Operation rules for a Qocha, a proposal approach for water resource local use

Authors

Miranda-Dávila, Melqui

Ruíz-Olarte, Wilder

Arancibia, Ada L.

Abstract

In the highland Andean areas of Peru, structures of traditional use for water storage for recharge purposes have been identified, these are small reservoirs called Qochas. In these areas, the only source of water is rain, which occurs during the wet season of the year. The high Andean inhabitants identify the Qochas as sources of water to be used during the seasons and dry times. This work presents a proposal for operating rules of a Qocha with the aim of having water resources for use by the high Andean inhabitants, maintaining its function of planting water (filtrations). The process included the characterization of the operation of a Qocha through operation simulations to define the stored volume, discharge volume, and infiltration. Four different climatic scenarios were considered, namely wet, dry and the combination of these, in order to identify the volume stored and minimum infiltration. Based on these results, an operating rule can be proposed to provide a usable volume, while the Qocha maintains its original functions and purposes of planting water. The methodology was applied to a Qocha located in the Department of Ayacucho at 3700 m.a.s.l. The results show that it is possible that the beneficiaries of the area of ​​influence can take advantage of part of the stored volume during the dry season without taking away its function of sowing water.