In Peru, pre-Columbian canals offer hope against drought

In Peru, pre-Columbian canals offer hope against drought

HUAROCHIRI, Peru: In the mountains of western Peru, a farming community is restoring a network of stone canals built more than a millennium ago, hoping the pre-Columbian technology holds the solution to its water problems. Known locally as "amunas“, the water-retention system is thought to have been devised by ancient people who lived in what is now the Huarochiri province some 1,400 years ago, before even the Incas, to prolong the rainy season's bounty.

The canals that furrow the mountain slopes reroute runoff to patches of permeable soil or rock where the water seeps in, filters through and replenishes aquifers before emerging in springs downslope weeks or months later, in drier times. The practice is known as "sowing“ water, to be harvested later, after the rainy season, when it is needed to nourish people, crops and livestock.

"We are ranchers, farmers, and every drop of water“¦ helps our survival,“ said Roosevelt Calistro Lopez, 43, one of 900-odd inhabitants of rural San Pedro de Casta, some 80 km from Lima, and about 3,200 m above sea level. "The amunas are not new for us, but we are improving them. There are places where they had gone dry where there is water again,“ he