Bee mietii rak rkabni nis (The people know how to seed water): A Zapotec experience in adapting to water scarcity and drought

ABSTRACT

We are facing a global water crisis exacerbated by hydro-climatic extremes related to climate change. Water scarcity is expected to increasingly affect indigenous and marginalized populations. Supporting the sovereignty of indigenous and rural populations to create water secure futures through place-based knowledge, local management, and Community-based Adaptation (CBA) measures may help tackle this crisis. Zapotec communities in Oaxaca, Mexico have self-organized for collective action to use Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) to address water scarcity, resulting in a perceived increase of groundwater availability. Treating groundwater as a common-pool resource (CPR) within a sociohydrological system, the objectives of this paper are two-fold: (1) to explore how MAR may be implemented as a CBA measure, and (2) to understand what factors triggered and/or enabled the widespread implementation of MAR by Zapotec indigenous communities in the Valles Centrales of Oaxaca, Mexico. In doing so, we aim to get a better understanding of local processes while also furthering theories that relate to CBA, CPR, and sociohydrology. This paper was born from the desire of the Zapotec community members to share their experience and lessons learned so other drought-vulnerable communities might benefit.

KEYWORDS:

• Sociohydrology
• community-based adaptation
• collective action
• managed aquifer recharge
• indigenous knowledge
• water security
• Mexico
• climate change
• drought

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The second author is the Assistant Director of Flor y Canto, A.C. With COPUDA, he has participated in round-tables, meetings among community representatives, field visits, interviews, and has produced communication materials about the COPUDA experience. The third author has been a Technical Advisor for Buin Dannis, participating in processes of community organization, capacity building, and planning/construction of MAR infrastructure, since the inception of the association. The fourth author is a community member of the COPUDA community San Antonino Castillo Velasco. She is a co-founder of COPUDA and the Director of Flor y Canto, A.C. She has been directly involved in all legal action on behalf of COPUDA, as well as COPUDA’s formation, development, and actions (including MAR).

2 As of 2020, a literature search for “collective action” and “Ostrom” yielded 86,800 results.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Britt Basel

Britt Basel is the founder and principle of the organization Ecothropic. She has extensive field experience as a practitioner and as a Technical Expert in Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction in Oceania, Latin America, and the Caribbean. With an MSc in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, and as a PhD Candidate researching adaptation measures to increase water security in the context of climate change, she specializes in culturally-appropriate, community-driven, and nature-based solutions.

Nadir Hernández Quiroz

Nadir Hernández Quiroz is the Assistant Director of the Center for Indigenous Rights Flor y Canto A.C. and supports 16 communities in the Valles Centrales in the protection and defense of water. He has collaborated with various organizations including non-governmental organizations and different institutions within the Mexican government. His primary activities are related to awareness and communication about the rights of indigenous peoples, indigenous culture, and indigenous territory.

Roberto Velasco Herrera

Roberto Velasco Herrera is a MSc in Transportation and Distribution Systems, he has been a Technical Advisor to the Buin Dannis communities since the organization was created. He has participated in environmental impact studies and the development of community territorial plans throughout the Valles Centrales. He specializes in soil restoration and rainwater harvesting at the community and household levels.

Carmen Santiago Alonso

Carmen Santiago Alonso has been a defender of Indigenous Rights in Oaxaca for the last 40 years. Her path started with protecting native languages and land rights. Since, she has participated in different processes of territorial defense with multiple municipalities across the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Currently she is the Director of the Center for Indigenous Rights Flor y Canto A.C. Since 2005, she has accompanied and given counsel to 16 Zapotec communities in the Valles Centrales in the social movement to protect and defend water against drought and to gain recognition of community-based water management.

Jaime Hoogesteger

Jaime Hoogesteger is an Assistant Professor at the Water Resources Management Group of Wageningen University in The Netherlands and is a visiting researcher at the Departamento de Ingenierías, Universidad de Guanajuato, México and the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosystemas y Sustentabilidad - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, México. He has an MSc in International Land and Water Management and a PhD in Social Sciences/Water Governance. His main areas of interest are water governance, community organization, and agrarian change from a political ecology perspective.