining projects have occupied the headwaters in some
areas, thus placing at risk communal lands57 and water sources58. Cattle raising
areas are located in Huancavelica, Castrovirreyna, Tayacaja and Huaytara, and
they depend mainly on ground water flows (Postigo 2005, 2008). For this
reason, wetlands are not only a land use system but mostly a water use system.
Even though Highlands (Puna) ecological systems meet the necessities of
alpaca rising, this activity was not practiced in some indigenous communities
of the Pampas basin up until the 1970s. Census documents dating 195659 and
196560 with information on Carhuancho61 productive activities did not mention
alpaca herding but small animals used for self-consumption and few llamas.
In fact, alpaca production started in the 1970s during the Military government
of Velasco Alvarado62. Therefore, it is the State who began to promote this
commercial activity among Huancavelica communities63. State and NGOs’
intervention not only changed previous herding practices, water consumption,
and ecosystem management, but also allowed an emergent local awareness of
the ecosystem’s importance for herding.
55
Postigo (2005) calculates that 92% of pastures are in communal lands.
56
Although under the state law water sources are considered a public good, some of them are
physically located in communal lands and, as such, are communally reckoned as a common
good.
57
Six thousand hectares of pastures have been ceded to Buenaventura mining company in the
headwaters of the Carhuancho, Taccsana, Qatunmachay and Vinopascana rivers (Guerrero
2011: 23).
58
Macassi 2009.
59
Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Indígenas. Dirección General del Asuntos Indígenas. División
de Proyectos 1960.
60
Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Indígenas. Dirección General de Asuntos Indígenas. 1965.
61
Carhuancho’s history of place formation is rather old. It can be traced up to the 17 th century,
when upon a request from Lucas Mallma and Sebastian Quispe, the Marques de Valdelirios
recognized their ancient possession of the Puchaca and Carhuancho lands. See: Macassi
2009, Suárez 2009.
62
Macassi 2009.
63
When the market price of alpaca fiber rose, NGOs like DESCO, and private companies took
part in developing an alpaca fiber industry for exporting wool, for which they offered not
only financial aid but also capacity building. Several projects for promoting alpaca herding
have been developed in Carhuancho and other highland communities in Huancavelica (see
Macassi 2009, Aquino 2011). NGOs such as DESCO and VECINOS PERU, and the
government itself have propelled Alpacas herding in this area.Nowadays, state-led project
“PROALPACA” has been transferred from the central government to the regional
government.
Between 2006 and 2009 approximately 120 families raised an average of

300 alpacas in Carhuancho (Macassi 2009), whereas in Pilpichaca -a
community of 500 inhabitants- the number of alpacas per household was
between 29 and 292 (Postigo 2008). The increasing number of animals
requests great extensions of pastures. Pilpichaca is 35,903 ha, of which 28,901
are grasslands64. Carhuancho has 38,409 hectares, of which 36,583 ha of
natural pastures are used for raising alpacas. Carhuancho is currently divided
in to five sectors, one of which -“Carhuancho Centro”- is where herding takes
place in seven valleys65 with wetlands and natural pastures (Macassi 2009).
But it has not always been like this66. Community members keep on
transforming “the environment in a dynamic interplay that includes species
domestication, pasture management, and climate change” (Postigo 2008: 536).
Pastoralists have also contributed greatly to landscape change by enlarging
wetlands through irrigation canals. Likewise, the state-run National Program
PRONAMACHS built irrigation furrows “to increase the infiltration of runoff,
foster grassland development, and control erosion” (Ibid: 544). Physical as
well as socioeconomic changes influence herding and ecosystem management
in the upstream basin, but also communal identity.
Since the 1990s communal structure in Carhuancho has been shifting to
develop commercial strategies for herding. First, they created a Special
Committee for Farming and Communal Issues and during 2000 a Committee
for Commercialization was created. Given the water conflict with Ica, they
also created a Special Committee of Communal Affairs and Defense of Water
Resources. Before 2005 prices of alpaca fiber were going down, so the
community decided to shear not one but three times a year and once again
changed its structure to create a Commercialization Committee to avoid
intermediaries. Nowadays, they have an alpaca farm with 300 animals valued
in US$20,000 dollars67 and a mini hydroelectric power station for its store. All
these transformations yielded fruit. From a production of 122 quintals of
alpaca fiber in 2006, they reached 150 quintals in 2010. That year, sale of
alpaca fiber produced an income of nearly 130,500 nuevos soles68. The
64
This number is based on data from Postigo, 2008.
65
Catunmachay, Carhuancho, Taccrapampa, Pacchapata, Pampahuasi, Orccunhuasi, Accohuasi,
Yuraccccorral, Muyupampa, Ccolpahuaycco, Arrieropampa, Yanaccollpa, and Trapiche
(Macassi 2009).
66
In Pilpichaca, for instance, internal pastureland borders have changed through time (Postigo
2008: 539).
67
Their incomes have replaced communal fees. See Aquino 2011.
68
Approximately, US$50,000 dollars.
intervention of Arequipan fiber companies, such as Prosur, Texao, Fibra

Andina, Alpasur, Clamasac, Santa Isabel, among others (Guerrero 2011) not
only boosted the development of commercial herding in Carhuancho, but also
forged asymmetrical commercial links with peasant communities in
Huancavelica69. This recently developed industry70 prompted the extension of
pastures in the upstream basin and therefore increased water consumption in
the wetlands, though this is an ‘informal’ use as it is not recognized by the
state. Likewise, in 2005 Pilpichaca’s contract with Salchicheria Alemana
company had an impact on livestock production, which they were forced to
augment in order to comply with the agreement. Not only they had to increase
production, but also grasslands and water diversion for managed pastures
(Postigo 2008). Aquino (2011) points out that, according to the Ministry of
Agriculture, the overuse of pastures was about 149% even in 2004.
The dependence of Carhuancho and other upstream basin communities of
Huancavelica on the global market can be viewed as an example of
‘glocalization’ (Swyngedouw 2003). Wool corporations such as Michell,
Sarfaty, Prosur, among others; and agricultural and sanitation laboratories,
such as Sanivet, Bayer, and Agrove Market71 share commercial links with
upstream communities. As a result, the increasing water use has actually
influenced space formation. On the other hand, the development of
commercial herding has contributed to the creation of a communal block of
Carhuancho’s families’ vis-à-vis external threats, such as the concession of
pastures to mining companies or the construction of canals for transferring
water to Ica. Engineer Jorge Quinto Palomino, former official of the
Huancavelica Regional Government, argued: “people know that Carhuancho is
well organized concerning the sale of the alpaca fiber, that is, they have
looked for a market to directly sell the wool to Arequipa’s companies. And I
think this is the fundamental reason whereby they opposed the plan to build
the Ingahuasi canal”.72
69
Even so, Carhuancho families prefer direct links with Arequipa’s companies because the
avoidance of intermediaries in the productive chain resulted in an increasing profit margin.
Three years ago the price of Alpaca’s fiber in Huancavelica was about 8 nuevos soles,
whereas Carhuancho sold it to US$12,00 dollars.
70
Which happened to coincide with climate changes. See Postigo 2008.
71
See Aquino 2011.
72
In Macassi 2009.
ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND WATER USE

