Community Aqueduct and their Water User Associations in the Fuquene Lake Basin

Relationship 1

Water Users Associations (WUAs) extract water for house consumption. Households within community aqueducts’ coverage use the water delivered through community aqueducts to their homes, which later release untreated wastewater back into the Resource System, causing point source pollution. Farmers inhabiting the basin (some of which use water from community aqueducts) convert forest and highland areas into zones for agriculture and livestock, and use fertilizers and pesticides in the agricultural productive practices. These activities result in the contamination of soil and water and the degradation of crucial ecosystems, (e.g., forest, unique highland environments, riparian corridors, and wetlands), and their impact on water available for domestic consumption varies geographically. Thus, the feedback from the Resource System results in disparities in the access to water affecting certain rural populations. During drought periods or in situations where access to water is insufficient to meet water demands in rural households (mainly in the northern part of the basin and in the higher and steeper areas), private infrastructures are used at a household level to harvest rainwater.

Relationship 2

Users inform providers about issues and state of community aqueducts and ecosystems in the basin. They file complaints and install collective demands directed at state entities responsible for regulating water resources and water services. Also, users elect WUAs’ representatives and administrative board. Resource Users, specifically WUAs and other actors living and conducting activities within the basin, participate in public events where officials inform and occasionally involve civilians in government decisions concerning water use, water management, and environmental planning. Local and regional governments implement community engagement and education programs as part of the basin's management strategies. NGOs and Academic institutions are some of the external actors that support the development of these participative programs. WUAs deliberate internally on projects and funding requirements, submit funding requests to local authorities, such as mayor offices, and apply for environmental permits, following the procedures established by regional governing entities. Conversely, WUAs receive approved permits that authorize them to access and extract water. WUAs facilitate local collaboration in constructing and maintaining essential drinking water infrastructures. Clientelism represents a type of interaction that is detrimental to the local community's capacity for self-organized and collaborative efforts. This takes place when local government members pay or give gifts to representatives of community organizations (including some WUAs), or when local government members’ favoritism results in the approval and allocation of funds that supports WUAs’ projects; all of this in return for political support.

Relationship 3

Rules and investment decisions reached within the Public Infrastructure Providers realm, are communicated to actors within the Public Infrastructure, who then proceed to adopt them. Actors within the Public Infrastructure inform providers of the condition of small roads, needed to access the community aqueduct network, and other hard Public Infrastructures (natural or artificial).

Relationship 4

The Public Infrastructures impact the Resource System with the construction of canal networks, storage tanks, and water treatment plants, which serves the purpose of ensuring future water access and managing flood risks, but transforms the natural structure and processes. In return, hydrological, climatological, and geomorphological processes within the Resource System, cause artificial infrastructures to erode and prevents them from function in an optimal way (e.g., accumulation of sediments and debris obstructs the flow of rainwater through built canals). This demands constant maintenance and higher operational costs. Besides, afforestation, reforestation, and ecosystem restoration actions undertaken by actors from the Public Infrastructures element, are actions commonly used to sustain the provision of ecological services in the basin. Finally, monitoring networks play a crucial role in observing and understanding both the natural and artificial components of the Resource System.

Relationship 5

Infrastructures necessary to treat potable water are insufficient to cover the demands for domestic water from community aqueducts.

Relationship 6

Public Infrastructures contain state regulations that establish the necessary quality criteria for human consumption. Several Resource Users resort to low-cost technologies to purify the water, such as filters and chlorine tablets, among others. Also, some users vandalize parts of the irrigation system, while others collaborate in its maintenance and that of the access routes to the water capture and distribution system. Other state rules establish that only inhabitants of the rural areas of the basin can access water from community aqueducts, which applies to most of the basin, except certain households in urban areas that are legally covered by community aqueducts. Communication channels have been designated for collecting and transmitting information about the functioning of Public Infrastructures and the state of socio ecological systems within the basin (from the users to Public Infrastructure Providers, via Public Infrastructure). Rather than using official channels, Resource Users often inform Public Infrastructure Providers directly. Some WUAs and community actors don’t comply with mandates about registering to the Chamber of Commerce or in requesting permits to access and extract water from natural sources. Even though WUAs play a key role in facilitating local collaboration for constructing and maintaining essential drinking water infrastructures, it is often observed that neighbors, community action boards, and other local organizations actively participate in coordinating activities. Institutional instruments developed by Public Infrastructure Providers, are implemented by actors within the Public Infrastructure realm to resolve and attend to claims, requests, and demands made by users. However, some users don’t trust private or public actors.