Obstacles to adaptive polycentric irrigation water governance amid climate change: a political ecology critique of the Peruvian water license system

Keywords: climate change adaptation, polycentric governance, irrigation, water licenses, political ecology, Peru
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 25

Abstract

Adaptive, polycentric governance has been increasingly prescribed for managing fugitive common-pool resources that cross jurisdictional borders. In this paper, I assess the political and social-ecological dimensions of the Peruvian water license system as an institution for equitable and adaptive polycentric governance of dam-regulated water amid glacial retreat and rising evapotranspiration rates in the Colca-Siguas watershed in southwestern Peru. Water governance in this watershed fulfills the essential tenets of polycentricity: higher-level organizations support and respect local governance by letting communities design and adapt their own customary institutions to changing conditions, while providing upper-scale monitoring and scientific knowledge. However, based on qualitative and quantitative methods, I show that the water license system fixes water allocations in time, thereby precluding adaptive, flexible water distribution at the watershed scale—a much needed response to climate change. Furthermore, the way water allocations and corresponding licenses are determined does not respond to so-called technical estimates of water supply and demand. Instead, these studies are used to justify, depoliticize, and cement uneven water distribution at the watershed scale. The prioritization of economic growth via large-scale capitalist agriculture, at the expense of smallholding farmers’ long-term water security, lies at the root of the problem. These findings demonstrate the need to integrate political ecology perspectives in multi-level common-pool resource governance studies.