IN THE UPSTREAM BASIN
In Huancavelica pastures are accessed through the community. Although

legally the community is the owner of the land, a group of extended families
possesses it. According to customary rules, the extended family, in turn, grants
access rights to recently formed couples and individuals to pasture their herds
(Diez 2010). The Pilpichaca and Carhuancho communities are organized
around herding, for which mobility is essential. Pastures are collectively and
family owned. Families use communal pastures by paying a communal fee.
Usually, a family owns one or two areas of pastures which they rotate to
prevent soil degradation.
During the wet season animals are moved to downstream areas, whereas
in the summer they are kept in higher grasslands to use the wetlands or
managed pastures (Postigo 2008). Herders´ knowledge of the diet, routines and
grazing places for alpacas, llamas and sheep has been historically crafted.
Water management is also an important aspect of pastoralism. Herders change
pasture areas according to water availability, build irrigation canals for
improving pastures and wetlands management, and prevent overgrazing
(Ibid.). Local knowledge is thus responsive to climatic73, physical,
socioeconomic and political influences.
The maintenance of ecological systems for subsistence agriculture, as
responsive to traditional economic practices in the highlands, was molded
through the modernization process they have been through. Landscape
changes as well as the transformation of communal identity are evident in
upstream communities like Carhuancho. They not only built a mini
hydroelectric power office, but also formed a Special Committee for
Communal Affairs and Defense of Water Resources in Carhuancho
community.
The unprecedented economic development of communities such as
Carhuancho is not the only reason that explains their position against the
construction of the Ingahuasi collector canal. It partly stems from the
experience the Choclococha community faced during the 1950s.
Choclococha’s relocation due the construction of the dam in the late 1950s -
which annually diverts 492 MMC to Ica through the Collector Canal of 53 km-
73
See Postigo (2008) on the effects of climate change in pastoralism in the Pilpichaca
community.
, together with the destruction of pastures and livelihoods, echoes every time
the PETACC tries to convince them of the benefits of the Pampas project. The
traumatic experience of Choclococha community also extended to
Carhuancho, which split into two parts thus impeding not only the traditional
alpacas transit, but also routes and social space (Macassi 2009). Communal
southern areas, such as Ccello, Chanlala, Huaracco, Ccaraccocha, where
wetlands and natural pastures abound, were extremely altered by the use of
heavy equipment and the construction itself. In addition, the division of the
community by the collector canal contributed to the desertification of the
downstream part of Carhuancho because the canal impeded the surface run-off
to the streams74 (Ibid.). Guerrero, an important leader of Carhuancho, points
out: “[The Choclococha canal affected] the whole barrio of the Huaracco
Annex, which is no longer apt for herding. This has led local people to take up
mining, migrate to the cities or work to maintain the canal infrastructure.
Approximately 15,000 to 18,000 hectares were undermined. Communities
were forced to restructure their economic activity, their livelihoods”. (Macassi
2009: 38).75
The decline of pastures in the areas surrounding the infrastructure,
transformation of the ecological system of the lakes, disappearance of the
Parionacocha Lake due to silting of sediments in the canal, changes in water
flow, reduction of the infiltration water function and aquifer recharge,
degeneration of wetlands and natural pastures, decline of pastures performance
for herding, loss of hydro biological and terrestrial wildlife, etc. are some
consequences of the construction of the 1950’s Choclococha canal(Macassi
2009).
Ingahuasi canal collector threatens to affect not only several water
sources, but also mountains and wetlands where water is produced.76 Three
main impacts would be the disappearance of the ecological water flow of the
74
For an account of the functioning and importance of wetlands for water production, see
Gunawardena, Gopal and Kotagama, 2012.
75
See also Verzijl 2012.
76
For instance, it would alter the Vinopascana river, tributary of the Carhuancho river, and would
collect water from the Paccha Huaycco, Anccoripa, Otorongo, Puca Raja rivers; diverting
waters of the Rumirumi river with which the Yanaccocha lake is fed. It would also cut the
Portachuelo, Quello isquina and the Otorongo rivers, close to the Palomo mountain
branches. Similarly, it would cut the Carhuancho river and the Accohuasi and
Acconochayuq rivers natural flow. The canal would also affect water filtration to the lower
areas because its route surrounds the skirts of the Palomo, Ayllas, Salvador and Cocha
orcco mountains. It would also cut the Cecca Pallcca, Pulchuhuasi, Tutupununan and other
rivers and streams before heading to the Choclococha lake (Macassi 2009).
upstream Pampas river (Choclococha lake), sedimentation of the Parinacocha

lake, and the reduction of the recharge of the aquifers (Quispe 2008a). All this
would indeed alter the wetlands, lakes and other water sources where
endangered wildlife and other species abound (Macassi 2009), and where
communities such as Carhuancho and Pilpichaca develop their livelihood. It is
not surprising then that upstream communities were against the construction of
the Ingahuasi collector canal. As happens with the construction of water
megaprojects, water is alienated from its environment and the local people,
and as a result “this environmental alienation generates and shapes local
conflicts and crisis” (Johnston, 2005, 141).
In 2006, Carhuancho, Choclococha, Santa Inés and Pilpichaca
communities and its regional, national and international allies -among who
were lawyers, engineers, ecologists and activists-, outlined a strategy to block
the construction of Ingahuasi Canal. They filed a lawsuit before the Latin
American Water Court (TLA77) against the PETACC, the central government
and the Regional government of Ica for violating its water rights, its right to a
sustainable use of natural resources, and indigenous people’s rights. On
grounds of violation of the International Labor Organization (ILO) 169
Convention on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, enforced in Peru since 1994;
and the on Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention) of 197178,
Carhuancho demonstrated that PETACC, and, therefore, the State, had broken
the law and infringed international treaties. The construction of the Ingahuasi
Canal by PETACC not only lacked due consultation, but also would affect
wetlands, water sources and livelihoods of highland communities in
Huancavelica. Although this Tribunal is not legally binding to the Peruvian
State, its decision turned out to be key for Carhuancho and the Huancavelica
Regional government. After mere consideration, in October 2007 the Tribunal
decided that PETACC was responsible for the destruction not only of the
natural water system but, most important, of an ecological system that was
essential for the subsistence of highland communities. In addition, it censored
Peruvian state officials, Ica’s authorities and PETACC for their lack of
compromise in meeting their national and international obligations to the
detriment of life, health and nature. So far, PETACC is attempting to use more
subtle strategies to convince those in the upstream basin to carry out the
project.
77
TLA is the acronym in Spanish for Tribunal Latinoamericano del Agua.
78
Peru subscribed The Ramsar Convention in 1991 through Resolución Legislativa 25353.
The analysis here shows that local communities basically oppose to the
naturalization of the mythological construction of the upstream basin as water-
abundant to cover downstream water scarcity caused by agribusiness. Through
this discursive device, state authorities aimed to derive water from the Pampas
basin to fulfill agroindustry water necessities to the detriment of pastoralist
communities. Most of all, what Huancavelicanos ultimately oppose is the
“imposition of a scarcity framework that uses the language and analytical tools
of the market to assess water problems and to support preferred solutions”
(Johnston 2005: 148).
DISCUSSION
The social manufacture of water scarcity in Ica is contingent to the
discursive construction of water abundance in the upstream basin. These
discursive devices were at the service of global, national and regional
economic and political interests aligned with downstream users, and
simultaneously detrimental to the highland communities located in the
upstream basin. Hence, the conflict between Ica and Huancavelica comes up
not because of physical water scarcity or abundance, but because of the
crafting of symbolic arguments to back up a unidirectional decision to grab
water from upstream and support downstream agroindustry regardless of water
balances and ecosystem impacts. Nonetheless, when talking of water scarcity
in Ica a distinction should be made as to who is the real victim of it. While
water scarcity is a contentious reality for surface water users especially in
some sectors of Ica, ground water users do not really face it because their
access to technology allows them to grab more water despite the aquifer
depletion. Even so, both sectors would benefit from a hydraulic work such as
the Pampas project. For this reason, a regional unified front of Ica’s surface
and ground water users led the regional government to claim to the central
state the need to transfer water from the upstream basin where water
supposedly abounds.
The role of the state is key here as its policies led to the depletion of the
aquifer downstream and overgrazing upstream. In fact, far from applying a
coherent policy, reckless random state practices following a neoliberal
rationale promoted market oriented modes of production both downstream and
upstream. But this apparently articulated economic policy, based on a mere
water supply approach, omitted an evaluation of water supply and demand in
the basins. The analysis here demonstrates how the neoliberal state promoted
export activities both downstream and upstream with no consideration of the

water balance.
Even though in Huancavelica at some point the state actively propelled
commercial herding in upstream communities, at the end the porosity of the
state vis-à-vis powerful productive forces in Ica made it unresponsive to local
upstream water claims. While here we have showed why the state bent
towards Ica, it is necessary to comprehend the history of exclusion, political
violence, and cultural differences that characterize the relation between Ica
and Huancavelica. Paradoxically, state intervention also had unexpected
consequences as it unwillingly empowered upstream communities to stop the
construction of the deriving canal to Ica through different strategies, including
one to surmount the national level through an international trial against Ica, the
state and PETACC. The trial where international treaties were used to ground
communal water claims also served to rephrase their water rights, protect
livelihoods and defend their -newly market oriented- mode of production.
Thus, the conflict simultaneously reached the global space to circumvent the
state and transformed local water meanings in the process of making
waterscapes.
ANNEX N° 1.
Legal regulations related to the water crisis in Ica and Villacuri aquifers
Year Bills/Regulations Content

