Yaku Raymi: The Quechua Ritual to save a glacier
SANTA FE, Peru - What happens when a glacier dies? In the community of Santa Fe, in Peru, water is disappearing, animals are dying due to a lack of pasture and rainfall has become sporadic. The community members know that climate change is affecting the apu, or mountain god, but they say that transforming a Quechua ritual will help them protect it and restore the snow.
Since 2004, the people of Santa Fe have implemented an ancestral system to cope with water scarcity: the qochas. These are artificial lagoons built to store rainwater during the wet season, which is later used during droughts. They are also complemented by infiltration ditches, rotational grazing and reforestation. The use of qochas has allowed Santa Fe to have 41 reservoirs that store 2.9 million cubic meters (102.4 million cubic feet) of water, three times more than before.
Tulia GarcÃa, from the Agricultural Development Center (CEDAP), which promotes this technique, explains that the qochas are built with dams and valves to distribute the water to pastures. Thanks to this system, Santa Fe has improved its storage capacity, benefiting the local population as well as surrounding areas. One of the first reservoirs, Guitarrachayocc, went from storing 30,000 m3 (about 1 million ft3) to 90,000 m3 (3.2 million ft3) of water. However, water scarcity remains a problem. The droughts have forced community members to open the dams earlier than expected, affecting the feeding of alpacas. In 2022, the drought was so severe that many alpacas died due to lack of water.
In 2016, The Ministry of Environment awarded CEDAP's initiative with the Antonio Brack Egg Award. Additionally, the government has supported the construction of qochas through the Unit for the Execution of the Sierra Azul Fund. However, more remote communities like Santa Fe still lack adequate support due to the lack of infrastructure.
Although qochas are useful, experts warn that they should be complemented with other measures like infiltration ditches and reforestation to face climate change. The experience of Santa Fe shows how ancestral practices, combined with new strategies, can help face the challenges of climate change.