Life in the Ecuadorian páramo

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

Do you remember that Susana and Sebastián invited me to join them to Guamote for a workshop? Today we went back to visit the communities and their land. During the workshop, we heard a lot of stories about how the communities organise their water and what problems they face. However, seeing it with your own eyes says even more, and so we returned!

The morning started very Ecuadorian, which means very early, but without any rush. A little later than planned Susana, Sebastián, and I left Riobamba and then again, a little later than planned, the people from Guamote arrived quietly at the village square to take us to their communities. Todo tranquilo! We first visited a páramo whose land belonged to one of the four communities we would visit today. What an incredible landscape! We drove along dirt roads, which were barely roads, to where their water comes from. A páramo actually works like sponge: capturing and holding water and then slowly releasing it, creating small water streams. As the community is growing, more households need water which especially becomes a problem when it is as dry as it is now. Therefore, the community decided to start taking better care of their water sources (the páramo). This means that native plant species were sowed and that cattle is not allowed in these areas anymore. As a result, the páramo here is now in much better condition, and they also hope to start developing community-based tourism in the area in the future, to generate some extra income.

Sebastián also took a sample at each water source to measure the water quality. It is so special how clean the water is here, because it is naturally filtered by the páramo and is not contaminated with poo from cattle or pesticides. We continued our way to two communities further down the road, which were completely different again. Their land did not belong to the páramo, as they were located a bit lower in the mountains and used the water from the páramo which reaches them through the retention basins and water pipes. The water is mainly used in the household and for drinking, as there are no irrigation systems in this region yet.

On our way to the last community, we were briefly held up by a pile of sand dumped just in front of a house. The women were working hard to shovel the road clear for us. But as Sebastián said, ‘I think it is time to get involved in the minga!’ In these areas, reciprocity is the basis of community and can be understood as ‘you help me, I help you’. To receive water or to be a comunero, you have to be involved and work. So, time to roll up our own sleeves! In the photo you can see the proof of my first contribution to the minga. How reciprocity takes form in Andean communities is also an important part of my thesis, and how could you learn more than becoming part of it yourself right?

Arriving at the final páramo, we once again enjoyed the beautiful scenery and listened to the stories of the communities. What an interesting day this was, and what differences there are here in short distances! People live quite a simple life here, as it revolves around the land, livestock, and community. There is no internet, only dirt roads, and barely any cars, which makes the connection with the rest of the world difficult. However, a simple life is not an easy life, because the people work incredibly hard and with the drought of recent times, it remains to be seen whether their harvests will succeed.

Speaking about drought – it has not been raining for a while now in Ecuador, which is quite a problem in a country that mainly depends on hydroelectricity. Last week, electricity was cut off in the entire country for a night. However this week, the government decided to take even stricter measures. In some parts of Riobamba (such as mine), we have no electricity (light, warm water, internet) from 9 am to 2 pm and from 7 pm to midnight the entire week. In other parts of Riobamba, electricity is cut off at exact opposite times. You can imagine how inconvenient this is for people at work, school, and home. Opinions on why these measures are needed differ. Some are convinced that it has a natural cause, as there ha S not rained for a long time. Others blame the government for not investing in hydroelectricity and thermoelectricity plants these last years, which leads to shortages now. Which story do you believe? I just read in the news that the government is experimenting with cloud seeding techniques to make it rain artificially. Curious to see how this will develop, hopefully it will start to rain normally..