PERU: DEVELOPMENT PROJECT AT CACHI
RIVER DOES NOT RESPECT OUR LIFE
The "Special Project River Cachi" in Peru, is an irrigation
project financed with loans from the Italian Government. It
consists of branching the waters from the river Chikilarazo or
Cachi through lined canals and includes a dam with a storing
capacity of up to 60,000,000 cubic meters. These are being built
to supply some 18,000 hectares of lands belonging to communities
from around the capital of the department Ayacucho/Huamanga. It
is also being built for hydroelectric purposes.
We have no doubts that these are aspirations of the people of
Ayacucho since many years and that many times this was a key
electoral platform for those aspiring to the presidency of the
republic. For example it helped Alan Garcia occupy the presidency
in l985. For the beneficiaries in Ayacucho, this dream is almost
a reality because the work of lining the canals is progressing
and the tunnel is almost finished.
However, for the people of Quispillacta (especially for those of
the districts of Cuchuquesera and Pampamarca) it is no joy to see
this project progressing and being finished, rather it is an
occasion for sorrow and worry. With the progress of the project
despair rises over the loss of a great part of the fields and
pastures.
Due to our bad luck we are located in the hydrographic basin of
the river Chikilarazo. We are considered as the head of the
"Project Cachi". There are 20 kilometers of canal which go
through our community, affecting the communal and family fields
from five settlements: Union Potrero, Puncupata, Catalinayoc,
Pampamarca and Cuchuquesera. The project will affect even more
because the dam will be located in Pinasca and Chalabamba from
the settlements of Cuchuquesera and Pampamarca.
This irrigation work affects directly five districts of the
community of Quispillacta and we are hurt by the following
aspects:
1. The transversal size of the canal in all its length is 5
meters wide and 5 meters deep for a length of 20 kilometers. This
means that it takes up a total of 10 hectares of land and that is
only measuring the area of the canal itself. In addition the
excavating and carting of earth and other materials affects an
average of an additional 10 meters of the platform of the canal,
which means that for the whole length of the canal some 280
hectares of lands are affected, divided between cultivated fields
and pasture lands.
2. In the district of Union Potrero the destruction where the
canal passes has played havoc. It is a portion of 8 kilometers of
covered canal which passes through a gorge and through the head
of the woodlands of Chaliwachayuq. In this case the forests were
destroyed because of the carting of rocky materials and land
slides caused by dynamiting to make the tunnel.
There is more: in a portion of the canal the forest has been
buried with the rocks coming from the tunnel which is situated
100 meters away. In this case it is due to the negligence and
lack of criteria on the part of those responsible for the work,
because these rocks could have been easily transported to low
lands or other places; but no, for them it was easier to
transport the rocks to the gorge and from there throw tons and
tons of earth and rocks so that they buried almost two hectares
of forest.
There is approximately a total of 150 hectares of forests that
have been destroyed only in this part of the canal. The forests
of ~Challwachayuq represented for us the only area from which we
could get fire wood as well as wood for our agricultural
implements. This forest supplied more than 7 neighboring
communities. This was a reserved zone for harvesting only what
was strictly necessary for our subsistence. Around the 1970's
this forest became the zone where the greatest number of
neighbors came to gather fire wood and construction wood; however
seeing the danger of a diminution to the forest, in those years
the people of Union Potrero decided to nurture the forest and to
regulate the felling of trees (without any intervention from any
institution).
In a General Assembly we resolved to take care of the forest and
enclose it so that animals could not enter it, we regulated the
felling of trees, and we even agreed upon sanctions for those who
destroyed the forest. We even regulated the use of the forest by
the neighboring communities. To conserve and nurture the forest,
to recuperate the height and growth of the trees we worked
communally fencing the endangered areas and pruning the branches
of all the trees. This activity of pruning or raymi used to be
done annually during the period of making enclosures. So that
security might be more effective, the pasturing of animals in
these zones were regulated since that time (temporarily,) and we
additionally prohibited the raising of goats because it is the
animal that most devours the forest. This is the way we nurtured
the forest of Challwachayuq so that now it could be easily
destroyed by the special project of the river Cachi, with the
building of its canals and opening of tunnels.
The trees of the forest belong to more than 20 species, among
which the most prominent are: chachas, tasta, tuqaruway, larita,
ayrampu, chiqchi, etc. And there are more than 50 species of
shrubs which fully fill the forest floor; among the most
prominent are: chilka, mamantirka, malvintu, yanaywarmi, muna,
mutuy, achupa, remilla, nununway, taya, etc. In addition,
afterwards we complemented this work with the planting of 20,000
eucalyptuses in dispersed areas of the forest.
