The Formal Recognition of Local Water Rights in Yanque, Colca Valley, Peru

Abstract

This chapter unveils the policy myth that formalizing local water rights will increase water security of local peasant and indigenous communities by probing into the experiences of the communities of Yanque Anansaya and Yanque Urinsaya, both located in the Colca Valley that belongs to the sub-watershed Colca (see Map 6.1). Local notions of water security anchored in traditional access and control rights became formalized and challenged by the supposedly neutral and depoliticized program of PROFODUA. It is revealed that water rights conflict, notions of equity, and water security on the local level are affected by state intervention and may result in precarious situations for the marginalized population.