Acequias are community centered networks of irrigation ditches. Generally used in dryland, steppe ecologies, the systems utilize the hydrology of mountain ‘water towers’ and directs the flow across the hill sides to grow food and fodder. This method broadens the alluvial plain as a rare form of agriculture that actually benefits the ecology while feeding humans and raising livestock. Because it maintains water in the commons, it is an important antithesis to increasing threats of water privatization. Acequias are promoted as a time tested way to mitigate the desertification component in climate change.
This project traces the origins of the practice, follows the migration of the methods, connects the communities who maintain them in order to offer potential ways we can utilize the philosophy in navigating a changing world.
Origins: The Rif
2022 Residency at Green Olive Arts, Tetouan Morocco
During this residency, we learned how sacred this practice is for Moroccans in regards to tending the natural world instead of seeing it as our dominion from which to simply extract resources. We are inspired by the community minded nature of sharing water is for farmers here, delighted at the familiarity of the philosophy surrounding Acequias. Somehow, over a thousand years and an ocean between, the primary intentions of Acequias has remained in-tact.
Urban Acequia: A walk along the Oued Martil
Zarka: A walk up the Blue River Valley
Printmaking at Green Olive Arts
Talassemtane National Park: A walk around the Rif Mountains
Chefchaouen: The Blue Pearl
The Fountains of Fez
SPAIN
2023 residency at AADK in Blanca, Spain
TAOS
Los Lovatos ditch community: 300 years of history
