Challenges and Opportunities of International University Partnerships to Support Water Management

Historically water scarce regions such as the Central Andes in South America are particularly vulnerable to changes in water supply and demand and are struggling to adopt a more participatory model of integrated water management. Inclusive engagement principles have been used successfully in many locations to improve agricultural and water management; however, there are several barriers to transference of similar practices to Latin America. For example, collaborative research arrangements between U.S. and Latin American universities are desirable to develop sustained research programs on appropriate integrated water management techniques, but institutional barriers and the lack of a culture of applied research and extension that is responsive to community needs may limit the effectiveness of research partnerships. Additional barriers to participatory management exist at the community level, including traditional limitations such as low institutional capacity, traditional gender roles, and authoritarian structure, as well as emerging issues related to changing rural livelihoods. This article examines opportunities and threats associated with an emergent partnership between Purdue University (Purdue) in Indiana, USA, and Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa (UNSA) in Arequipa, Peru. It serves as the introduction to this Special Issue exploring water resources risks in Arequipa, Peru, as well as potential barriers and strategies to support water management adaptation.

Globally, many drivers such as population growth, climate change, and changing income and consumer preferences are dramatically altering water resources management. In water scarce regions that rely on irrigated agriculture in particular, the intrinsic linkage between land and water management (Chen et al. 2018) means new sustainable management frameworks must be developed to minimize environmental impacts on both resources (Brack et al. 2017). However, in some countries the lack of technical knowledge, infrastructure, and human capacity means that well-intentioned sustainable management frameworks do not achieve the expected results in the management of water resources (Maestu 1997; Ortiz Acosta and Romo Aguilar 2016; Rivera-Marquez et al. 2017; Ruiz 2019). In Peru, although a complete revision of the national water policy in 2009 provides a general framework for the proper management of water resources, its application is limited (Robert 2019).

At the same time, Peruvian Canon Law No. 27506 provides a source of funding to enhance Peruvian water management infrastructure (Congreso de la Republica 2001). This law invokes a tax, collected by the State, on the economic exploitation of natural resources. According to Article 6.2, regional and local governments should use funding from this tax exclusively for the financing or co-financing of regional and local impact infrastructure projects, and 20% of the tax can be transferred to public universities to invest in research that enhances regional development.

In response to on-going issues of environmental degradation, UNSA, a Peruvian public university, used the tax-derived financing from mining to establish a partnership with Purdue in the United States. Purdue was approached due to their experience in water resources management, especially for agricultural management, and their history of international extension, to foster applied research in Arequipa, Peru.

This unique collaboration has not been without challenges, but is also showing initial successes, and the purpose of this Special Issue is to provide a clear look at both. Our contributing authors explore not only institutional challenges in the formulation of the partnership, but also social challenges that impact participatory water governance. Collaborations are making technological advances and demonstrating the potential impact of applied research into water-related threats. To start, in this introduction the established legal framework governing environmental management is reviewed. To examine the partnership established between UNSA and Purdue to improve water management capacity in Arequipa, we analyze existing conditions, both internal and external, around which this partnership was developed and establish the opportunities and threats (challenges) which contribute to the implementation, improvement, and achievements of this unique partnership.

UNSA is a public university in Arequipa in southern Peru. The university comprises three campuses, with 17 departments and 45 professional schools in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and engineering. Its mission is “to train competent and ethical professionals, with capacity for research and innovation generating scientific, technological, and humanistic knowledge, contributing to the sustainable development of the region and the country (UNSA 2020).”

Purdue University is the land grant university of Indiana, established through the Morrill Act in 1869, with its main campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. The university is organized into 13 colleges and schools. It offers 200 undergraduate degrees and 70 master's and doctoral degrees. It is known worldwide as a leading research institution. As a land grant university, the Purdue College of Agriculture has a three-part mission for teaching, extension, and research, as follows: “Purdue Agriculture will help make Indiana, our nation, and our world better through: Students prepared to make a difference; Research with purpose, leading to discovery with impact; Engagement/Extension that strengthens lives and livelihoods; An inclusive culture that supports excellence in all we do (Purdue 2020).”

