The Monachil and Dílar rivers flowing down from Granada’s Sierra Nevada have sustained agricultural communities for centuries through an intricate network of irrigation canals ( acequias ). However, with increasing urban pressure, expansion of monocrops and transformation of agricultural practices, tensions have risen between irrigators (traditional and large-scale), environmental groups and conservationists over water use. While some environmental groups have mobilized to ensure that the ecological flow of the river is observed, even if that implies restricting water for agricultural uses, other collectives believe that acequias are crucial to the region’s agrosocionatural system. The latter call for a differentiation between types of agriculture and believe that river protection should always consider the network of acequias.  They also argue that the real issue lies upstream, with the CETURSA ski resort’s water consumption for artificial snow, which they consider wasteful amid droughts. Our research seeks to engage with these multiples tensions attempting to understand and support collective efforts to protect the rivers as common goods.

PhD researchers: Carolina Cuevas Parra and Ana María Arbeláez Trujillo

The Monachil and Dílar rivers flowing down from Granada’s Sierra Nevada have sustained agricultural communities for centuries through an intricate network of irrigation canals ( acequias ). However, with increasing urban pressure, expansion of monocrops and transformation of agricultural practices, tensions have risen between irrigators (traditional and large-scale), environmental groups and conservationists over water use. While some environmental groups have mobilized to ensure that the ecological flow of the river is observed, even if that implies restricting water for agricultural uses, other collectives believe that acequias are crucial to the region’s agrosocionatural system. The latter call for a differentiation between types of agriculture and believe that river protection should always consider the network of acequias.  They also argue that the real issue lies upstream, with the CETURSA ski resort’s water consumption for artificial snow, which they consider wasteful amid droughts. Our research seeks to engage with these multiples tensions attempting to understand and support collective efforts to protect the rivers as common goods.