A workshop with the riverine communities of the Río Guarguallá

By Maartje Claassens (Master students exchange programme, cohort of 2024-2025)

After three months of fieldwork in the communities of Licto and Guarguallá, it had become clear to me that both ASARATY – the páramo caretaker association – and the irrigation organisation Guarguallá-Licto experienced problems that affected the social organisation in the communities. Some themes that recurred in conversations with people were the individualisation in the communities and, therefore, the disappearance of communal practices, the migration of the younger generation, and the transformation of agricultural practices due to market demands. With the support of the community members, Susana Zavala, Sebastián Orozco, my supervisors and fellow students, we decided to organise a workshop. In the workshop, we hoped to reflect with past, present, and potential future leaders on the problems the communities experienced and how these could be addressed.

Susana, Sebastián and I had created three exercises for the workshop. We decided to use the countermap that was drawn with the Riverhoods & River Commons project and the riverine communities in 2023 as a base in the workshop, to explore whether they still experienced the same problems and which new issues had come to the surface. In the first exercise, the members of ASARATY and the irrigation organisation each had to identify actors that influenced their territories on their own small copy of the countermap. Consequently, they had to describe how these actors influenced their territories on a paper sheet.

In the second exercise, we came back together around the large countermap on which ASARATY and the irrigation board had to characterize the relationships between the actors identified in the first exercise. We made use of different colours of ribbons and each colour represented a kind of relationship. A clear colour (such as white) meant that the relationship was smooth, while a darker colour (such as red) meant that the relationship was absent or problematic. People could explain the reasons for their choice of colour in plenary, to which others could respond. In this manner, we hoped to spark discussion between past, present, and future leaders about the problems they experience. It became clear that some problems that were identified last year still existed, such as the absence of a relationship between the riverine communities themselves and the poor relationship with the environment due to the use of agrochemicals. However, there was also space to discuss other issues, such as the complex relationship between the state and the communities, the relationship between the leaders and members of the organisations, and the relationships of the organisations with other páramo communities and water beneficiaries in the area. With this exercise, we hoped to show the riverine communities, who do not have a close relationship at the moment, that despite their differences, they experience similar issues in their communities.

 

In the final exercise, we initiated a collective reflection on how to address the challenges that had been identified in the previous exercise. For example: If youth migration is a challenge, what can be done to promote employment opportunities in the communities? If the use of agrochemicals is a challenge, what can be done to promote agroecology? And, what can we do to restore the relationship between us, as páramo caretakers and water users? In this collective space, we aimed to identify common strategies and promote collective learning between past, present, and potential future leaders of the organisations to strengthen community leadership and promote joint action.

For me, it was incredible to see how many innovative ideas came up to face the problems experienced in the communities. One of them was the creation of a `school for future leaders´, in which water users will learn more about where their water comes from, the importance of the environment and nature-friendly farming methods, the history of the battle for water in Licto, traditional communal norms and practices, and relationships with other institutions.

So, while the ideas are already out there, the action still needs to happen. Hopefully, the communities can find support in each other and other entities that can help them with the materialization of these plans. I have realised that it is not easy, the conservation of the páramo, the maintenance of the irrigation system, and the social organisation of the communities. It is a continuous battle, but, it is their battle – for their water territories and related water cultures-,  not that of others. And that is what matters!

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