mishqui-yacu, sweet water - IFAD

The project has also introduced efficient NGOs capable of serving
beneficiaries’ future needs, including CICDA/CEDIR, SENDAS and
PROTOS. These organizations offer knowledge and experiences
gained in similar areas in other countries, combined with familiarity
with the realities of the Cañar river basin obtained by current
staff through their work with CARC. They will continue their work
with the support of the Royal Embassy of The Netherlands in
Ecuador.
CARC started out as a highly technical programme within a society
marked by conflict. It entered onstage at the time of an ongoing
process and naturally became another actor. The project was
attacked and slandered, but staff kept calm and patiently engaged in
building up a dialogue with the other actors. Political games were
avoided and technicians concentrated on direct cooperation with
people at the small-scale farm production level, helping to organize
them and learning to listen to farmers.
Hatun Cañar thirsts for water and knowledge. Much of the story
about Cañar has been focused on water. The purpose was to trace the
role of water in the minds and lives of the area’s inhabitants. The
extremely important fact of who owns and controls the water and
who does not have access to it has often occupied center stage. It is
clear that power – power over land and water – is probably the key
issue in the Cañar area, as it is in almost any other agricultural area
of the world. Of course, it is impossible for a project such as CARC to
influence this fact over night. However, great efforts were made to
help people organize themselves, gain a voice and obtain methods,
tools and instruments that will be useful in providing a living for
themselves and their families.
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Irrigation and drinking
water systems, greenhouses,
guinea-pig breeding and
credit are some of the
benefits of the CARC project