<
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jun/13/ecuador-indigenous-map-pre-inca-myths-ancient-lagoon-water-drought->
"One day in 1983, while studying a hand-drawn map from 1792 of his home town in
Ecuador, Galo Ramón, a historian, came across a dispute between a landowner and
two local Indigenous communities, the Coyana and the Catacocha. The boundary
conflict involved an ancient lagoon, depicted on the map.
“The drawing depicted a lagoon brimming with rainwater,” says Ramón. Ravines
were depicted forming below the high-altitude lagoon, indicating that it
supplied watersheds further down – contrary to the typical flow where a
watershed feeds into the lagoon.
Ramón had discovered a long-forgotten ancient water management system conceived
by the Paltas, a pre-Incan civilisation that inhabited the semi-arid region
more than 1,000 years ago.
Ramón set out to recreate the Paltas’ lagoon system and, 40 years on, the
region has enjoyed an environmental regeneration, offering solutions for
Ecuador – which regularly faces severe droughts – and other parts of the world
struggling to address water scarcity with limited resources."
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-cooling-paint-sweats/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
