Meet Magdalena and Marcela Machaca, two Quechua sisters – both agricultural engineers – who build traditional reservoirs high in the mountains of Peru to ‘cultivate’ rainwater. Their grandfather introduced them to the ancient spiritual practice of sowing and harvesting water when they were children. In 1994, they started building reservoirs through their organisation, Asociación Bartolomé Aripaylla.
Since then, they have built more than 120 reservoirs, which today provide the city of Ayacucho with 15 million cubic meters of water per year. Instead of large walls, they build small stone and clay dikes, directing runoff so that it doesn't spread over the Andean slopes, but instead infiltrates the subsoil and recharges the aquifers. “We do not put anything on the floor, if we put clay there, we would waterproof it and it would not filter” explains Marcela.
Even as climate change dries up the region, and the ice disappears from the surrounding peaks, there have been no water shortages, thanks to their decades of work. They see the practice as both a spiritual and musical calling, with the act of building accompanied by the charanguito, a traditional instrument. “We sing to the water and talk to it,” explains Magdalena. “We are nature, we are part of her. We must never stop talking to the water, we must give it affection and a lot of understanding.”
