Water Use and Protection in Rural Communities of the Peruvian Amazon Basin

Abstract

Inhabitants of the Peruvian Amazon enjoy plentiful water and other aquatic resources that enhance their well-being in many ways. However, the intimate and generally unbuffered connection between the region's inhabitants and their water resources leads to complex negative feedbacks when these resources are mismanaged. Due to severe water problems in other, more populated, parts of the country the Peruvian government currently devotes little attention to water management in the Amazon. Thus, organized management is mainly left to individual communities and households. This study reports on the results of 351 interviews of households in the Pachitea Basin of the central Peruvian Amazon. Our aim is to quantify the use of water and other aquatic resources among different social groups and within different geographical settings of the region. With these data, we evaluate and identify priorities for community-driven water management in the region. We found that 50 to 90 percent of households take their water directly from primary sources, 35 to 94 percent transport it manually to their homes, and 50 to 75 percent practice only the simplest form of treatment (boiling). Indigenous households tended to rely less on water infrastructure and water treatment. Fish and an assortment of other aquatic and riparian resources were important inputs to all social groups and in all geographic settings. Disposal of wastes in nearby water bodies was also found to be widespread. We conclude that water management efforts in the Pachitea Basin should focus on the protection of water quality in rivers and streams through careful disposal of wastes away from water bodies and the preservation of natural water purification features such as riparian forests and wetlands. We also recommend developing a basin-wide master plan, which empowers end-users and integrates more detailed plans developed at community and association levels.

Keywords:

• Water use
• Peruvian Amazon
• community water management
• preservation