The Evolution of Water Property Regimes in North-Central Gran Canaria
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THE EVOLUTION OF WATER PROPERTY REGIMES IN NORTH-CENTRAL GRAN CANARIA By BRYAN THOMAS BYRNE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1996 Copyright 1996 by Bryan Thomas Byrne To the Canary Islanders — May your winters be rainy. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This moment has been a long time in coming so I’d like to pause and thank my family, friends, teachers, and colleagues who have labored so hard to help me get this far Of course, my first thanks must go to my loving mother and father, Nancy and William G Byrne. Not only did they keep my brother Richard and I safe, sound, and rambunctious, they surrounded us with fascinating objects and activities to turn passmg interests into life long passions. Once our interests began to emerge, they did everything they could to help us pursue them. I wish also to thank Therese Concaugh and the gang for being there and ready to help whenever possible. Janet and LeRoy Neiman have also played a large part in my life, perhaps more than they realize. Not only have they helped put me through school, they proved to me that it is possible to do virtually all the things you want to do in life — if you turn your passions into marketable skills, take risks, and keep your wits about you. My professors at Beloit College, Dan Shea, Larry Breitboard, and John Wyatt, solidified my interests in anthropology and forced me to rethink my own intellectual and personal approach to life. Since then a growing number of professors at the University of Florida have worked very hard to teach me many of the tools I need to become a competent anthropologist who may eventually contribute more than he consumes. I wish especially to express my gratitude to Marvin and Madeline Hams. They have always made sure that I had a place to live, food to eat, friends to IV meet, decent books to read, and opportunities to conduct research. Marvin has made every effort to teach me the basic tenets of scholarship, anthropology, and fieldwork Thinking through the many anthropological puzzles that have come our way over the past six years has been a pleasure. There were plenty of others who also shaped my outlook on anthropology and life I wish to thank Drs Anthony Oliver-Smith, Leslie Lieberman, Howard Odum, George Armelagos, William F Keegan, H. Russell Bernard, Murdo MacLeod, and Warren Viessman for their guidance, discipline, and encouragement Working with them all has made graduate school an exhilarating growing experience Their kindness, curiosity, and sense of responsibility make it impossible to be a cynic about human nature. I wish to thank Patricia Gaither, Karen Jones, Michelle Hicks, Fran Morton, and Lois Green for doing all they could to see that all of the bureaucratic obstacles were cleared away so we could spend a little time to joke around. And among all my friends m the US, I wish to especially thank Jeff and Shelly Compton, Manuel and Laura Melendez and family, Mike Gomez, Tracey and Jet Badger, the late Patricia Delgado, Steve Cato, Roger and Linda Hendricks, Mike Hajko, Nathalie Lebon, Diego Hay, Habba Musengeze, Jirimutu, Louie Forline, Karen Hjerpe, Janet Puhalla, Tom Abel, Kristen Jacobson, Susan Warshauer, Peter Cronkleton, John Nyberg, Keith Zang, Ricky and David Simmons, the Lenahan family, and the Beloit crowd for their friendship and support. They too have done what they could to house, feed, clothe, transport, and nurture me even when I was unsupportive and cranky. And then there are those m Spain. My growing fondness for Ubaldo Martinez and his family makes me miss Madrid. In addition, I wish to thank Dr. Karlisa Hartigan at the University of Florida and the staff of the Spanish Fuibnght committee. The committee adroitly cleared away obstacles and salt me to Brussels, Sevilla, Madrid, and back home — even though I infected three v of their student scholars with a flu virus that none of us may ever forget I am grateful to the Fulbnght staff in Brussels for a truly eye-opening introduction to the European Community. Not only did their program expose significant changes in world political, economic, and military relations, some of our discussions provided crucial insights into reforms in the Canary Island There are well over two hundred farmers, acequieros, scholars, laborers, store owners and keepers, taxi and bus drivers, business professionals, public officials, and friends on Gran Canaria whom I will thank personally. I wish to single out just a few people now I am deeply grateful to Francesco Salomone Suarez and his family Francesco attended UF and his family adopted me as a wayward son who could always return home to work or rest m Tenerife. I miss them very much and hope to see them soon. The