1966 Ley N° 15921 Mientras no se ejecuten los estudios técnicos para evaluar
la situación en el valle de Ica, se prohíbe la perforación de
pozos79
1969 D. Ley N° 17752- Art. 28°.- Los usos de las aguas se otorgan mediante
Ley General de permiso, autorización o licencia.
Aguas
D.S. N° 274-69- Reglamento del Título IV de las Aguas Subterráneas del D.
AP-DGA Ley N° 17752, Ley General de Aguas.
1970 R.S.N° 468-70- Mientras no se mejoren las condiciones actuales de los
AG acuíferos, queda prohibida la perforación de pozos dentro
del Valle del Río Ica.
79
The TAHAL Project was carried on based on this bill, which mentioned that the increasing
exploitation of water resources had long overpassed an acceptable level thus risking the
sustainability of the water table.
Annex 1. (Continued)

1991 D. Leg. N° 653- Norma y promueve la inversión y obtenciónde aguas
Ley de subterráneas.
Promoción de las
Inversiones en el
Sector Agrario.
D.S. N° 048-91- Promueve el mejoramiento y tecnificación de los sistemas
AG de riego existente, así como la utilización de las aguas
subterráneas (Art. 106)
Art. 109°.- El usuario que por su propia cuenta y riesgo
invierta para la obtención de aguas subterráneas no sufrirá
menoscabo alguno en su dotación de agua surface por el
volumen de agua que pudiese obtener de dichos pozos.
1997 Primer Inventario de Recursos Hídricos Subterráneo
–
1998
2001 Resoluciones Regularización de Derecho de Uso y/o Explotación
Administrativas
N° 059-063-
2001-CTAR-
DRAG-I/ATDR
2002 Segundo Inventario de Recursos Hídricos Subterráneos y
Estudio Hidrogeológico.
2003 R. Adm. N° 022- Ampliación de Plazo de Regularización de Derecho de uso
2003-GORE- y/o explotación de las Aguas Subterráneas.
DRAG-I/ATDRI
2005 R. Adm. N° 038- Se prohíbe por dos años, la perforación de pozos tubulares
2005-GORE- y nuevos en reemplazo de pozos a tajo abierto y tubulares
DRAG-I/ATDRI para alumbrar aguas subterráneas. Los pozos que no
cuenten con su respectiva licencia, deberán regularizar su
derecho en el plazo de 120 días calendarios.
Se establece el sellado de pozos caducados por reemplazo,
en el Departamento de Ica.
2005 R. Adm. N° 055- Se amplían las restricciones efectuadas en la R. Adm. N°
2005-GORE- 038-2005, al sector de Pampas de Villacurí.
DRAG-I/ATDRI
R. Adm. N° 103-
2005-GORE-
DRAG-I/ATDRI
2006 R. Adm. N° 049- Las personas y/o empresas cuya actividad es realizar obras
2006-GORE- de captación y/o explotación de aguas subterráneas, tienen
DRAG-I/ATDRI un plazo de 6 meses para que puedan obtener su licencia.
R. Adm. N° 053- Aprueban la zonificación por distritos del Estudio
2006-GORE- Hidrogeológico del Valle de ica – Villacurí.
DRAG-I/ATDRI

2007 Resoluciones Se prorroga la vigencia de las Resoluciones
Administrativas Administrativas N°s 038 y 103-2005.
N°s 059 y 150-
2007-GORE-
DRAG-I/ATDRI
D.S. N° 025- Medidas para la conservación y preservación de aguas
2007-AG subterráneas a nivel nacional: Los solicitantes de
suministro de energía eléctrica que requieren dicho
suministro para el funcionamiento de pozos de explotación
de aguas subterráneas, deberán entregar previamente a
dicho concesionario copia de su licencia de uso de agua.
2008 R. Adm. N° 001- Prohíbe la perforación de nuevos pozos para alumbrar
2008-GORE- aguas subterráneas en el valle de Ica y Pampas de Villacurí.
DRAG-I/ATDRI El reemplazo de pozos solo procederá respecto a pozos
operativos debidamente autorizados.
Plazo: 60 días para que los propietarios de pozos que no
cuenten con su licencia de uso de agua, puedan regularizar
su derecho.
R.M. N° 061- Establece veda para el otorgamiento de nuevos usos de
2008-AG aguas subterráneas por el plazo de dos años, quedando
prohibido ejecutar todo tipo de obra destinada a la
explotación de recursos hídricos del acuífero del valle del
río Ica y Villacurí.
2008 R.M. N° 0554- Excluye al Distrito de Ocucaje de la Veda declarada en la
2008-AG R.M. N° 061-2008-AG.
Precisa que la veda no comprende a los pozos para fines
poblacionales.
Aprueba el inventario de pozos utilizados al 2007.
2009 R.J. N° 0763- Incluyen Acuífero de la Pampa de Lanchas en la Veda para
2009-ANA el otorgamiento de nuevos usos de aguas subterráneas.
R.J. N° 0327- Ratifica declaratoria de veda de los acuíferos de Ica y
2009-ANA Villacurí.
2010 R.J. N° 081- Hasta la fecha solo se puede regularizar el uso del agua de
2010-ANA los pozos registrados e inventariados que tengan la
condición de utilizados.
La Resolución dispuso el cambio de condición a utilizados,
de aquellos pozos utilizables y no utilizables, que al
momento de su incorporación en el inventario de pozos del
2007 se encontraban operando.
2011 R.J. N° 330- Ratifican condición de veda de los acuíferos de Ica,
2011-ANA Villacurí y Lanchas.
Prohíbe la perforación de pozos así como el otorgamiento
de autorizaciones de ejecución de obras o derecho de uso
de agua subterránea así trate de solicitudes en vía de
regularización.
Elaborated by: Eder Lara and Doris Valdez, 2012
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Patricia Urteaga-Crovetto
Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru
Avenida Universitaria 1801, San Miguel, Lima 32
Education:
2005 Ph. D. Anthropology. University of California, Berkeley
1997 M.A. (Master) in Socio-Cultural Anthropology. University of
California, Berkeley
1993 J.D. Facultad de Derecho. Pontificia Universidad Católica delPerú.
Research and Professional Experience:

Patricia Urteaga Crovetto is researcher and Associate professor at the
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She got a Law degree at the same
university and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California,
Berkeley. Her research focuses on natural resources, indigenous rights,
extractive industries and water in the Amazon and the Andes from a Political
and Legal Anthropological perspective. For several years, she has worked with
regional and national indigenous organizations in Peru. She is also a researcher
of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, and has been
Guess Researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Halle, Germany. She co-
authored a book with Rutgerd Boelens called “Derechos Colectivos y Políticas
Hídricas en la Región Andina” (2006). Her book “La Problemática Minera y
los Pueblos Indígenas en Madre de Dios, Perú” (2003), analyzes the
consequences of the mining activity for the Indigenous Peoples of Madre de
Dios, Perú. She has also published “Conflictos por el agua en la región
Andina. Avances de investigación y herramientas de manejo” (ed.) (2009),
“Agua e Industrias Extractivas. Cambios y Continuidades en los Andes” (ed.)
(2011), and “Agua e Inequidad. Discursos, políticas y medios de vida en la
región Andina” (with Jaime Hoogesteger, ed.) (2013). In 2014, she was
appointed as Director of the Research and Capacity Building Center of the
Law Department of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru.
Publications from the Last 3 Years:

2016 Between water abundance and Scarcity: discourses, biofuels and
power in Piura, Peru. Antipode, Volume 48, Issue 4, September,
Pages 1059–1079
2014 On Environment. On Life: Up, Down, and Sideways. Rachael Stryker
& Roberto Gonzalez (editors). New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.
Chapter 3
THE ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF

