Title: Water disputes in the Ecuadorian context up to the Third Millennium: no State, no market, no common property. The transition of Santa Rosa (Tungurahua province)

Authors: Thierry Ruf

Addresses: IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement), Ur044 Dynamiques Sociales de l'Irrigation, BP 5045, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 01, France

Abstract: In the Ecuadorian Andes, irrigation depends mainly on private or community-based water management. In 1972, the State started taking over water administration by nationalising water and granting concessions to users| communities. In the beginning, the State did useful work by modernising the water rights system, but because of inter-community conflicts, local concessions were split up and community organisations became divisive. After thirty years of ||hydraulic bureaucracy||, the World Bank introduced a new legal framework privatisation of water. Resistance has come from many stakeholders. Taking example of a very complex slope of the Andes in the Tungurahua province, we describe the problems of the local society of Santa Rosa: lack of background needed for water management and conflict resolution. Today, the water dispute has taken a new, curious turn the people are faced with a weak State, an ineffective market and poor common property links. An NGO will try to build a new system of governance.

Keywords: common property; conflict resolution; Ecuador; Indian communities; water management; water rights.

DOI: 10.1504/IJW.2001.002066

International Journal of Water, 2001 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.250-269

Published online: 15 Aug 2003 *

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