Bermudez, Ortega, and Arrencibia families were also very kind and made sure that my lodgings in Las Palmas, Arucas, and Valleseco were as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Jose Jimenez Gonzalez for his support during my research expeditions in 1990 and 1994-1995. I am happy to thank Angel Garda Gris and his wife Sonya for their help and friendship In a sense, Angel and I spent a year together learning about the water management system on Gran Canaria I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge some of the organizations which facilitated this research: the municipal governments of Valleseco, Firgas, Teror, Arucas, Las Palmas, and Guia; the Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria, the Mimstenos de Politica Territorial, Consejeria de Agricultura y Alimentacion, the Federacion Provincial de Asociaciones de Exportadores de Productos Hortofructiolas de las Palmas; the Servicio Hidraulico; Consjeo Insular de Aguas, Consortio Insular de Aprovechamiento de Aguas Depuradas de Gran Canaria, Mancomunidad del Sureste, Asociacion de Joven Agncultores, La Caja de Cananas, Aguas de vi Firgas, Heredad de Arucas y Firgas, Heredad del Pmillo y de la Pila, Comumdad de Regantes La Quintanilla, Comunidad de Regantes Huerta de los Pinos, Comumdad de Regantes de Tafira, Comumdad de Usanos de Casablanca, Comunidad de Regantes las Hoyas; Comumdades de Sub- Acequias Casablanca, El Aha, San Juan, and Cardones, HEMORATO; Emalsa, the Departments of Anthropology, Cartography, Civil Engineering, Economics, History, Hydrology, Geography, Law, and Sociology at the Universities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and La Laguna, the Museo Canano and the Museo Arqueologico y Etnografico, IMACO; 1STAC, Cadagua, Tedagua, Ionics; IRYDA, El Libro Tecmco, Black and Veatch, and CIES Lastly, I wish to thank the Tinker Foundation, Fulbnght, the National Science Foundation (Grant # SRB-93 1 1 305), and the University of Florida for their financial and institutional support. Vll TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABSTRACT xi CHAPTER ONE: A GENERAL MODEL OF THE EVOLUTION OF WATER PROPERTY REGIMES IN THE CANARY ISLANDS 1 Property Regimes 3 Previous Research about Canary Islands Water Management 11 Field Research On Gran Canaria 12 Location 13 Interviewing 17 Archival Sources : 19 Data Analysis 19 Outline 20 CHAPTER TWO THE AGRO-ECOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF GRAN CANARIAN SOCIETY (T483-1930s) 23 The Expansion of the Spanish State into the Canary Islands 24 Ecological Conditions 27 Agro-Ecological Foundations of the Insular Economy 35 Irrigation Techniques 36 The Sugar Industry 37 The Insular Markets 39 Colonial Class Structure -*3 Summary 46 CHAPTER THREE: THE EVOLUTION OF WATER PROPERTY REGIMES DURING THE ERA OF SURFACE WATER 48 The Formation of the Colonial Water Property Regimes 48 Heredades 51 Ordenanzas de Melgarejo 56 Surveys of Heredades, Heredamientos, and Herederos in North Central Gran Canana 57 Evolution of the Heredades The Heredad de Arucas y Firgas Acquisition of Land, Water, and Technology The Acequias viii. Water Measurement 75 With Water, Two Plus Two Do Not Equal Four 7 g The Dula 79 The Emergence of a Water Market 81 Distribution of Property and Institutional Structure 81 The Heredad de Tenoya and the Creation of Heredades in Teror and Valleseco 86 The C reation of the Ayuntamientos 91 The Dependence of the Ayuntamientos on the Heredades 91 Comunidades de Regantes and the Construction of Reservoirs 93 Summary qg CHAPTER FOUR: GROUNDWATER MINING 101 Groundwater Mining Technology 102 The Demand for Labor in the Mining Industry 106 Insular Water Production Trends 108 Production Costs HI From Surface to Groundwater 113 Comunidades de Aguas 117 The Distribution of Water Property in the North Central Region 120 The Conflict Between Incompatible Property Regimes 120 Droughts Before the Storm 128 Intensification of Groundwater Mining 133 Requiem for the Heredades 136 The Water Law of 1956 136 Summary 138 CHAPTER FIVE: WATER DISTRIBUTION DURING THE GROUNDWATER ERA 143 The Creation of A New Distribution Network 143 The Distribution System 146 Sub-Acequias in the Age of Groundwater 149 Distributing Water 150 The Water Market in Arucas 151 The Effect of Water Quality on the Water Market 154 How Vendors Cheat Water Owners 155 How to Steal Water 156 Do Not Call Your Vendor or Acequiero a Thief 158 Estimating the Effects of Conveyance Loss and Theft 160 Summary 162 CHAPTER SIX: THE SOCIOECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF AQUIFER OVERDRAFT, TOURISM, AND URBANIZATION UNDER THE PRIVATE REGIME 163 The Transformation of Agriculture and Herding 163 Water People. Not Crops 172 The Transformation of the Labor Force 173 Changing Demographic Patterns 175 Public Investments in Water Services 178 IX The Ayuntamientos