Irrigation in an urbanizing area A case study on the water users’ viewpoints and practices in Córdoba, Argentina MSc. Thesis Jurrian Wilmink December 2014 Water Resources Management group The top cover page picture shows the skyline of Córdoba (Wikipedia 2014), the other cover page pictures were made by me during my fieldwork, going clockwise: the first picture is one of the naves in Mercado de Abasto, the second is a Bolivian farmer who cleanses his harvest, the third is a plot with zapallito plants, the last is an irrigation canal in Colonia Caroya Irrigation in an urbanizing area A case study on the water users’ viewpoints and practices in Córdoba, Argentina Master thesis Water Resources Management submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Science in International Land and Water Management at Wageningen University, the Netherlands Jurrian WIlmink December 2014 Supervisor: Dr.ir. M.Z. Zwarteveen Drs. H.E. Claringbould Water Resources Management group Corepage Wageningen University www.corepage.nl The Netherlands www.wageningenur.nl/wrm Local Supervisor: Prof.dr.ir. S.M. Reyna Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales Universidad Nacional de Córdoba www.efn.uncor.edu ABSTRACT The horticultural irrigation system Cinturón Verde has shrunk with almost 70 % in area since its design, 25 years ago. The main reason for this is water shortage due to an increased water use of the growing city Córdoba. The cultivated crops can’t grow in this climate without the addition of irrigation water. To provide the water users with extra water, a plan was made to use the effluent from Córdoba’s central treatment plant, Bajo Grande, as an extra source of irrigation water for Cinturón Verde Norte. This research analysed the different water users in Cinturón Verde Norte and sought to predict what consequences the (not) pursuing of this plan has for these water users. The water users were categorized in groups, using the axes of gender, ethnicity and work hierarchy. With a literature study and interviews, information was gathered about the appreciation, use and access of users’ current sources of water. This information was combined with the water users’ viewpoint on treated wastewater from Bajo Grande. Together, this information was used to make a prediction on how the future would look like, when the effluent of Bajo Grande will be connected to Cinturón Verde Norte or not. The majority of the interviewed water users were using the diminishing source of river water from the Suquía River. A minority was using groundwater, which is mostly too expensive for the smallholder farmers in this irrigation system. None of the interviewed water users stated to use the irrigation water for other purposes than irrigation, the literature study, however, showed otherwise. A definite answer in this is significant for estimating the importance of a high quality of water. Treated wastewater was, on average, perceived slightly negative by the interviewed water users. Women seemed to appreciate treated wastewater less than men. Furthermore, water users had a strong preference of a private run wastewater treatment plant, over one that is run by a governmental body. In this research, a contestation was found on the daily reality of the water users in Cinturón Verde Norte. On the one hand, immigrant water users are equal in rights to Argentinean water users. On the other hand, a marginal group of especially Bolivian immigrants is exploited as a cheap workforce for producers to be able to compete at the market. The conclusions about prosecuting the plan and the contestation about immigrant water users were charted to create four scenarios. Both scenarios on not using treated wastewater didn’t lead to a sustainable future for Cinturón Verde Norte, due to water shortage. In the case of using treated wastewater, when divergence between the water user groups is sought after, the food production would probably increase the most, but at the cost of the quality of life of many of the Bolivian water users. When alignment between these groups is aimed for, food production will probably still increase, but slower. This scenario would most likely have the best outcome for all of the water user groups regarded in this research. Keywords: case study, irrigation, water shortage, analysis, water user groups, user-functions, treated wastewater, Bajo Grande, water users’ viewpoints, appreciation, use, access, contestation, gender, ethnicity, work hierarchy, immigrants, Bolivian immigrants, peri-urban, Cinturón Verde Norte, Cinturón Verde, Córdoba, Argentina. