mishqui-yacu, sweet water - IFAD

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the community, who proposes how material will be obtained and the
work organized. The engineer authorizes the management, the
agreement is signed and CARC deposits the money into the association’s
account.
When the building site is approached, there is a dirt road opened
up across the mountainside to allow gravel and sand trucks to come
as close as possible to the dead canal. It is very misty and, after driving
along the difficult road, one is confronted with a scene of Biblical
proportions. In the mist, a long row of people is entering a dense forest
along a narrow path. Women, in the majority, and girls and boys
are carrying heavy loads of wet cement and gravel in huge bundles.
Another group, also mostly women, is filling the bundles from a
huge pile of gravel and a smaller one of cement. The people are carrying
their loads along the narrow, slippery path to the work place
at 1 500 m. They come from two communities and eight different sectors.
They work for a few days until another group replaces them.
Anyone who does not come to the minga must hire another worker
or pay a penalty, fixed by the association.
The path is very narrow and slippery along the canal. The distant
murmur of an invisible river cutting through the forest far down
below, is heard constantly, boulders and roots are encountered
along the path, making the progress of the cement bearers even
more cumbersome. The colourful skirts of the women are barely visible
in the humid haze. No one is talking, all are concentrated on
their task, walking fast, but carefully checking where they put their
feet. They reach the work place, where the ‘master’, the president
and the secretary of the association and other carriers are resting.
It is late and they have left their last load. The workers are no
longer dressing the canal.
A little bit further on is the water source. A fast-running river
gushes down the mountainside. This is the San Antonio, which
springs from Culebrillas. The place is very strange, a gorge between
steep, black cliffs, crowned by thick bushes. Around the water are
huge trees, with moss hanging from the branches. The river is
steaming in the mist. A cement jetty runs straight into the river,
diverting some of the water into the canal. This is the toma, intake,