Sumak Kawsay on Water Management in Ecuador
Sumak Kawsay; Water management; Kichwa cosmology; Ecuador
This is a master’s thesis project that reflects upon the presence of the concept of Sumak Kawsay in Ley Organica de Recursos Hidricos, Usos y Aprovechamento del Agua (LORHUAA) promulgated in 2014 in Ecuador and in the policies it created, such as the Consejos De Cuenca. Sumak Kawsay, a concept of Kichwa origin, was established in 2008 as one of the principles of the Ecuadorian constitution. It refers to the harmony and balance between human beings in their social, ecological, and spiritual environment. The problematic is precisely how this concept of good living, sumak kawsay, is presented in Ecuadorian water management policies and what are the distances and approximations between state discourse and Kichwa communities . For this discussion is presented a brief contextualization of the issues about Sumak Kawsay, the water policy in Ecuador, and the vision and place of water in Kichwa cosmology.To carry out the analysis, bibliographic-documentary research and semi-structured interviews will be used.