Modelo dinâmico para a gestão e manejo sustentável de sistemas de irrigação comunitários, no marco do Bom Viver: estudo do caso na bacia do Rio Pisque

Abstract

Dynamic model for the management and sustainable operation of community irrigation systems, within the framework of Good Living: a case study in the Pisque River basin The availability of water supplied to agriculture is reduced by the effects of the changes in the hydrological cycle and population growth. This fact puts at risk the sustainability of the community irrigation systems. Therefore, irrigation users stablish strategies that allow overcome new realities. However, the policies, management and operation of irrigation are done considering the hydrology, hydraulics, sociology, and economics separately. In this sense, the purpose of this work was to study the social, environmental, economic, and cultural interrelationships that occur in the community irrigation systems. In addition, this research analyses the community's water management approach established in Ecuador`s Constitution of 2008 focusing in the Good Living framework, which conceptually tries to reach sustainability and improve the use of water in agriculture. The study was conducted in 13 community irrigation systems at the Pisque river basin, located in the highlands in Ecuador. The methodology consisted in the systems dynamics which allows to evaluate complex systems in a qualitative and quantitative way. The participation of the community was a key element and different tools were applied such as field observations, interviews, ethnography, focus groups, and assessments of water flow and volume used in agricultural production. This study shows that community irrigation is conceived as an integrated system composed by nature, the community, and infrastructure. Within this system, the irrigation users form resilient organizations and the modernization of irrigation is a strategy to reduce water losses and increase agricultural productivity. The indicators technical efficiency and economic productivity of water were evaluated in three production systems: milk, flower production in protected environments, and family's diversified agriculture. The results demonstrate that flower production is the most efficient. The technification of the irrigation systems improves agriculture but also causes changes in the socio-cultural behavior, the environment, and the socioeconomic relationships within the community. Thus, the model for the operation and a sustainable management of the community irrigation systems considers these local realities, and it is formed by three subsystems: nature, land use and community. Each subsystem has exogenous and endogenous variables that intervene in the sustainability of the irrigation systems. Social variables inherent to community were incorporated in the model structure which allowed identifying and understanding the behavior of the causalities in nature and water and land productivity. Therefore, solutions to problems are addressed in an integral way considering the principles of sustainability and Good Living, as fundamentals of the community's water management approach.

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“…La cuenca del río Pisque es un valle en el cual se encuentran dos ciudades principales, Cayambe y Tabacundo, las cuales sumaron una población de 152 153 habitantes para el año 2018 (GAD Municipal de Pedro Moncayo, 2018; GADIP Cayambe, 2020), además de contar con 3 201,73 hectáreas de flores cultivadas en invernadero para el año 2017 (Cachipuendo, 2018). Se encuentra ubicada en la provincia de Pichincha y sus aguas desembocan en el río Guayllabamba, que posteriormente desem-boca en el río Esmeraldas y en el océano Pacífico.…”