2023-06-22 12:07:50
Conicet researcher Kevin Lane, leader of the rehabilitation project of the pre-Hispanic Ricococha Alta dam, in the Cordillera Negra in Peru, which has already begun to provide water to communities in the area, assured Télam today that “the conception of hydraulic technology and of the dams in the past it was much more comprehensive» and maintained that this work could be the initial kick for others of equal magnitude.
«The conception of hydraulic technology and dams in the past was much more comprehensive; The dams were above what would be the entire system, but there were other technologies such as terraces, amunas and irrigation channels that helped spread the water that came out of the lagoons».
Lane pointed to Telam.
And he added: “In other words, the communities had a much closer relationship with water than they have today. On the other hand, today the coast has a much higher population rate than it was in the past, so they are always demanding water resources and they have to come looking for that in the mountains”.
In this context, Lane – who is a Conicet researcher at the Institute of Cultures (Idecu, Conicet-UBA) – argued that currently any type of hydraulic project, be it cement or this type of rehabilitation, “always has a lot of pressure of the coast by the water that
It’s coming from above.”
In this sense, he warned that “the most natural relationship” of peoples with water in ancient times “does not mean that there have also been ecological abuses in the past”, because human beings “always tend to extract too much”.
Ricococha Alta is a dam built by the Huaylas people and later retaken by the Incas (1400-1532 AD) at a time of climate change when, in general, the Andes became hotter and drier, seriously impacting the supply of water. water.
Lane led the rehabilitation of the dam with labor and local construction techniques (stone and clay) and also added geomembrane inside the core to improve the damming of the structure, reported from the Conicet.
“During the dam’s rehabilitation work, we learned about pre-Hispanic construction techniques,” said Lane, who did a post-doctorate at the Free University of Berlin between 2010 and 2011 with a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany.
Despite a cyclone passing through the region, the Ricococha Alta dam is working well. «It is located in the department of Áncash, one of the most seismic regions of the Andes. Due to the technique used by the Incas and other pre-Hispanic peoples, these constructions are flexible. In fact, many that were not rehabilitated and did not receive maintenance for centuries continue to store rainwater to this day, “he detailed.
Ricococha Alta, which was recently officially inaugurated, has a capacity of thirty thousand cubic meters of water and has already begun to meet the personal consumption needs of 1,200 people and agricultural activities in two communities (Cajabamba Alta and Putaca) and another 250 homes. downhill.
The construction of a cement dam for the local communities required one million dollars, while the rehabilitation of Ricococha cost 120 thousand dollars, donated by the German Gerda Henkel Foundation. During the inauguration of the dam – which now stores water from the
rains recorded from October last year to March -, Lane stressed that its proper functioning can be the kick “for the rehabilitation of more pre-Hispanic dams that can be part of the solution in a context of climate change that is going through the 21st century and for the that the
towns in the Andes suffer from high water stress.
«This project is part of a job I did 25 years ago. Directing a dam rehabilitation has always been my dream and I feel very proud to have been able to do it because I always wanted to bring something back to the communities and what better than water and the economic potential that it brings”, he told Télam.
Lane specified that in the case of Cajabamba Alta (one of the communities that will benefit from the water from the dam) the work will allow them to have more fields of alfalfa to be able to have more cows and produce artisanal cheese, which is what many of them live on. families. “It gives a lot of happiness to be able to do something this concrete because many times as archaeologists we do work that is very difficult to get to the communities themselves and this is a very direct way of giving something back to them,” he told Télam.
In the same vein, Verónica Isabel Williams, a CONICET researcher, PhD in Natural Sciences with a focus on Archeology and director of Idecu, indicated that the rehabilitation of the Ricococha Alta dam “is an example of how archaeology, a social science that studies the past, generates knowledge that is put into dialogue with the present with the potential to influence the lives of current populations”.
«The impact of Dr. Lane’s research in hydraulic technologies is very promising and his contribution to local populations is unique and conducive to developing and maintaining exchanges of
knowledge between past and present that can be replicated in other areas”, he explained.
It is estimated that in the Cordillera Negra of the north-central Andes there could be archaeological remains of more than 200 pre-Hispanic dam structures. As reported by Lane, the idea is to carry out a detailed survey of all those buildings, of which it is estimated that a third could be rehabilitated.
Telam Agency
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