BIOENERGY PRODUCTION IN PERU
Juan Camilo Solarte Toro and

Carlos Ariel Cardona Alzate*, PhD
Instituto de Biotecnología y Agroindustria,
Departamento de Ingeniería Química,
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales campus.
Manizales - Colombia
ABSTRACT
Bioenergy is defined as the largest renewable energy source
produced from recently living biological matter or biomass. Its
production improves environmental indicators related with the air, water
and soil pollution. Therefore, bioenergy inclusion in new strategies to
diversify the energy matrix allows proposing or modifying environmental
policies of developing countries according to international targets.
Nowadays, Peru is promoting the development and use of clean energy
sources and technologies with low greenhouse gases emissions. The
above, it is avoiding the degradation and explotation of natural resources
through the formulation of energy projects in accordance with the
National Energy Policy Peru 2010 – 2040. For that reason, an increase in
*
Corresponding Author Email: ccardonaal@unal.edu.co.
62 Juan Camilo Solarte Toro and Carlos Ariel Cardona Alzate
biofuels production is expected in coming years. The main biofuels

produced in this country are biodiesel from palm and jatropha oils, as
well as, bioethanol from sugarcane bagasse. Thus, it is necessary to
evaluate if the implementation of these technologies can really reduce the
environmental impact caused by the use of oil-based products such as
gasoline and natural gas. The aim of this chapter is to analyze, from
technical and environmental point of view, how the biodiesel and
bioethanol production can improve environmental indicators of Peru in
comparison with those derived of the use of oil-based products.
Keywords: renewable energy, bioethanol, biodiesel, environmental

assessment
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. A Global Perspective
The energy needs of the industrial, transport, residential and commercial

sectors have increased given to the population growth and the recent
technological advances reached in the last years [1], [2]. These needs have
been supplied using non-renewable energy sources such as coal, oil and
natural gas. However, the energy obtained from these products or its
derivatives has caused many damages to the environment through greenhouse
gases emissions (GHG), solid waste generation and water pollution [3], [4],
[5]. On the other hand, the task to ensure an uninterrupted and sufficient
energy supply has been one of the most important and difficult challenges
assumed by international organizations due to the great dependence on fossil
fuels [6].
Statistics related to primary energy production and consumption by
country reflects that oil, coal and natural gas are the main energy sources
employed to supply the energy needs of each one. The global oil production
increased 1.9% in 2015 [7]. This value is higher 1.0% than the historical
average. Countries such as United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia are the
main oil producers in the world [8]. In contrast, oil consumption was driven by
OECD countries, mainly. However, non-OECD countries have increased their
oil demand in 2.6%. In general, the oil production was higher than the
consumption in 2015 demonstrating that this product still is currently the main
energy source. Instead, coal and natural gas are other fossil fuels employed
commonly to produce heat and power in different productive sectors.
The Environmental Aspects of Bioenergy Production in Peru 63
Nevertheless, natural gas has been preferred to coal according to 2015 reports
[7], [9]. In this way, natural gas increased its production and consumption in
1.7% and 2.2%, respectively. Lastly, coal production and consumption
decreased in 1.8% and 4.0%, respectively [9]. The total crude oil production
was 4296.00 million metrics tons in 2015 and the shares of this total by
regions are presented in Figure 1.
In accordance with the above, the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have
increased progressively in the last years. In 2015, the net carbon dioxide
emissions were 31760.0 million metric tons (MtCO2) [8]. This value is higher
13.54% than the historical average from 2000. However, Latin America has a
share of 5.28% of the worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. The main regions
that contributes to carbon dioxide emissions are Asia, North America and
Europe with the following shares: 46.59%, 17.96% and 11.52%, respectively
[8], [10]. Figure 2 shows the total emissions in the last fifteen years.
As can be seen in Figure 2, global carbon dioxide emissions have
increased gradually from 2000. This situation has generated worldwide
problems such as acid rain, climate change, global warming and ozone
depletion [11], [12]. The contribution of different regions in the world to
carbon dioxide emissions are presented in Figure 3.
Figure 1. Oil production shares by region in 2015. CIS: Commonwealth of

Independent States.
Figure 2. Carbon dioxide global emissions 2000 – 2015 [8].
Figure 3. Regions share of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions 2000 - 2015.
Problems caused by the actual oil-based economy requires diversify the

global energy market [13]. Then, energy production from wind, water,
sunlight, biomass, solid waste and the internal heat of the earth have been
studied. For that reason, these resources have been used by many countries to
produce energy trough alternative technologies. However, these can be more
exploited than others depending on various factors such as location,
availability and economy. In this way, renewable energy production boom
began given the consequences of fossil fuels use twenty years ago,
approximately. According to the above, the natural resources use to produce
energy is the selected alternative to decrease the oil-derived products
consumption. Therefore, the energy generated in this case is called renewable
energy. This term has many definitions in the literature. The following are
some of these:
Hussain et al. [14] related the renewable energy concept with the energy
that can be produced again and again from renewable resources (i.e., solar
energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, marine energy and so forth). By
other hand, the book “Advanced Renewable Energy Sources” wrote by Tiwari
and Mishra [15] describes that renewable energy is the energy derived from
natural resources that replenish themselves over short time periods. Finally, a
most exhaustive definition presented by the International Energy Agency
(IEA) about this term is: “Renewable energy is energy that is derived from
natural processes (e.g., sunlight and wind) that are replenished at a higher
rate than they are consumed. Solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, bioenergy
and ocean power are sources of renewable energy. The role of renewables
continues to increase in the electricity, heating and cooling and transport
sectors”
Renewable energy can be divided according to the source used to produce
it. In this sense, it can be classified as follows: Solar energy, Wind energy,
Hydro power, Geothermal energy, Bioenergy and Marine energy [14]. These
options supplied the 19.20% of the energy demand in 2015. From this share
8.9%, 4.2%, 3.9% and 1.4% were related to the use of traditional biomass,
geothermal energy, hydropower and wind energy, respectively [7]. These
shares have increased 0.1% from 2014. After this information is possible to
observe that the bioenergy use has the highest renewables share. The
renewable energy application has been supported by different countries that
have developed policies that favor its implementation. This is because of
bioenergy can be produced by any country due to that biomass is the most
abundant renewable resource available in the world [16].
The bioenergy concept changes according to the author perspective.
However, taking into account a systematic point of view, it is possible to give
a definition that involves all characteristics mentioned by different researchers.
Then, some bioenergy definitions are given to compare them.
Carol L. Williams et al. [17] defines bioenergy as the renewable energy
derived from recently living biological matter or biomass. In addition, this is
considered as a form of renewable energy because the energy contained in
biomass is the energy from the sun captured through photosynthesis.
Moreover, Lee and Shah [18] describes bioenergy as the energy resulting from
any fuel that is originated from biomass, which includes recently living
organisms and their metabolic by-products. Also, Gupta et al. [19] explains
that bioenergy is made through biochemical and chemical approaches from
feedstocks that can be used to produce heat, power and biofuels. Finally, taken
into account the above definitions it is possible give a more inclusive concept:
“Bioenergy is the renewable energy generated from any type of biomass. This
can be generated from chemical, biochemical and thermochemical pathways as
long as its production and application are feasible from technical, economic
and environmental point of view. The above with the end to mitigate the
consequences produced by the fossil fuels use”.
Biomass, as renewable energy source to produce bioenergy, has become in
the most researched renewable source to be used as feedstock in the added-
value products (e.g., bioplastics, lactic acid, acetic acid) and energy carriers
(e.g., bioethanol, biodiesel, and biogas) production [20]. As result, its
management is considered as fundamental step in the development of
sustainable communities. Thus, biomass plays a very important role in the
energy, economy and environmental impacts improvement of the entire world
[21], [22]. By other side, biomass is commonly classified as first, second and
third generation taking into account if this comes from an edible crop,
lignocellulosic material or microalgae, respectively [23].
Bioenergy can be produced from biomass if it is processed into chemical,
biochemical and thermochemical processes [24], [25]. Chemical processes are
referred to the edible or non-edible oil use from crops (e.g., palm, jatropha,
corn, cottonseed) to produce biodiesel through of an transesterification process
[26]. Biochemical processes employs microorganisms to produce primary and
secondary metabolites from first or second-generation biomass. Two main
routes employed to produce these metabolites are anaerobic digestion to obtain
biogas or raw bio-methane and alcoholic fermentation to obtain bioethanol
[27], [28]. Finally, thermochemical processes such as combustion, gasification
and pyrolysis generates valuable products under a controlled atmosphere at
high temperatures [29], [30]. These products can be used as fuels or chemical
platforms (e.g., syngas, bio-oil). Figure 4 shows the final products obtained
from the processes mentioned above.
Biofuels are the most important products that can be derived from biomass
as energy carriers due to its great applicability on transport and industrial
sectors [31], [32]. They have some characteristics that make them an important
alternative to improve the economic development of different countries. This
is true especially for countries that have a great variety of crops [33]. These
features are mentioned below:
 Biofuels are a key element for energy security.

