Fighting Prolonged Drought in the Choapa River Valley The Choapa River.
T
he Choapa River and its Tributaries Joint Board of Control (Junta de Vigilancia del Río Choapa y sus Afluentes, JVRCH) provides water to 4,000 industrial and agricultural users in the Choapa River Valley of north-central Chile. Like most other regions of Chile, the Choapa River Valley is experiencing frequent, prolonged droughts. To face up to this challenge, the JVRCH is improving infrastructure and helping its users become more efficient. In this interview, Ángela Rojas, the general manager of the JVRCH, speaks with Irrigation Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about the agency’s history and services and how it is facing up to water shortages.
Joshua Dill: Tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
14 | IRRIGATION LEADER
Joshua Dill: Tell us about the JVRCH and its history. Ángela Rojas: The JVRCH is a water users’ organization legally charged with the distribution of water from natural sources. It includes all the canals in its zone, which in turn are organized in water communities. In 1937, a prolonged drought made it necessary to organize the basin’s irrigators so as to distribute the scarce existing water supplies. The organization continued to operate de facto until its legal establishment in 1995. From that date until today, the JVRCH has worked to distribute the water in the basin and has assumed new duties aimed at making water use more efficient, made
necessary by the continually growing demand for water and the falling level of rain- and snowfall each year. The JVRCH works to develop and implement projects oriented toward improving the storage, conveyance, and distribution of water and guaranteeing its quantity and quality. Joshua Dill: How big is the JVRCH’s service area? Ángela Rojas: Today, the JVRCH is composed of 98 water communities along the Choapa River, from the Andes mountain range to its outlet in the Pacific Ocean, delivering a total of 18,250 liters per second (approximately 644 cubic feet per second) of water. The JVRCH has around 4,000 water users, all of whom are equal before the law, independent of the use to which they put their usage rights, whether it be agricultural, industrial, or for consumption. Throughout the basin, agriculture coexists with mining, principally of copper. Agricultural users take more than 85 percent of the water. Among the most widely grown crops are pisco grapes, walnuts, avocados, and citrus fruits.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE JVRCH.
Ángela Rojas: I am an agricultural engineer by profession, and my career has unfolded principally in the area of irrigation and water resources management. I am a native of Salamanca, Chile, and for that reason I have always been interested in working in this valley. The opportunity to work for the JVRCH arose in 2010. My first function here was to design
and implement a program to support farmers in modernizing the irrigation of their crops. In 2014, I assumed the managership of the JVRCH. In this position I, along with the work team, have implemented important technical modernizations that have improved the management of water and the efficiency of its distribution. For example, we have taken over the administration of the Corrales Reservoir, implemented automated gates, and provided legal and organizational support for our users.
