Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape

In Peru, an example of a traditional water infrastructure extends across an ancient cultural landscape nestled within the Andes. Here, people of the pre-Inca Yauyos culture developed a series of dams, reservoirs, and channels to divert, filter, and retain spring water and glacier melt for the irrigation of high-altitude pastures and lower-altitude fields, as well as for human consumption. The infrastructure, some of which dates to the ninth century CE, creates fertile wetlands in the high, dry puna ecosystem, allowing local herders to feed and water their livestock. Diverting and slowing the flow of water allows it to percolate into the soil and replenish natural springs at lower altitudes, which can be used to irrigate agricultural terraces and supply water for daily use.

There are six consecutive dams along 750 meters of the Yanacancha stream bed at 4,400 meters above sea level. Stone walls joined by mud mortar dam the water, which then emerges at Huacuyo spring further down the mountain, near the old town of Huaquis. When maintained, the system provides effective water management across a large, mountainous landscape that impacts communities across the Cañete River basin. Unfortunately, much of the infrastructure has been largely abandoned and key maintenance practices forgotten by the local Indigenous heirs of this incredible heritage.