Governance problems surrounding agricultural land use and irrigation water demand in the Vinces river basin, Ecuador

Abstract

Abstract

The Vinces river basin presents a high agricultural aptitude. This factor has allowed the intensive development of crops that contribute a significant amount of foreign currency for the country, which also exerts strong pressure on the water resource for irrigation and that have displaced important native vegetation. In this context, it is necessary to exercise governance in such a way as to guarantee the management and territorial development of the basin. The objective of this paper was to identify the governance problems related to the agricultural use of land and the demand for water for the irrigation of crops in the Vinces river basin. The present investigation involved the analysis of the current situation of the general administration of water basins in Ecuador and the special way of this important basin in the center of the country, the analysis of the conceptual frameworks of governance, and the collection of digital geoinformation information with its subsequent geographic information systems, tabulation of official statistical information and verification in the field of the management of agricultural crops. The main agricultural enterprises of the basin in the study expressed by the agricultural crops of banana, cocoa, and oil palm exert great pressure on the space and water of the basin for irrigation during the long period of the summer dry season. The figures that are collected by the historical water concessions for irrigation basin of the environmental authority do not reduce the true volume used by the agricultural sector that evidence and contrast the rights of the crops and the volumes of water concessioned.