Ancient Peruvian Water-Harvesting System Could Lessen Modern Water Shortages B

[Judi Lynn]

By Kerry Hensley
June 30, 2019 12:00 PM



Panoramic view of the community of Huamantanga in the central Andes, where the pre-Inca water-harvesting system is located. (J. Gil-Ríos, CONDESAN, 2014)


Sometimes, modern problems require ancient solutions.

A 1,400-year-old Peruvian water-diverting method could supply up to 40,000 Olympic-size swimming pools' worth of water to present-day Lima each year, according to new research published in Nature Sustainability.

It's one example of how indigenous methods could supplement existing modern infrastructure in water-scarce countries worldwide.

More than a billion people across the world face water scarcity. Artificial reservoirs store rainwater and runoff for use during drier times, but reservoirs are costly, require years to plan and can still fail to meet water needs. Just last week, the reservoirs in Chennai, India, ran nearly dry, forcing its 4 million residents to rely on government water tankers.

Animation showing monthly rainfall in the tropical Andes. Humid air transports water vapor from the Amazon and is blocked by the Andean mountain barrier, producing extreme differences between the eastern and western slopes. (B. Ochoa-Tocachi, 2019)

Artificial reservoirs aren't the only solution, however. Over a thousand years ago, indigenous people developed another way of dealing with water shortages. Boris Ochoa-Tocachi, a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London and lead author of the study, saw firsthand one of the last remaining pre-Inca water-harvesting systems in the small highland community of Huamantanga, Peru.

More:
https://www.voanews.com/science-health/ancient-peruvian-water-harvesting-system-could-lessen-modern-water-shortages

Also posted in the Latin America forum:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/110867783