 Biofuels have a large potential to reduce environmental problems.
 Biofuels could become in a great promoters of agricultural sector.

 Biofuels sectors could generate new employment opportunities.
Nevertheless, some authors have expressed that biofuels could produce

problems as a result of possible stress over the agricultural sector. This stress
is related with land and water use as well as with food security [34], [35].
The conversion pathways presented in Figure 4 can be implemented at
low or high scale depending on the feedstock availability. However, the main
characteristic that must be accomplish to ensure a successful process
application in any country is their sustainability [36], [37].
Chemical processes sustainability is based on the green chemistry concept
that promotes the research, development and implementation of new
technologies to decrease and prevent the natural resources pollution in a cost-
effective manner [38]. Therefore, all processes destined to produce bioenergy
must be evaluated from technical, economic and environmental point of view
through quantitative indicators.
All presented information and definitions had as objective to contextualize
briefly the current worldwide situation explaining some concepts to introduce
the Peruvian context. Which is related with the natural resources use to
produce heat and power as well as with the biofuels production from biomass.
Figure 4. Main pathways for biomass processing to produce bioenergy and chemicals.
1.2. Bioenergy Context in Peru
Peru is the third largest country in South America that has great renewable
resources variety to produce energy [39]. Furthermore, it has oil reserves that
have supplied the energy demand in the last years [40]. The Peruvian energy
matrix is composed by renewable and non-renewable energy sources such as
oil, natural gas, coal, biomass and hydropower [41]. However, more than 70%
of the total energy supplied is provided from non-renewables resources. Figure
5 shows the energy sources shares used in Peru.
As can been seen in Figure 5a, natural gas has one of the highest shares.
The above is because of its production has increased recently with the aim to
supply the oil deficit in Peru [40]. The progressive depletion of this resource
has encouraged the application of new strategies to ensure the country energy
security. In addition, Figure 5b shows that transport and industrial sectors are
the main energy consumers of this country [41]. Therefore, they are two of the
most important greenhouse gases emissions sources.
Greenhouse gases emissions (GHG) in Peru are attributed to the change in
land use and forestry, energy-consuming sectors, agriculture and solid waste
generation. In first place, the land use and forestry are the main sources of
greenhouse gases given the large areas deforested. Which produced a net
carbon dioxide emissions of 110,000 Gg in 2000 [40]. This activity is carried
out during the roads construction and illegal mining. By other hand, the
energy-consuming sectors that have been mentioned are undeniable carbon
dioxide sources. In the industry sector, cement, steel and brick making plants
do the main contribution. In contrast, the emissions caused by the energy
production from renewable energy are minor than 1% [40]. Moreover,
agricultural and solid waste generation sectors also produce greenhouse gases
such as methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) as a
result of the organic matter decomposition [25]. The net carbon dioxide
emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement manufacture are presented
in Figure 6.
National Energy Policy Peru 2010 – 2040 is the most recent state action to
diversify the energy matrix trough the renewables energy use. This policy
contemplates the following goals:
 Promote the development and use of clean energy and technologies

with low emissions and avoid the resources biodegradation.
 Establish actions to mitigate the emissions derived from energy
activities.
 Promote the permanent improvement of safety standards in the energy

use.
 Promote and encourage the solid and liquid waste use for energy
production.
 Promote the social responsibility in the energy activities.
(a) Primary energy production by source. (b) Primary energy consumption by sector.
Figure 5. Primary energy consumption by source and sectors in Peru [39].
Figure 6. Total greenhouse gases emissions in Peru [42].
The renewable energy inclusion to supply a share of energy demand in

this country is promoted as a strategy to mitigate the climate change effects.
Which affects the environment and economics due to droughts, floods and
crops lost [43]. In this way, the energy production from renewable resources
must be based on equality principles from social, economic and environmental
point of view to ensure a sustainable development.
Peru has a great potential to produce energy from renewable resources.
This potential has been estimated in 22000 MW from wind energy, 5.24
kWh/m2 from solar energy, 3000 MW from geothermal energy and 58937
MW from hydropower [43]. However, other form to implement the renewable
energy use is with the biofuels use. These can be produced from first or second
generation biomass such as oil palm, jatropha, rapeseed, sugarcane and wood
residues [44]. The renewable energy implementation advantages are: the
employment generation, energy matrix diversification, climate change effects
mitigation and the non-interconnected areas inclusion into energy grid [40].
Nevertheless, the energy derived from renewable sources has a marginal share
if it is compared with their potential. This is because of their costs are higher
than the energy costs obtained from conventional technologies.
As was mentioned above, the bioenergy generated in this country can be
produced from first and second generation biomass. As first generation energy
carriers derived from biomass can be considered the biodiesel, anhydrous
ethanol (fuel ethanol) and fuel oil. These are produced from oil palm and
sugarcane [43], [44]. Their main applications are related to electricity supply
in non-interconnected areas and to provide the necessary quantity for blending.
On the other hand, the second generation biomass (i.e., non-edible oils and
lignocellulosic biomass) such as jatropha oil and sugarcane bagasse are the
main feedstocks employed to produce biodiesel and bioethanol, respectively
[45]. As well as first generation biofuels, these are employed to supply the
transport sector demand. Nevertheless, vegetable coal, wood, pellets, biogas
and syngas are generated a low scale for cooking and low-electricity
requirements [43].
Bioethanol and biodiesel are the main biofuels produced in this country
and they are blended with gasoline and diesel fuels to reduce the carbon
dioxide and particle matter emissions. The government has stipulated that
these blends must be performed in the following quantities: 7.8% for ethanol
starting in 2010 and a 5% for biodiesel in 2011 [44], [45]. Nevertheless, the
production of these biofuels has had many problems to increase its actual
production due to some environmental and social difficulties that are attributed
to them. Figure 7 shows the problems associated to the liquid biofuels

production in Peru.
One of the problems showed in Figure 7 is the land use and its
adjudication. This problem is related to the preference that the government has
by multinational companies to carry out the biofuels production. This has
caused difficulties from the economic and environmental point of view given
the inadequate land valuation and use that are granted [43]. Another important
problem associated with biofuels production is the water use. This problem has
as central point the appropriate water distribution to accomplish the
requirements of different sectors (i.e., agricultural, residential, commercial and
industry). The last problem is the food security. However, indicators reported
by Cardona et al. [33] and studies performed by BEFS (FAO) indicates that
Peru does not have food insecurity as a result of biofuels production [46].
In accordance with the above information, the technical and
environmental assessment of biodiesel and bioethanol production was
performed using Jatropha oil and sugarcane bagasse, respectively. The
analysis of these processes are focused into environmental indicators that have
been stipulated by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).
Figure 7. Main problems associated with biofuels production.
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1. Raw Materials
Jatropha oil and sugarcane bagasse were the selected feedstocks to

produce biodiesel and bioethanol. The first raw material (i.e., Jatropha) is a
relatively new agricultural business in Peru [45]. It has a great potential to be
used for the promotion and development of smallholders associations due to
the relatively high yields that can be obtained from this crop [47]. The
experiences with large-scale Jatropha plantations in Peru are still marginal.
However, it has been considered as a good option to produce biodiesel because
this not competes with food industry [48]. The other raw material (i.e.,
sugarcane bagasse) is obtained as an agro-waste from sugarcane and it is
commonly used in a cogeneration plants to produce heat and power [49].
However, this raw material can be used as feedstock to produce second
generation bioethanol [32]. In fact, local newspapers have published that
sugarcane bagasse is a promissory raw material to produce second generation
bioethanol [50]. To simulate the biodiesel production from Jatropha oil is
necessary to have the oil fatty acids profile and the triglyceride composition.
This information is shown in Table 1 and Table 2, respectively.
Table 1. Fatty acid composition of Jatropha seed oil. Taken from [51]
Chemical Composition
Fatty acid Abbreviation
Formula (%wt.)
Palmitic acid 16:0 C16H32O2 13.19
Palmitoleic 16:1 C16H30O2 0.40
Stearic 18:0 C18H36O2 6.36
Oleic 18:1 C18H34O2 43.32
Linoleic 18:2 C18H32O2 36.70
Table 2. Triglycerides composition of Jatropha seed oil. Taken from [51]
Triglyceride Chemical Formula Composition (%wt.)