3. Also in Union Potrero, the installation of encampments from
two building companies (COSAPE, J.J.) has a lot to do with the
depredation of meadows and with ecological imbalances caused by
the residues of gasoline, the covering of floors in houses, the
stone paving of the areas occupied by these enterprises; they
have left a sort of desertified zone in the greater part of the
pasture lands of the district. NOW that the enterprises are
gone, they have left behind a trash that is not recyclable. In
addition, the construction workers from outside, numbering between
800 and 1000, have completely disarticulated the whole of our way
of life. These persons have inflicted much damage, they have
stolen from the cultivated fields, they have slashed and burned
the forest and because they come from a society of conflict (the
city) they maltreat us culturally, act in a contemptuous fashion
and consume a great deal of alcoholic beverages.
We have never complained about this maltreatment because our
region has passed through times of political and military tension
and we are easily accused of being terrorists (Shining Path)
when we opposed these attitudes and these destructions. We have
allowed ourselves to be maltreated up to what was possible.
4. The passage of the platform of the canal does not only affect
the common pasture lands and the forests, but also the cultivated
fields of families and the houses of the commoners. For example
in Union Potrero the house of Dona Justina Ccallocunto who is a
widow, was completely destroyed and for that reason she had to
leave the community and now resides in Lima.
The cultivated fields of don Gloriano Mendieta were buried by
the rocks and earth excavated and in order to support his family
he now has opened a small store which is not his mode of living.
5. The greatest impact on the community will be the dam which
will be located in the places called Pinaquchapampa and
Ghalabamba, in the jurisdiction of the districts of Guchuquesera
and Pampamarca, respectively. These are the only places to
pasture the communal, district and family cattle, the only places
where permanent pastures are available all year round. And the
slopes of Pinaquchapampa and Chalabamba are agricultural areas
dedicated to the cultivation of various species. The average
altitude of these places is 3,800 meters above sea level where
there are frequent frosts and agriculture can be done only on
slopes.
The area of communal pastures affected are approximately 800
hectares which will mean in the future serious upheavals in the
organic life of the community:
-Diminution of optimal pasture lands.
-Displacement towards eroded and rocky zones.
-Deterioration of the raising of animals due to the high
mortality and loss of weight by the animals in dry pastures.
-Diminution of the number of animals per families and lowered
productivity of the land.
-Lowering of economic earnings for each family since animals
constituted the "savings of the family" and due to this there
will be more school dropouts.
Additionally, a disequilibrium will be generated due to the
damming of the spring called Pinaqucha which has an enormous
religious importance in Quispillacta. Pinaqucha is a spring from
which emerge subterranean waters which in the Quispillactan view
bestow fertility on the communal and familial cattle. With this
the symbiotic life of the collectives will be disarticulated
and separated.
In terms of the human community, poverty and hunger will be
increased and a massive migration of the affected commoners
toward the city will take place, increasing there the rings of
misery. One can already see examples of this: the family of Don
Gioriano Mendieta working in a small store and dona Justina
Ccalliocunto has migrated to the city of Lima, among others. This
disarticulation of the communal organization weakens once more
the ethnic reintegration in the Andes
The decrease of the pasture lands for the cattle of the mother
community (Quispillacta) necessarily implies the quantitative
diminution of animals and with that the capacity for
autosubsistence of the whole community and all communal works get
weakened. On the other hand a major implication will be the
severe decrease in the products from communal cattle raising
redistributed among the commoners. It is an annual practice that
some of the communal cattle is taken for newly formed families,
for families that are experiencing economic difficulties and for
families that have suffered some disasters or a death of their
member. For example during this year (September 93 to September
94), Pinaccochapampa in the sector that corresponds to the
community and during the whole year maintains a total of 32 cows
(B. Suiz) and 115 sheep (r. Junin and correidale) from which are
taken as charity: 1 cow for a needy family and 17 sheep for other
families, and for the expenses of the community leaders a total
of 3 sheep were sold.
This project also signifies the reduction of the space for
communal Pasture lands.
In two evaluations of the impact of this project, one made by the
Minister of Agriculture and the other by the College of
Engineers, they only recognize the following extension and
impact:
Affected and Evaluated Areas Impact
53,9395Has Path of the Canal s/ 24,749.12
399,0000Has In the impounded water s/ 135,759.54
1,370Has Of Eucalyptuss/5,500.00
1,750Has Of Natural Forestss/2,265.00
________________________________________________________________
454,6895Has and 1,370 of eucalyptus s/168,682.66
Although the evaluation is very adjusted, what is of concern to
the people of Quispillacta, especially those from Cuchuquesera,
is to continue to survive but without giving up Pinaccohapampa
because she protects the living (both ritual and everyday) of
each one of the commoners.
