Sowing Water in the Andes
Organization: Water Fund for Lima and Callao - Aquafondo
2025 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARD FINALIST
Long before modern engineering, Andean civilizations developed ingenious systems to “sow water.”
They built amunas, infiltration canals that capture rainfall and guide it underground, allowing water to resurface during the dry season. They created qochas, highland lagoons that store water and sustain ecosystems. They also safeguarded bofedales, wetlands that act as natural sponges, absorbing rain and releasing water gradually.
These ancestral technologies are being revived by Aquafondo, the Water Fund for Lima and Callao, to confront a looming water crisis.
Lima, home to nearly one-third of Peru’s population and responsible for over 40% of the nation’s GDP, sits on one of the driest coastlines in the world. The capital depends almost entirely on downstream water availability from three fragile watersheds—the Chillón, Rímac, and Lurín rivers. Climate change is now threatening these watersheds. Rainfall is increasingly unpredictable, soils dry out faster, and river flows have become erratic. This poses an existential threat to a city already facing severe water scarcity.
To address this challenge, Aquafondo is partnering with rural highland communities to revive ancient technologies. The initiative is co-financed by water-using companies as part of their water sustainability commitments and international partners, while rural communities contribute labor and governance—creating a shared model of responsibility and sustainability. More than 2,000 highland residents have worked to restore 86 kilometers of amunas, generating more than 15 million cubic meters of water annually.
The results speak for themselves:
More than 300,000 residents of Lima benefit from improved water availability.
3,900 hectares of degraded soil have been stabilized.
605,000 tons of carbon dioxide have been absorbed through wetland restoration.
Over 1,000 rural ecosystem restoration and maintenance jobs have been created.
Populations of native fauna, like Andean deer, foxes, and puna teal, have increased.
Women, often responsible for household water use, now lead more than a third of local water committees in the high-Andean communities, bringing their voices into decision-making on fund management, restoration work and water governance. Elders share ancestral knowledge of water systems, while youth bring smartphones and sensors to monitor flows and soils. Together, they form an intergenerational alliance that blends tradition with innovation.
The work has sparked new unity, cultural pride, and resilience in the face of climate stress, and proved that working with nature can outperform expensive concrete infrastructure.
To Sow Water is to Sow the Future
By 2027, Aquafondo aims to restore additional amunas and qochas in new micro-watersheds of the Rímac River. They also plan to replicate the model across Peru and other mountain regions facing similar water challenges, supported by a global “Guardians of Water” network where communities can share knowledge and strengthen resilience together.
The lesson is clear. To secure the future of our cities, we must look to the mountains, the wetlands, and the people who have cared for them for generations. By sowing water, these Andean communities are also sowing resilience and hope. Their work shows us that the solutions to climate change don’t just lie in new inventions, but in reviving wisdom we already have, and scaling it to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