LLL C57H98O6 5.47
OLL C57H100O6 14.91
POL+SLL C55H100O6 7.92
PLL C55H98O6 15.77

OOL C57H102O6 17.60
PPL C53H98O6 2.03
OOO C57H104O6 11.37
POO C55H102O6 16.82
POP C53H100O6 0.60
Unknown - 0.28
Unknown - 0.49
PPP C51H98O6 3.57
SOO C57H106O6 0.19
POS C55H104O6 1.12
FFA - 1.88
Table 3. Lignocellulosic composition of sugarcane bagasse (SCB).

Taken from [32]
Chemical Composition Sugarcane Bagasse (%wt.)

Moisture 75.00
*
Cellulose 34.80
Hemicellulose* 28.96
Klason Lignin* 22.62
*
Extractives 8.00
Protein* 1.45
Ash* 4.17
*
Cellulose, Hemicellulose, Klason Lignin, Extractives, Protein and Ash content
reported in dry basis
On the other hand, it is necessary focus the sugarcane bagasse

composition in its chemical composition. For that reason, the cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin content are presented in Table 3.
2.2. Processes Description
2.2.1. Biodiesel Production

Biodiesel can be defined as a mixture of esters that are obtained from an
alcoholysis process. In this, the alcoholic compound of one ester is substituted
with other alcohol through a chemical reaction known as transesterification
[52]. In these type of reactions, some alcohols are commonly used such as
methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol and amyl alcohol. Nevertheless,

methanol and ethanol are most used due to their low cost and its physico-
chemical advantages [53], [54]. Other important fact is that these reactions are
reversible. For that reason, in the same way that esterification reactions in
acetates production (e.g., ethyl acetate, butyl acetate and n-amyl acetate), the
biodiesel production requires the presence of a catalyst that accelerates the
reaction rate and increase the equilibrium conversion. The catalyst can be a
strong base (e.g., KOH, NaOH) [55].
In general, the biodiesel production process is composed by the following
stages: Pretreatment, Free fatty acids esterification, triglycerides
transesterification, organic base recuperation, glycerol washing, neutralization,
glycerol purification and biodiesel purification. In order to avoid the initially
two phases formed by the use of methanol the selected organic alcohol is
ethanol to produce ethyl esters [56].
As can be seen in Tables 1 and 2, Jatropha oil has as main components
Palmitic acid, Oleic acid and Linoleic acid and their esters. Therefore, only the
most representative triglycerides are used to design the reaction stage. In
addition, the FFA content of the oil is assumed as oleic acid due to its high
concentration. Thus, the chemical composition employed into the simulation
process is presented in Table 4.
The pretreatment stage consists of the raw materials temperature
conditioning to be carried out to the reaction stage. Then, the preheated oil is
subjected to an esterification reactor to decrease its FFA content below 1%
[57], [58]. The esterification reaction was accomplished using a sulfonated
cation exchange resin as heterogeneous catalyst with a molar ratio 9:1. The
reaction temperature was 355 K with an agitation of 600 rpm. Finally, to
perform the reactor design of this stage was necessary employ the kinetic
parameters reported by Jiang et al. [58]. Table 5 shows the kinetic parameters
employed.
Table 4. Triglycerides composition of Jatropha seed oil used to

perform the biodiesel production from Jatropha seed oil

PLL C55H98O6 30.29
OOL C57H102O6 33.80
POO C55H102O6 32.31
FFA - 3.60
Total - 100.00
Table 5. Kinetic parameters employed to design the esterification reactor.

Taken from [58]
Reaction Pre-exponential Factor (h-1) Activation energy (kJ/mol)

Forward 114.14 24.80
Reverse 2.669 23.59
Oleic acid + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Oleate + Water (1)
Later on, the oil with low content in FFA was carried out to the
transesterification reactor. The conditions of this stage were: temperature
60°C, pressure 1 bar, residence time 60 min, molar ratio 6:1, agitation 400 rpm
and catalyst loading of 0.8g NaOH/100g oil. The product streams from reactor
is composed by a triglycerides not converted, intermediaries and ethyl-esters
of oleic, linoleic and palmitic acid [56]. The reactions considered in this stage
are summarized in equations (2) – (19).
OOL + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Linoleate + OO (2)
OO + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Oleate + 1-O (3)
1-O + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Oleate + Glycerol (4)
OOL + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Oleate + OL (5)
OL + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Oleate + 1-L (6)
1-L + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Linoleate + Glycerol (7)
OL + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Linoleate + 1-O (8)
PLL + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Linoleate + PL (9)
PL + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Linoleate + 1-P (10)
1-P + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Palmitate + Glycerol (11)
PL + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Palmitate + 1-L (12)
1-L + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Linoleate + Glycerol (13)
PLL + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Palmitate + LL (14)
LL + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Linoleate + 1-L (15)
POO + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Oleate + PO (16)
PO + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Oleate + 1-P (17)
PO + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Palmitate + 1-O (18)
POO + Ethanol ↔ Ethyl-Palmitate + OO (19)
The above reactions were modeled as a pseudo-homogeneous first order

kinetic reaction. The pre-exponential factors and its activation energies are
reported by Likozar and Levec [56]. Not converted triglycerides,
intermediaries and ethyl-esters of oleic, linoleic and palmitic acid compose the
product stream from the transesterification reactor.
The outlet stream from the reaction stage was introduced in a distillation
tower to separate the ethanol and water from the organic mixture. The ethanol
recovery is a very important stage to decrease the raw materials cost in the
overall process due to that recovered ethanol is recirculated. From the column,
two streams are generated. The distillate that is composed by ethanol and the
bottoms, which have a complex triglycerides and ethyl esters mixture at high
temperatures.
The organic mixture from the ethanol recovery column was cooled until
60°C in a heat exchanger using water [59], [60]. After, this stream was treated
with hot water to separate the glycerol from the other organic compounds in an
extraction column [61]. From this stage, two streams are produced. One stream
is composed by triglycerides and ethyl esters and it was sent to purification
process. The other stream is conformed by a glycerol – water mixture that was
subjected to treatment stage to separate the glycerol. With the purpose of
decreasing the environmental impact, the outlet stream from extractive
column, composed mainly by glycerol – water mixture, was neutralized with
phosphoric acid. The sodium phosphate was separated in a drum filter and the
liquid phase is distillated in a column to recovery the glycerol produced.
Figure 8. Biodiesel production process flow diagram.
Biodiesel is obtained in the purification stage where the ethyl esters

(primary components of the biodiesel) are separated from the oil fraction that
not was converted (i.e., triglycerides) into a distillation column. By other hand,
the bottoms streams is recycled and mixed with the new oil. Figure 8 shows
the process flow diagram of the biodiesel production from Jatropha seeds oil.
2.2.2. Bioethanol Production

Bioethanol production was carried out using Saccharomyces cerevisiae
yeast to convert the glucose into ethanol and carbon dioxide as main products
from the fermentation. This production process comprises the following
stages: feedstock milling diluted acid pretreatment, detoxification,
saccharification, fermentation and separation.
The pretreatment stage aims to improve the fermentation yields by
increasing the concentration of fermentable sugars. This stage includes the
hemicellulose hydrolysis using diluted acid process and the cellulose
degradation through enzymatic treatment. The raw material particle size was
considered between 10 cm - 16 cm. However, the feedstock was subjected in a
mechanical milling to decrease its particle size until 2.0 cm [32]. After this
process, the lignocellulosic material was carried out to a dilute acid hydrolysis.
The kinetic constants reported by Aguilar et al. [62] were used for sugarcane
bagasse. The kinetic model was adjusted to the chemical composition reported
in Table 3.
The above was done to ensure an adequate behavior of the raw material
pretreatment. The dilute acid pretreatment process was simulated at 121°C and
2.0 atmospheres with a solid liquid ratio 1:10 and using sulfuric acid at 2%
w/w. Table 6 presents the employed kinetic constants to design the
pretreatment reactor.
After diluted acid pretreatment, the solid fraction is separated from the
rich-xylose liquor. This last stream is concentrated into an evaporator and
subjected to a neutralization and detoxification stage where all inhibitor
components (e.g., Furfural, 5-HMF) are removed. Finally, gypsum is separated
from xylose concentrate. The detoxification stage is carried out at 60°C for 30
minutes [63].
An enzyme cellulases cocktail was considered to perform the
saccharification stage. The amount of enzyme was calculated taking into
account the initial cellulose content to reach an enzyme concentration of 60
FPU/g of cellulose. This stage was simulated considering an initial solids
concentration of 20% in weight at pH 5.0 and 50°C [64].
Table 6. Kinetic constants of the sugarcane bagasse