To raise technical and human capacity, the UNSA strategic plan included a goal to establish long-term collaborations to address the environmental, agroeconomic, and social challenges that support sustainable management of water, soil, energy, food, and other resources in the Arequipa region, in Peru in general, and throughout Latin America. Thus, a thorough search was carried out throughout the world to identify potential collaborators, with the security of having economic funds from the mining Canon.

Through the work of the Core Foundation, the connection between UNSA and Purdue was achieved with a mission to provide transformative solutions for great challenges in the sustainable management of Arequipa's resources. In 2017, through high-level coordination, Tomas Díaz de la Rubia, Chief Scientist and Chief Executive Officer of Discovery Park at Purdue, and UNSA Rector Rohel Sánchez, laid the foundations for the collaboration. In March 2018, the Arequipa Nexus Institute of Food, Water, Energy and the Environment was launched. The vision of the Nexus Institute is “to be a vibrant, educational, and innovative research ecosystem where transformative solutions to the great challenges facing Arequipa, Peru, and Latin America are explored.” Its mission is to “Increase the capacity and strategic collaborations required in the long term to address environmental, agroeconomic, and social challenges that provide support for the development of adaptive, profitable, and sustainable food-energy and water systems in the Arequipa region of Peru.” The initial phase resulted in funding ten three-year projects addressing the interdependent topics of food, energy, water, and the environment. The largest of these projects, led by the authors, addresses Sustainable Water Management in the Arequipa Region. Each project involves professionals from both Purdue University and UNSA.

In general, water resources management is included in the national environmental policy established for Peru through D.S. No. 012-2009-MINAM (Ministerio del Ambiente 2009). The first objective of this national environmental policy is the protection of biodiversity, due to the richness of flora and fauna in Peru. This does not prevent extraction of all the natural resources in the nation, but criteria must be adjusted to protect biodiversity, consistent with a sustainable development paradigm, which, defined simply, is the use of resources without harming resource use by future generations. In contrast to a nature conservation approach, which prohibits human or economic activity on the land, or a purely resource extraction approach, the sustainable development approach views Peru's natural resources and biodiversity as a public good which can be managed to provide long-term value chains (Nobrea et al. 2016). While achieving true sustainable development may be utopian, this framework establishes minimum values that must be maintained. For example, though it may not be possible to return irrigation water to the same quality and quantity as before using it, environmental standards provide an acceptable threshold for maintaining initial characteristics.

Sustainable development has three principles, which correspond to the economic, the social, and the environmental (Enkerlin Hoeflich et al. 1997; Badii 2004). These principles must be prioritized to maintain balance among them, and the breakdown of this balance can provoke social conflicts. If, for example, the environmental side is prioritized by neglecting the social and economic aspects, there will be protests from groups that are affected by the measures considered.

The Water Resources Law no. 29338 regulates both management of water quantity and water quality (Congreso de la Republica 2009). Use is prioritized as follows: protection of biodiversity, population use, agricultural use, mining and industrial use, and other activities. A water balance is used to determine the amount of water allocated for each purpose. Ecological flow, the minimum amount of water needed to safeguard the biodiversity in a given basin, is used as part of that water balance. The National Water Authority (ANA) is responsible for calculating and maintaining this water balance.

Water quality is regulated through two environmental management policies, the Environmental Quality Standards (ECA; supreme decree 004-2017-MINAM), which establish the maximum amount of a pollutant expected to be present in the water as a receiving medium for different uses. A second instrument is the maximum allowable limits (MPPs), which correspond to the maximum load of contaminants that can be released to receiving waters as point discharges. MPPs are set for each type of release and controlled by the different ministries, so each ministry sets its own permissible ceilings. Of the two management instruments mentioned, the environmental quality standard (ECA) is the most important (Ministerio del Ambiente 2017).

Both ECAs and MPPs set values for various physicochemical, microbiological, heavy metal, and agrochemical parameters. Laboratory or field analyses of water quality samples related to these parameters must be conducted by laboratories that are certified by the National Institute of Environmental Quality (INACAL). These are generally associated with the certification of the international standard ISO 17025.

A Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) analysis was applied to analyze the conditions of the partnership established between UNSA and Purdue to improve water management capacity in Arequipa. SWOT analysis provides a methodology for evaluating what is working well and what is limiting progress in the partnership (Community Toolbox 2020). Both internal factors, i.e. strengths and weaknesses, and external factors, i.e. opportunities and threats, were analyzed, as follows:

The SWOT analysis can be used to find interactions between internal and external variables, which inform approaches to continuing the partnership, also known as a TOWS analysis (Dyson 2004). These approaches are as follows:

This Special Issue documents some of the initial successes that have resulted from the initiation of the Nexus Institute to build research capacity to investigate issues of sustainable water management in Arequipa, Peru. The authors use a range of approaches, incorporating social science concepts, science, and technology, to better understand and address the challenges of water management in the region. This series of papers, all from participants in the Nexus Institute, give those involved in similar international collaborations a resource for identifying potential pitfalls and opportunities for achieving desired outcomes.

In the first paper, Mazer et al. establish a framework of collaboration principles to be used to evaluate international university-led research partnerships, and offer practical guidance on overcoming obstacles early on, amid an imperfect partnership. This work provides practical advice for the establishment of new university-led research partnerships.

Moraes et al. explore the limitations of conducting research in a data poor environment, through an evaluation of the existing water resources monitoring network in Arequipa. The weather, stream discharge, and water quality networks are evaluated with respect to their ability to support water and agricultural management decision making and provides an evaluation of data available for further analysis.

The third and fourth papers give examples of applied research into the use of technology to improve water management. Guevara et al. describe a pilot water irrigation framework utilizing wireless communication and a sensor network for regulating water flow in a drip irrigation system to improve irrigation efficiency in Arequipa. Looking at the water distribution system for public-supply, Dawood et al. developed an assessment framework for potable water systems based on 3D modeling of pipe failure. The developed model can be used by municipal engineers as a screening tool to prioritize maintenance needs. Together, these two papers illustrate the potential of smart technology to improve the sustainability of water management.

An important aspect of water management in a dramatically changing region such as Arequipa is the impact of human-environmental change on people. The next two papers incorporate aspects of stakeholder engagement to address issues of environmental change. Brecheisen et al. incorporate historic imagery dating back to the 1960s into accessible formats to inform public conversation on the environmental impacts of land use change, glacial retreat, and a need for wetland preservation. Also, through analysis of historic change, Mazer et al. develop maps of urban flood hazards in Arequipa to inform municipal agencies and communities on the changing nature of the hazard.

The final paper in this issue discusses the capacity of local citizens and agencies to utilize the technology and information made available to be involved in water management. Popovici et al. describe the challenges associated with coproduction of knowledge, decisions, or policies with local community members in the context of changing rural livelihoods. Utilizing focus groups and semi-structured interviews, they determined that increased migration, market integration, and reliance on regional institutions for water and crop management undermine the effectiveness of coproduction efforts. Not included in this Special Issue, but in review for publication in JCWRE Issue 172, Bowling et al. discuss the limitations of government agencies tasked with public education in developing, evaluating, and distributing water management information and tools. Based on interviews, focus groups, and small break out groups, they provide a vision for university-led water engagement centers that can provide a venue for applied research and public engagement in Arequipa.

The water resources challenges facing regions such as Arequipa are complex. A legacy of resource extraction and greatly expanded export agriculture threaten water quality and increase competition for scarce water resources. A large gradient between rural and urban livelihoods leads to disparities in access to technology and information, and even the ability to engage in water management decisions, which government agencies do not have the resources to overcome. It is our hope that the cases in this Special Issue provide insight, not only into the challenges facing water resources management, but also highlight some of the ways in which university partnerships can contribute to more effective and sustainable water management globally.

Funds to support research in the Arequipa Nexus Institute for Food, Energy, Water, and the Environment were provided by the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín.

Edwin Bocardo-Delgado is a principal professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and a graduate Environmental Science professor at the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa. He also works as an environmental consultant for several companies and a natural resource management specialist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or Av. Sánchez Carreón s/n, Cercado Arequipa.

Katy Mazer is coordinator of the Sustainable Water Management team of The Nexus Institute at Purdue University. She engages with stakeholder groups in Arequipa, Peru to coproduce water management decision-making tools. She can be contacted at [email protected] or 920 W. State St., West Lafayette, IN 47907.

Laura Bowling (corresponding author) is a Professor of hydrology in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University. Her research investigates the water resources impact of environmental change across multiple scales, climate regimes, and ecosystems and communicates these findings to stakeholders. She can be contacted at [email protected] or 915 W. State St., West Lafayette, IN 47907.