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Water Management

The Water Forever Project: Mitigating against Pollution


Lake Winoyo, Peru, now safe to drinkIn 1999 Vicos initiated The Water Forever Project (Agua Para Siempre), a low cost mitigation project designed to reduce pollution caused by years of mining and high intesity agriculture practices. Water Forever is a partnership between Vicos and two Non-Governmental Organizations that work in fragile mountain environments: The Mountain Institute (TMI), and Urpichallay. Diverse sectors are involved in Water Forever, including peasants, miners, universities, national and international agencies. New technologies have been developed through the interactions between these local and external systems of knowledge. The cost of the quality testing is low: 97 cents for each sampling.

Pollution from High Intensity Agriculture

We now know that there have been costs to the environment and to human health from the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides required in high-intensity agriculture of the Green Revolution. In "The Greening of the Green Revolution," David Tilman states that it is unclear whether high-intensity agriculture can be sustained because of the loss of soil fertility, the erosion of soil, the increased incidence of crop and livestock diseases, and the high energy and chemical inputs associated with it. One half to two-thirds of the nitrogen applied to fields enters terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems these ecosystems. Tilman and his colleagues estimate that it would take 200 years of natural succession whereby fields are left abandoned and invaded by successive populations of native vegetation for fields to recover pre-agricultural carbon and nitrogen levels.

It appears that these chemicals in combination with nitrogen commonly found in groundwater may have a broad range of effects on the immune, endocrine and nervous systems. (See Jaeger and Carleson below). Moreover, at key stages, these interactions impact genetic and brain development. According to Kaplan and Morris, the increased prevalence of these neurotoxins in US water is linked with increases in neurological disorders in American children. The authors link the toxins with the statistic, for example, that in California, reported cases of autism rose 210% between 1987 and 1998. The authors also note that in New York State, the number of children with learning disabilities rose 55% between 1983 and 1996.

Sources Include: Jaeger and Carleson and Kaplan and Morris

Santiago prepares water sample kit Santiago Reyes is responsible for training and leading other community members to monitor and reduce pollution from eleven mining sites in the lakes of Quebrada Honda. Only three small mines remain active because they have been "grandfathered" into the law that prohibits mining in the buffer zone of the Huascarán National Park. The remaining mines must meet standards set by the elected council of Vicos to continue operations and one of the conditions is that they participate in the monitoring and improvement of the water source from the glacial field above Vicos. Lake Garrosa, which is located above Winoyo, is polluted with lead, arsenic, silver and other metals from centuries of mining. However, their efforts are reducing the pollutants to a level safe for human and animal consumption as the water travels to Vicos below.

Filtering Mining Sludge from Lake Garrosa