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I want to thank dr. Margreet Zwarteveen, it would not have been possible to end up with this thesis without her support and guidance. She gave me crucial help on how to perform and write a social research. I also want to thank her for the growth and new insights she gave me during this process, I learned a great deal from this thesis. I want to thank dr. Santiago Reyna for his guidance and making it possible to stay in Córdoba: from the point of arriving there up to the point of leaving Argentina, I had all the help I needed to perform the fieldwork for this research. I want to thank Heleen Claringbould for her guidance in the Netherlands as well as in Argentina, and want to thank her for involving me with the COROADO project. I furthermore want to thank Miguel Royan for helping me with my accommodation and fieldwork, I want to thank María José Sedda for her help with my fieldwork and the help she gave me with my limitations in the Spanish language. I want to thank Cecilia Irazuzta for helping me with my fieldwork and the appointments and transport she could arrange during the process. I want to thank Anja Lienert for her advice, time and moral support during this process. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction: the finite source of water 1 2. Research Objectives 3 3. Concepts and Theories 5 3.1. Case study approach and triangulation 5 3.2. Water users, User-functions and Axes of differentiation 6 3.3. Appreciation, Use and Access 7 3.4. Social reality, Contestation 8 4. Research Background 9 4.1. Water Availability 9 4.2. Horticulture 15 4.3. Demography 19 5. Research approaches 20 5.1. September, arriving in Argentina 20 5.2. November, performing Field Work 20 5.3. January, the last weeks in Argentina 22 5.4. Reflection 23 6. Results 24 6.1. Analysis of the water user groups in Cinturón Verde Norte 24 6.2. Viewpoints towards, and practices with, current water supply 28 6.3. The appreciation of treated wastewater from Bajo Grande 30 6.4. Contestation on the daily reality in CVN 31 7. Discussion 33 7.1. An analysis of Cinturón Verde Norte 33 7.1. An analysis of Cinturón Verde Norte 33 7.2. The future of Cinturón Verde Norte 35 7.3. Conclusions 38 Bibliography 39 Appendix A 1 Tables and figures A 2 Questionnaire of the market survey C iii TABLE OF FIGURES FIGURE 1: VISUALISATION OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 3 FIGURE 2: MAP OF ARGENTINA WITH CLIMATE ZONES. 9 FIGURE 3: MAP OF THE RIVERS OF THE PROVINCE CÓRDOBA. 10 FIGURE 4: LAND USE MAP OF THE SUQUÍA BASIN. 11 FIGURE 5: PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL FRESHWATER CONSUMPTION PER SECTOR IN THE SUQUÍA BASIN. 12 FIGURE 6: THE SUQUÍA RIVER UPSTREAM OF CÓRDOBA. 13 FIGURE 7: MAP OF THE CINTURÓN VERDE OF CÓRDOBA. 16 FIGURE 8: AERIAL VIEW OF MERCADO DE ABASTO. 18 FIGURE 9: ARGENTINA’S AND CÓRDOBA’S IMMIGRANTS BY COUNTRY OF BIRTH. 19 FIGURE 10: FOUR FUTURE SCENARIO'S FOR CINTURÓN VERDE NORTE. 36 FIGURE 11: MAJOR LAND USES IN THE SUQUÍA BASIN. A FIGURE 12: DIVISION OF POTABLE WATER IN THE CITY CÓRDOBA. B FIGURE 13: FORMER SITUATION OF CÓRDOBA'S CINTURÓN VERDE. B TABLE OF TABLES TABLE 1: OVERVIEW OF THE MULTIPLE TRIANGULATION, USED IN THIS RESEARCH. 6 TABLE 2: PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL AMMOUNT OF BOLIVIAN IMMIGRANTS IN ARGENTINA, PER PROVINCE 26 TABLE 3: TYPES OF AGRICULTURAL JOBS IN CINTURÓN VERDE NORTE 27 TABLE 4: THE APPRECIATION OF CURRENT WATER QUALITY AND QUANTITY 29 TABLE 5: RESULTS FROM MERCADO DE ABASTO 31 TABLE 6: A COMPARISON OF THE FOUR SCENARIOS 37 TABLE 7: MOST COMMON CROPS CULTIVATED IN THE SUQUÍA BASIN A TABLE OF BOXES BOX 1: LA VOZ ON THE SHORTAGE OF WATER IN CINTURÓN VERDE NORTE 13 BOX 2: LA VOZ ON THE PROBLEMS OF LOCAL CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION 17 iv 1. INTRODUCTION: THE FINITE SOURCE OF WATER Since the dawn of irrigated agriculture, mankind progressively started growing crops under different environmental circumstances while opposing different threats, cultivating under the burden of floods, droughts, salinity, barrenness, frostbite, diseases and pests. Over the centuries, the world population started to grow and its density increased, especially close to available water sources; wherein competition between human water users themselves started to grow in importance. During this process, seemingly infinite and trusty resources like lush rivers and lavish groundwater reserves, didn’t turn out to be that abundant after all and water users needed to compromise for their needs. Besides, global warming is expected to increase the amount of droughts especially in dry areas, cumulating to the already existing pressure on available water sources (IPCC 2014). The global population nowadays counts over 7 billion people and is still growing, in 2050 it is assumed to be up to 9 billion people (UN 2004). The amount of people living in cities will even increase with a higher percentage: in 1990 around 40 % of the people consisted out of city dwellers, this increased to 50 % in 2010 and will be around 70 % in 2050 (WHO 2013).