Acequias are a defining feature in water management in the southwest region of the US in the states of New Mexico and Colorado and are an excellent model for adapability. These gravity flow irrigation canals branching off of precious rivers have shaped the region’s communities as much as the landscape for centuries. The geographical region where acequias are prevalent has a rich history of changing ruling hands and adaption, while combining customs and traditions. The water allotment and preservation practices that are commonplace with acequias, which are most often traced back to Spanish settlers, who upon arriving to the territory in the 1600’s realized that in order for civilization to sustain itself, an irrigation system would be needed. During this time of early colonial settlement, indigenous native communities were already employing their own type of irrigation practices (Arellano, 2014). The Spanish settlers combined the Iberian and middle eastern irrigation systems used in Spain with local technologies already in practice by Pueblo people (Rivera, 1998). This adaptation of several water management systems would transform the landscape so that settlement by the Spanish was possible, employing what was known as gravity driven irrigation by way of earthen canals or acequias (Glick, 1970). In this type of arid landscape where scarcity of water was an issue, the development of ways to effectively allocate water for community access was crucial to the colonial settlement. Acequias have served for hundreds of years as an integral role in connecting networks of canals, heavily used for irrigation of agricultural communities, also serving a vital role in developing a social institution. The cultural development of the area is tied to acequias and their governance, as much as it is to the people that inhabited the region. Acequias developed from this very structure of community-lead organizing. Water sharing governance by way of an acequia organization and traditional acequia culture is an effective and preferred method of managing water in rural agricultural communities, whether water rights have been adjudicated or not, acequias still run today with community-lead organizing which in turn upholds the culture tied to acequias. These long-standing water governance structures face a number of threats spanning across social, economic, environmental, legal, governance scopes, and cultural risks. Natural uncertainties in arid landscapes such as drought are being compounded with the effects of climate change. Often tied to these risks are arguments in the environmental activism arena that the practices of flood irrigation most closely associated with acequia use are wasteful of a disappearing precious resource. A notion that has been disproved yet persists in being spread through mis-education and misinformation in discussions surrounding acequia practices and traditions. Water rights are subject to different treatments depending on locale, water laws are in a state of constant interpretation and duress. The largest insecurity acequias face may be a lack of cultural participation in some communities. When acequias that have developed for hundreds of years on the principle culture of community-lead governance loses its participants, or parciantes, the structure of the system can collapse. Adaption to threads need to come in many forms.
Large acequia associations in northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado provide a number of services to combat threats to the survival of the common pool resources provided by traditional acequia systems. The most important service being the continuation of culture through ritual, mutual aid, support services, and regular meetings for participation in community-lead governance. These acequia associations are invaluable to the livelihood of the acequia systems in their regions, and the very source for resilience of these long-standing systems in the face of vulnerabilities. The organization of governance championed by these associations are a means for the robust support of the preservation of acequia culture and custom. Participation in other adaptive methods is also of extreme importance. Through the traditional governance and associations adopting alternative river and acequia management methods, cultural preservation of acequias can remain. References Arellano, Juan Estevan. Enduring Acequias : Wisdom of the Land, Knowledge of the Water. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2014., 2014. Querencias series. Glick, Thomas F. Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1970., 1970. Rivera, José A. “A Brief Acequia History.” Green Fire Times, Jan. 2014, greenfiretimes.com/2014/01/a-brief-acequia-history/. Rivera, José A. Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998., 1998. Rivera, J.A. (1996). Irrigation communities of the Upper Rio Grande bioregion: sustainable resource use in the global context. Natural Resources Journal. 36:491−520 Rodríguez, Sylvia. Acequia : Water-Sharing, Sanctity, and Place. Santa Fe, N.M.: School for Advanced Research Press, 2006., 2006.