If we take into account the indissoluble relationship between the
people of Quispillacta and the affected lands this project has an
enormous social cost, because it is completely inadmissible and
sad to separate these people from something that for them signify
part of their very existence, namely the land and its various
components.
The worry of the commoners is where to go when these areas will
become lakes. Changing lands within the community is impossible
because they are extremely scarce for the 5000 inhabitants that
now live in Quispillacta.
Additionally, the affected lands received a great deal of work
which in economic terms would have an extremely high monetary
cost. But money is not central for the people of Quispillacta,
rather it is land where they have lived all their lives with
their animals, with their Ayllu (human and non-human relatives),
helping each other reciprocally, improving their fields, their
fences, their houses, planting trees in their yards, raising
animals, cultivating. In sum, these lands signify the daily work
that makes life flourish, the life of all the collectivities
(human, natural, and the sacred beings).
Pinaquchapampa and Chalabamba are lands that were acquired with
sacrifices and money from our ancestors in Quispillacta in the
year 1942 for the value of 6,000 gold soles, which in those days
were bought from the hacendado (large landowner) Luis Humberto
Basallo; in order to do this they sold cows and bulls by the
hundreds. They say that the bulls and cows together were as many
as the cattle that weekly come to the regional fair of San Juan
Bautista (approximately 500 bulls). we have documents of the sale
and purchase.
As we can see, the affected lands were not appropriated either by
the agrarian reform or any other process of gift. It is already
many decades that the people of Quispillacta live in those lands.
For those who look in from the outside it seems apparently very
easy to resolve these worries through the internal reallocation
of communal lands. However, the nurturing of a new cultivated
field (chacra), of a forest, the construction of a house, etc. is
not a domestic task easily carried out; it is rather a lengthy
process of understanding, of getting used to, of dialogue with
the various components of the chacra: The Pachamama (the earth
mother) which can never be replaced.
6. The land is life.
After this evaluation, the PERC consulted the community
(10/27/94) with only two clearcut proposals: (1) relocation of
lands with the amount calculated in Chavimochic (Trujillo in the
North West coast of Peru) with appropriation of Pinaccocha and
Chalabamba and its later auction and (2) execution of works
equivalent to the amount in the evaluation which also includes
the administration of the artificial lake (fish-farming) by the
community.
However, the community at a General Assembly (l0/15/94) ratified
its demand to he relocated in neighboring lands (the woodlands
around Ayacucho, Acocro, Huanta, Huancayo, etc.) but without
losing the artificial lake (fish-farming) and other works which
the project would make in the community, because the amount,
although it might be a treasure, is not equivalent to the real
costs of the effects of the projects.
As was to be expected, the PERC proposes these two alternatives
with the sole purpose of not wanting to listen to the demands of
the community; its main desire is to disorganize and liquidate the
organic life of the community, sending its members to unknown
places. The worst whim of the Executive Director is to transform
our subsistence farmers into agribusinessmen.
For these reasons, the community is not interested in receiving
the allotted money even though it might be an enormous sum; it
would rather lose it all in exchange for keeping Pinaccochapampa
and Chalabamba.
With such a negative dialogue all dealings with PERC have been
broken; the commoners are scared because the project everyday
comes intimidating them with expropriation, which will in the
future cause resentments on the part not only of the human
community and the sacred being (Pinaccocha), migration to the
city and the abandonment of the "poor" families due to the
disappearance of the redistribution of the products from the
communal cattle.
In the name of development and the progress of the city and of
industry they will leave us diminished and despoiled of our
lands. Consequently what we want and what we demand is that they
quickly return to us our lands and our forests.
It must remain clear that we are not against the project nor
against the benefits that it might bring to society. What we want
is that the affected lands be returned to us in the form of
equivalent lands in our neighborhood. We have already lost a
great part of our livelihood and what we will do from now on is
to rebuild our life of always and for that we need that they
RETURN OUR LANDS! and THAT THEY GIVE OUR LIFE BACK TO US!
Association Bartolome Aripaylla, Ayacucho, October 1994.
Translator: Frederique Apffel-Marglin
Smith College, Amherst, MA
Published in Spanish in "Terre des Hommes Circular" No. 5,
January 1995:3-8
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