Unity in Action: Experiencing a Minga with the Ceceles Communities

By Maaike de Wit (Master students exchange programme, cohort of 2024-2025)

I can’t believe how quickly time is flying here – I’ve already been here for more than two months! In the meantime, I’ve seen and learned so much more about Ecuadorian culture and have become acquainted with my research area. Things moved especially quickly when my supervisors, Rutgerd Boelens and Bibiana Duarte, came to visit Ecuador for five days. Together, we visited many different places and gained a lot of new insights. There’s far too much to describe in a single blog post, so I’ve chosen to share one particular moment that made the biggest impression on me.

On the third day of Rutgerd and Bibiana’s visit, we visited the Ceceles community during a minga. A minga is a meeting in which water users gather to collectively work on maintenance jobs on the irrigation system. I was really looking forward to this because part of my research will take place in the Ceceles region and focuses on these collective labour investments so, I was curious to see what a minga looked like in practice.

The first thing that struck me as we drove to the area was how stunning the landscape was – enormous hills, or what we would call mountains in the Netherlands, dotted with patches of land where people grow crops or graze their cattle. Through the landscape, you could see the irrigation canal snaking along in straight lines. It reminded me of the stories I had read about the history of the construction of the irrigation system in this region:

Initially, the Ceceles communities were excluded from the design of the Guargualla-Licto irrigation system. Despite this, they fought hard for inclusion. They began constructing a platform for the irrigation system even before it was confirmed they would be included. These efforts involved large mingas, where each water user had to contribute labour to secure their rights within the system. Finally, in 1994, the Ceceles communities were rewarded for their dedication and officially included in the system’s design.

While mingas were critical during the construction phase, they remain essential today for the ongoing collective management of the irrigation system.

When we arrived at the minga, there was a large group of around 40 people hard at work. I thought this was a huge gathering, but apparently, it was just a small minga! Larger ones typically involve about 300 people. I noticed that there were particularly many women present. We were warmly welcomed, and after a round of introductions, we weren’t given a chance to help with the work. Instead, we were invited to go down to a small house where they had prepared food for us: guinea pig with potatoes and lettuce, a typical local dish. It was my first time eating guinea pig, and as a vegan in the Netherlands, it did feel a bit strange at first – but it was very tasty.

After the meal, we hoped to join in with the minga work, but along the way, we paused for Rutgerd to explain more about the irrigation system in the area. I found it interesting to learn and see how the system is a network of open canals that can be closed or opened using metal plates. In the tertiary canals, the water inlets to the fields are simply opened or closed using stones or sand-filled plastic bags. At first glance, it seems like a very simple system, but it’s underpinned by a complex structure of water turns and equitable distribution. How exactly these water turns are determined and managed is something I hope to find out in my research!

After the explanation, we walked further uphill, where the people had stopped working and were now taking a break for a meal. We were immediately invited to join them for food again. Although we were all still quite full from the earlier meal, it would have been impolite to refuse. It was a wonderful experience to sit together in a circle around the sack of food, chatting about the irrigation system.

This visit made it even clearer to me how complex the collective management system behind the irrigation network is. It was incredibly impressive and enjoyable to witness how a minga operates and how the irrigation system is kept running through the collective efforts of the community. I can’t wait to do more research on this and attend another minga – hopefully next time, I’ll be able to help with the work!