Yakukamay Public-communal alliances: A model for water management The experience of the CENAGRAP Yakukamay Index INDEX 3 © CENAGRAP, Protos-CEDIR Yakukamay - Municipality of Cañar. GLOSSARY 4 Public-communal alliance: A model for water management. The experience from the CENAGRAP. INTRODUCTION 5 Systematizing team CHAPTER 1 - THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COMMUNITY DRINKING WATER SYSTEMS IN LATIN AMERICA 7 Anne Coutteel Dennis García The urban-rural dynamic in Latin America 8 Mariela Robles The public policies 10 Helder Solis C María del Carmen Solíz The public services and their limitations 13 Facilitation L’émergence des systèmes communautaires 16 Dennis García CHAPTER 2 - COMMUNITY MANAGEMNET IN THE NEW CONSTITUTIONAL AND JURIDICAL Edition Dennis García FRAMEWORK IN ECUADOR 20 Helder Solis C Constitutional principles related to community management 23 Original version: Yakukamay - Alianza público-comunitaria: un modelo de gestión del agua. La experiencia The COOTAD and the communal water management 27 desde el CENAGRAP, 2011 Traduction française, 2013- Emilie Lama English version, translated and revised, 2018 - Miguel Abrego CHAPTER 3 - CHARACTERIZATION OF THE COMMUNAL MANAGEMENT 29 What are the communal systems and what are their strenghts 31 Photographs Anne Coutteel, Pablo Martines, Helder Solis C., Archives Protos, Archives Cenegrap Limitations of the community systems 37 Design concept 3 Carlos Collaguazo, Lut Mathys CHAPTER 4 - CENAGRAP: A PUBLIC-COMMUNAL ALLIANCE FOR THE RURAL DRINKING WATER SYSTEMS 41 Sponsorship Belgian Government CENAGRAP: conditions for its emergence 43 Reproduction is authorized if the source is cited. Third period: Center’s re-adjustment to the ordinance and new legal framework 51 This book should be dited as follows: Principles for the construction of a multi-stakeholder structure 55 © CENAGRAP, Protos-CEDIR , Yakukamay Municipality of Cañar. Consequences of the public-communal alliance in the rural drinking water systems of Cañar 58 Public-communal alliance: A model for water management. The experience from the CENAGRAP. CHAPTER 5 - LEARNING OUTCOMES AND CONCLUSIONS 67 Protos/Join For Water Flamingostraat 36 B-9000 Gent Belgium +32 (9) 235 25 10 [email protected] www.joinforwater.ngo yakukamay June 2019 “The right to a decent life, which assures health, Glossary Introduction food and nutrition, drinking water, housing, environmental sanitation… is recognized and will be ensured for all people.” Article 66, Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador ACORDES Acompañamiento Organizacional para el Desarrollo (Organizational Accompaniment for Ecuador’s constitution only recognizes two forms of water management: public and communal. Development) This is absolutely original as, until very recently, there was only talk about public and private ANEMAPA Asociación Nacional de Empresas Municipales de Agua Potable, Alcantarillado y Servicios Conexos (National Association of Municipal Potable Water and Sewer management, or the combination of those. Recognizing community systems legitimizes ways of Companies and Related Services) management that were ignored before, set aside, laid to rest. The Constitution even goes one step AO&M Administración, operación y mantenimiento (Administration, operation and maintenance) further stating that this kind of management should be supported and strengthened by the State BM Banco Mundial (World Bank). institutions through public-communal alliances. BID Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (Inter-American Development Bank). CARC Proyecto de Desarrollo Rural Integral “Cuenca Alta del Río Cañar” (Integrated Rural This recognition was possible because an evident reality cannot be hidden anymore: community systems Development Project “Cañar river watershed”). CEDIR Centro de Desarrollo e Investigación Rural (Center for Development and Rural Research). have made it possible to quench the thirst of the poorest rural and peri-urban populations, not only in CESA Central Ecuatoriana de Servicios Agrícolas (Ecuadorian Central for Agricultural Services). Ecuador but in all Latin America. In fact, there are more than 6 800 drinking water community systems in CENAGRAP Centro de Apoyo a la Gestión Rural del Agua Potable (Support Center for the Rural the country that serve more than 2.7 million low income people. This is equivalent to at least 20 % of the Management of Drinking Water). Ecuadorian population! A conservative estimation is that more than 40 million people are being served CEPAL Comisión Económica para América Latina (Economic Commission for Latin America). by these systems in Latin America. COOTAD Código Orgánico de Organización Territorial, Autonomía y Descentralización (Organic Code for Territorial Organization, Autonomy and Decentralization). 