dilute acid pretreatment
Constant ki0 (min-1 ) Ea (J/mol) n

1 3.93x1012 101,348 0.73
2 0.0080 0.00 0.00
The fermentation process was carried out at 37°C and 1 atm with a
dilution rate of 0.17 h-1 [65]. The product stream from the bioreactor is
composed by microorganisms, ethanol and non-converted substrate. Then, a
solid liquid separator (i.e., hydrocyclone) was used to remove the
microorganism from this stream. The ethanol purification is achieved using
two distillation towers and a series of molecular sieves. The first tower
concentrates the ethanol until 50%v/v. The second tower separates the ethanol
- water mixture until its azeotropic composition. Followed, the rectified
ethanol is heated at 118°C and 21 psia to overheat this mixture and vaporized.
This vapor is carried out to molecular sieves to produce anhydrous ethanol
[32], [63]. Figure 9 shows the process flow diagram of the bioethanol
production process.
2.3. Simulation Approach
The simulation of each proposed process was accomplished using Aspen

Plus (Aspen Technology Inc. USA). The biodiesel production considered a
feedstock mass flow of the 20,65ton/day. On the other hand, the bioethanol
production process was designed considering a total mass flow of 100 ton/day.
These values were proposed taken into account the productivity of Jatropha
and sugarcane in the Peruvian context. All simulations were performed using
the Non-Random Two Liquids (NRTL) and Hayden-O’Connell equation of
state (HOC EoS) to describe the behavior of the liquid and vapor phases
presents in each process. However, the lignocellulosic components of the
sugarcane bagasse are not available in the simulation tool. For that reason, the
properties reported by the National Research Energy Laboratory (NREL) were
used [66].
Figure 9. Bioethanol production process flow diagram.
As was mentioned in the processes description section in both designed

processes kinetic models were used. However, some processes such as the
enzymatic hydrolysis in the bioethanol production was designed employed an
stoichiometric approximation and the yields reported by Moncada et al. [32].
The separation stages in each process were designed taking into account the
thermodynamic information related with the vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid
equilibria of each mixture. In addition, some tools from topological
thermodynamics were applied to identify distillation regions in the purification
stage. Finally, with the end to ensure a good approximation in the distillation
columns, first estimates related with the reflux ratio and theoretical stages
were obtained from shortcut design methods [67].
2.4. Environmental Assessment
The environmental assessment was carried out using some of the

environmental indicators reported by Ruiz-Mercado et al. [37], [68]. These
environmental indicators have as objective shows the possible impact caused
by the biofuels production. These environmental indicators were normalized
using a sustainability percentage with the end to compare these with other
indicators reported by other authors [69]. The calculated indicators are listed
below:
 Number of hazardous material input

 Mass of hazardous material input
 Specific hazardous raw material input
 Health hazard irritation factor
 Total mass of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals used
 Global warming potential.
 Aquatic acidification potential.
 Aquatic oxygen demand potential
 Specific liquid waste production
 Specific solid waste production
The above indicators were calculated according to the definitions and

descriptions reported by Ruiz-Mercado [68], the potency factors listed by
IChemE report [70], the hazardous material list [71] and the PBT list
published by the EPA [72]. After calculating each indicator, the process
sustainability was calculated using the sustainability scale reported in the
GREENSCOPE methodology [37]. This sustainability scale was calculated as

follows:
Actual case - Worst case

Sustainability percentage = ( ) *100 (20)
Best case - Worst case
The best case was defined as the case where no releases were produced.
On the other side, the worst case was defined as the case where all releases
were considered waste. Finally, the actual case considered that the xylose and
lignin streams from pretreatment stage are potential feedstocks to produce
some added-value products.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Biodiesel Production
Jatropha biodiesel obtained from the described process is composed by

ethyl esters. The mass yield of the process was 94.35%. This yield can be
compared with the yields reported in the literature when methanol is used.
However, a great yields variety have been found in the literature due to the
difference in the oil composition, catalyst loading and operating conditions.
Table 7 shows the yields reported by different authors and their deviation.
According to Table 7, the calculated yield from the simulated process is
in agreement with the values reported in the literature. Therefore, it is possible
to conclude that the kinetic model used and the compositional approximation
were correct. In this sense, the designed process and its overall mass balance
(i.e., inlet and outlet streams) can be taken into account to perform the
environmental analysis proposed in the section 2.4. In addition, the energy
requirements of the simulated process are presented in Figure 10.
Table 7. Comparison of the obtained yield with the results obtained by

other researchers
Calculated value (%) Reported yield (%) Deviation (%) Reference

94.34 90% 4.82 [73]
90% 4.82 [74]
92% 2.54 [75]
98% 3.73 [76]
99% 4.70 [77]
Figure 10. Energy distribution in the stages that composes the

biodiesel production process.
An energy analysis was developed calculating the low heating value (i.e.,
the net energy content) of the ethyl esters from the correlations reported by
Metha et al. [78]. However, these correlations were calculated to methyl
esters. For that reason, it was supposed that the ethyl esters energy content is
10% lower that the methyl esters according to Demirbas et al. [79].
The overall equation to calculate the biodiesel calorific power produced
using only ethyl esters are present in the equations below.
LHV (MJ/kg) = 0.9*[(0.0109(C/O)3 - 0.3516(C/O)2 + 4.2000(C/O) + 21.066 - 0.100Ndb)*wi] (21)
LHV (MJ/kg) = 0.9*[(0.0011(H/O)3 - 0.0785(H/O)2 + 2.0409(H/O) + 20.992 - 0.100Ndb)*wi] (22)
C/O or H/O are the relation between carbon and hydroxide atom with the
oxygen present in the ethyl esters, wi is the mass fraction of the ethyl ester in
the biodiesel produced, Ndb is the number of double bonds and 0.9 is the
percentage supposed for the LHV for ethyl esters. According to Dubey et al.
[80] the LHV of the Jatropha oil is 39.50 MJ/kg. This result is very similar
with the reported by Rao et al. [81] and Oliveira et al. [82]. The LHV of the
biodiesel from Jatropha oil when this is composed by ethyl esters is 34.78
MJ/kg and when it is composed by methyl esters is 38.50 MJ/kg. The above
results shows that biodiesel from Jatropha oil has minor calorific value than
the pure oil. However, its physical properties (e.g., density, viscosity and
cetane number) are more near to the diesel properties than the presented by the
Jatropha oil.
The total mass flow of biodiesel obtained from the Jatropha oil could
supply the needs of the transport sector in the stipulated blends by the
government. Nevertheless, Peru still imports biodiesel from Argentina due to
its low cost. Therefore, it is necessary to perform the economic analysis of the
biodiesel production from Jatropha to demonstrate its feasibility. In addition,
the biodiesel production in Peru can be stronger if it is integrated in the
jatropha oil productive chain and its production is increased based on the crop
intensification.
3.2. Bioethanol Production
In the same form that the biodiesel process, the yield of the bioethanol
production process was calculated to be compared with the results reported by
other authors. This yield was defined as the volumetric flow rate of dehydrated
ethanol over the quantity of raw material used. The obtained yield was 37.70
L/ton. The obtained yield is minor than the reported by Quintero et al. [32].
This is because the simulated feedstock in this process has a high moisture
content (i.e., 75%). This causes that the cellulose flow at a same feedstock
flow be minor.
Figure 11. Energy distribution in the stages that composes the bioethanol
production process.
The pretreatment stage consumes great part of the total energy consumed
by the bioethanol production process. In contrast, the enzymatic
saccharification and fermentation stages have the lowest energy requirements
due to the low temperatures and pressures that are used. This tendency also is
obtained by Quintero et al. [32] in his simulations.
The above results show that the use of lignocellulosic residues from
sugarcane processing can be used to produce bioethanol. The above is an
important observation given that the bioethanol that is produced in Peru comes
from the sugarcane direct processing [43].
3.3. Environmental Analysis
Finally, the environmental indicators for both processes are represented in

