Cultural sustainability and community water management in coastal Ecuador: jagüeyes or albarradas and small dams or detention ponds

Abstract

The objective of this article is to highlight the sustainability capacity of pre-Columbian water management systems called jagüeyes or albarradas (detention ponds) compared with modern technologies like dams which are used today in coastal Ecuador. These are compared using interdisciplinary field research, which included ethnographic fieldwork with an observation of participative action projects and a literature review. In the case of tapes (arroyo or small river dams made by farmers or farm owners), the lack of participation and inclusion of social actors and their cultural knowledge about nature is evident. This regional study underlines how the albarradas system achieves long-term sustainability because it is an appropriate technology for the local communal ecosystem with which it is associated. This experience opens up the opportunity to explore the difference between what is currently promoted as sustainability and an alternative form of sustainability which introduces the sociocultural strand in public actions on environmental intervention.