4 5 CREA Centro de Reconversión Económica del Austro (Economic Reconversion Center of What are the communal systems? How were they initiated? Which legal framework supports them? Austro) What are their weaknesses and strengths? How are they organized? Which principles govern them? EPS Entidades Prestadoras de Servicio (Service Provider Entities). GAMMA Grupo de Apoyo al Movimiento de Mujeres del Azuay (Support Group for the Azuay’s What happens with the public systems? Are the public-communal alliances feasible? How can they be Women Movement) promoted and strengthened? These are some of the questions that we tried to answer in the book you GADs Gobiernos Autónomos Descentralizados (Decentralized Autonomous Governments). are holding in your hands IEOS Instituto Ecuatoriano de Obras Sanitarias (Ecuadorian Institute for Sanitary Projects). INERHI Instituto Ecuatoriano de Recursos Hidráulicos (Ecuadorian Institute of Hydraulic Resources) One of the biggest challenges of these times is the recognition of diversity, which is an essential MIDUVI Ministerio de Urbanización y Vivienda (Ministry of Urbanization and Housing). part of the Good Living or Sumak Kawsay. We will see that the public and communal management OLPE Operadores Locales de Pequeña Escala (Local Operators of Small Scale). have weaknesses and strengths, but these are absolutely complementary. Without developing this SENAGUA Secretaría Nacional del Agua (National Water Secretariat). complementarity, it will take decades until the human right to drinking water and sanitation, as recognized by the United Nations on July 28 2010, becomes a reality. yakukamay yakukamay Why is it so important to know and debate on public-communal alliances at this moment, on what they are, on how they function and how they develop? The reasons are many: • these models for water management are mentioned in the Constitution, Organic Code for Territorial Organization, Autonomy and Decentralization (COOTAD, Spanish acronym) and the Water Resources legislative bill, even though they have not been developed and materialized • it is essential for the country to respond to the demands of traditionally neglected sectors, such as the rural area, with models of water management ensuring the human right to water and sanitation. • there are only few concrete examples of the model proposed in the Ecuadorian Constitution on public-communal alliances and thus the need to disseminate relevant experiences. chapter 1 Here, one of the first experiences of this kind in the country is presented: the Support Center for the Rural Management of Drinking Water (CENAGRAP) of the province of Cañar, created in 2002. This experience demonstrates that this model of public-communal alliance is possible and sustainable. For this reason, it becomes a fundamental point of reference and it will contribute significantly to the debate on new models for rural water management in the country and the region 6 7 The importance of the community “But how can I eat and drink drinking water When my food is snatched from the hungry systems in Latin And my glass of water belongs to the thirsty? America And yet I eat and drink.” Bertolt Brecht yakukamay yakukamay Chart 1: The urban-rural dynamic percentage of rural population in Ecuador per province, 2010 in Latin America 70 % 60 % 50 % In demographic terms, the current Latin America is The rural areas where poverty concentrated 40 % not the same as that of the 50s or 60s. At that time, historically, have expelled their population 30 % three out of four Latin Americans lived in the rural in search of better living conditions and job areas and just one out of four lived in the cities. opportunities to the cities. These unplanned and 20 % Nowadays the situation is exactly the opposite. extremely disorganized processes have multiplied 10 % the emergence of marginalization, and as a result, 0 % problems relating to the provision of basic services. Loja Napo Cañar Azuay El Oro Carchi Bolivar Guayas Pastaza Manabí Los Rios Orellana Nacional Cotopaxi Pichincha Imbabura Galapagos Sucumbios Esmeraldas Zamora Ch Zamora Tungurahua Migration has urbanized poverty, resulting in many Chimborazo issues: the problems of the rural areas remain Santiago Morona Source: INEC 2010, made by Dennis Garcia, 2011. the same, their solution is put on-hold and these problems get worse; those displaced to the cities and concentrated in peri-urban neighborhoods In Ecuador, 33.75 % of the population lives in the Even though 66.25 % of the population is exert great pressure to cover the needs for basic countryside2. However, this is a national average, concentrated in the cities of the country and services, above all water and sanitation; this new that does not allow to clearly see the scale and continue unstoppable the processes