THE STRUGGLE FOR WATER 43 



What is even more admirable than the ingenuity of 

 the vallista in utilizing the natural resources is the 

 minute detail of the water-rights. It seems as if the 

 vallista is even more cunning in protecting himself 

 from his neighbour than in dealing with nature. The 

 water-customs of these Andean valleys are worth an 

 extensive study. The water does not belong to the 

 State, and is not used by concession from the State. 

 It is private property. The owner uses or abuses it 

 as he pleases on the lands which he has selected. A 

 man may be poor in land and rich in water, which he 

 accordingly sells. There are frequent business deals in 

 regard to water-rights, just as in regard to the soil 

 and its produce. Appropriation of water often pre- 

 cedes appropriation of the soil. Many oases are 

 communities where the non-irrigated lands are common 

 to the whole population, and the irrigated fields alone 

 are divided. 



A primary group of customs regulates the relations to 

 each other of communities higher up and lower down 

 the same stream. At Catamarca the water of a certain 

 stream is shared by Piedra Blanca and Valle Viejo. 

 Piedra Blanca, in the upper part, absorbs the whole of 

 the water for a week, but it must then suspend its 

 irrigation during the following week and permit the 

 stream to flow down the valley. The same evening, 

 or the next morning, according to the season, the 

 water reaches Valle Viejo. It is a custom known as 

 the quiebras in the southern valleys of the desert side of 

 Peru, where it allows different stages of cultivation 

 to proceed simultaneously. In the same way, above 

 Santa Maria, where several communities (S. Jose, Loro 

 Huasi, etc.) receive the water brought by a channel 

 from the Rio Santa Maria, each of them has a right 

 to the full output of the channel for three days. At 

 the end of that time the sluices are closed, and the 

 water passes to the next community. There is grave 

 trouble for any oasis that has its rights infringed or 