Figures 12 and 13. The indicators for each process are present in different
figures to facilitate its reading and understanding.
Figure 12 shows the environmental indicators obtained from the simulated
biodiesel production process. These shows that, in general, the biodiesel
production process in Peru not have a poor behavior from environmental point
of view. The obtained results are similar with the obtained by Ruiz- Mercado
et al. [69] in the biodiesel production from vegetable oil with high content in
oleic acid. In this process, the raw materials employed are not dangerous for
the persons and the chemicals that are used have well defined their security
protocols (i.e., NaOH, H3PO4). However, solids production could be a
problem if it is not found a solution or added value. In addition, the glycerol –
water mixture that can not be separated generates high oxygen demand. For
that reason, the specific solid waste production and the aquatic oxygen demand
are very low. To finish, the biodiesel production in Peru can be improved if it
is added to this process a residual water treatment plant.
To finish the biodiesel analysis, Demirbas [79] gives a set of equations to
calculate the change in exhaust emissions when the biodiesel is employed in
an internal combustion engine. These equations are presented below:
NOx =0.1078 X-0.0271 (23)
PM=-0.4673 X-2.2182 (24)
CO=-0.4695 X-2.5591 (25)
HC=-0.6715 X-5.3273 (26)
where “X” it’s the biodiesel content in the fuel mixture. Table 8 presents the
results of these equations at different blends of biodiesel.
Figure 12. Environmental indicators for biodiesel production process.
Table 8. Results obtained for gases emission

from biodiesel blends combustion
Percentage change in exhaust emissions

Biodiesel blends (%)
NOx PM CO HC
100 10.75 -48.95 -49.51 -72.48
50 5.36 -25.58 -26.03 -38.90
20 2.13 -11.56 -11.95 -18.76
10 1.05 -6.89 -7.25 -12.04
These values show how to use a mixture of diesel and biodiesel can
significantly reduce the emissions. The above is one of the reasons that
encourage many researchers to focus on the biofuels production. A high
percentage of biodiesel in the mixture achieved decrease the emissions.
However still it is not recommended to use high percentages of biodiesel in the

blend due to that its use can cause damage in internal combustion engines.
The stipulated biodiesel blend in Peru is 5%. Therefore, if the results
obtained in Table 8 are taken into account, the reduction on the air pollution is
slight. For that reason, it is necessary to increase the percentage of the
biodiesel blends to improve the environmental indicators of the greenhouse
gases emissions.
Figure 13. Environmental indicators for bioethanol production process.
The environmental indicators obtained for bioethanol production process

are presented in Figure 13. From raw the materials point of view, the
environmental indicators have a high percentage. However, the indicators
related with the solid and liquid waste generation are lower due to these outlet
streams in the process not have an added value. Finally, the global warming
potential indicator is very low because the carbon dioxide generated during the
fermentation process is not treated in an absorption column. Furthermore,
indicators related with the waste generation can improve if the liquid ad solid
wastes produced in this process are employed under the biorefinery concept
increasing its environmental sustainability [83]. If the biorefinery concept is
not applied the environmental indicators can be improved if the gypsum is
considered as a sub-product from the bioethanol plant and the cells are
recycled to the process.
Finally, the bioethanol use in an internal combustion engine also generates
a great reduction in the net gases emissions. The above was analyzed by Wang
et al. [84]. In their study was possible demonstrate that the use of ethanol in an
internal combustion engine can improve the gases emissions in a 40%.
Therefore, its use is better than the use of oil derived fuels.
CONCLUSION
Peru is a country that has the potential to produce renewable energy from
its natural resources as well as bioenergy trough biofuels production (i.e.,
biodiesel and bioethanol). On the other hand, challenges assumed by this
country from environmental perspective have well defined trough the policies
implementation. These factors can help this country to reduce its carbon
dioxide emissions and become in one of the first countries in Latin America in
implementing at low, middle and high scale the energy production without
high pollution or contamination in natural resources.
Biofuels production in Peru from jatropha oil and sugarcane bagasse is
feasible from technical and environmental perspective. In addition, their
implementation in internal combustion engines (ICE) to decrease the net gases
emissions to the atmosphere also is possible. Therefore, an increase of the
currently biofuels blends employed in this country is a possibility that can be
taken into account in a future.
REFERENCES
[1] International Energy Agency (IEA), “World Energy Outlook 2016,”
2016.
[2] Singh, R; Krishna, BB; Mishra, G; Kumar, J; Bhaskar, T. “Strategies for
selection of thermo-chemical processes for the valorisation of biomass,”
Renew. Energy, pp. 1–12, 2016.
[3] Gerssen-Gondelach, SJ; Saygin, D; Wicke, B; Patel, MK; Faaij, APC.
“Competing uses of biomass: Assessment and comparison of the
performance of bio-based heat, power, fuels and materials,” Renew.
Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 40, no. April, pp. 964–998, 2014.

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PARAGUAY AND PERU

Additional books in this series can be found on Nova’s website

Additional e-books in this series can be found on Nova’s website

PARAGUAY AND PERU

NOTICE TO THE READER

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN:  H%RRN

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York

Chapter 6 Paraguay: Where Corruption and

Chapter One examines natural resource management during the settlement

executive branches of government, a prerogative that is clearly outlined in

BUILDING THE CITY OF KINGS:

Kathleen M. Kole de Peralta*, PhD

placed incredible stress on Lima’s coastal desert environment, and in

Keywords: Colonial Lima, early-modern Lima, environmental consciousness,

(Brannstrom, 2000), (Charlip, 2003), (Dean, 1987), (Hecht and Cockburn,

FOUNDING THE CITY OF KINGS

members held their own elections.7 By limiting officer participation by

harvested trees on indigenous lands, it created conflict between two

The view of the city [Lima] from a distance is not impressive

As this passage indicates, Limeños built two-story homes in response to the

Peru’s described the cathedral as a “Quite a sumptuous building,” (Ballesteros,

Morgado, P. (2007). Un palimpsesto urbano: del asiento indígena de Lima a la

Adams, F. U. (1914). Conquest of the Tropics. New York: Doubleday, Page

de Diez Canseco, M. R. (1978). Señoríos Indígenas de Lima y Canta. Lima:

Altman, I. & Christensen, K. (1990). Environment and Behavior Studies:

Articles in Edited Books

Alva-Hurtado, J. (1994). Seismic Safety of the Lima metropolitan Area. In

Penna, A. (2016). Nature’s Bounty: Historical and Modern Environmental

2010 Newberry Library Renaissance Center Stipend

Publications from the Last 3 Years:

Patricia Urteaga-Crovetto*, PhD

It is of course much easier to build a dam

peasant communities of Huancavelica located in the upstream Pampas basin,

For Political Ecology “such inequitable hydro-social configurations” are

WATER SCARCITY, DEVELOPMENT AND DISCOURSES

“Development” institutions generate their own form of discourse,

representation of economic and social life which denies “politics” and, to

Political ecology has explored the intermingling relationship between

consequences10. In fact, “while physical hydrological conditions can produce

HUANCAVELICA AND THE PAMPAS BASIN

influenced its meagre development11. Huancavelica has a complex and diverse

Castrovirreyna, Acobamba, among others, water is scarce even for human

WATER CONFLICT BETWEEN ICA AND HUANCAVELICA

Current water conflicts between Ica and Huancavelica departments are

demands an extensive use of water upstream for pastures. Generally, when a

the day before through Resolución Ministerial 0586-2006-AG he also changed

MAKING UP WATER SCARCITY IN ICA

“Scientifically, the problem is not water scarcity but inefficient water

ICA’S DISCOURSE ON WATER ABUNDANCE IN

Discourses on water abundance upstream have been intensely political, as

PETACC presents the upstream basin as an area of abundant water supply.

According to a water supply approach, PETACC considers water sources,

PEASANT COMMUNITIES, ALPACAS AND THE MARKET

Between 2006 and 2009 approximately 120 families raised an average of

intervention of Arequipan fiber companies, such as Prosur, Texao, Fibra

ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND WATER USE

In Huancavelica pastures are accessed through the community. Although

upstream Pampas river (Choclococha lake), sedimentation of the Parinacocha

export activities both downstream and upstream with no consideration of the

Year Bills/Regulations Content

Year Bills/Regulations Content

Year Bills/Regulations Content

ISBN: H%RRN