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San Pablo de Amali and the Dulcepamba River, Ecuador

In March 2015, the village of San Pablo de Amalí on the Dulcepamba River in Ecuador was hit by a flood that killed three residents, destroyed five homes, and eroded several hectares of farmland. Residents asserted that the recent construction of a run-of-the-river hydroelectric facility built in the river channel directed flood flows toward the village, causing the associated damage and fatalities.

In addition, the operator of the hydroelectric project had been allocated legal dry-season rights to water in the Dulcepamba River regardless of local residents’ prior use or need.

Local residents reached out to UC Davis water experts for help. Now the computer models those experts created have helped the community restore their water rights and help protect them against future disasters.

UC Davis computer models showed that the 2015 flood was not a natural disaster. Instead, the 2013 installment of an 8-megawatt, run-of-the-river hydropower plant caused much of the damage.

In addition, hydrologic modeling by UC Davis researchers showed that the hydroelectric company had been allocated more water than commonly exists in the river, including summer days, when residents need it most. This stripped San Pablo de Amalí and more than 140 communities upstream of their water rights — leaving them without a legal right to use water during much of the year.

Based on the UC Davis research, San Pablo and other communities in the Dulcepamba watershed won judgments in Ecuador's Constitutional Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

An Urgent Need for Water Science

For the researchers involved in the Dulcepamba project, it was a reminder of what happens when energy, water and other infrastructure projects move forward in the absence of science.

And disadvantaged communities are at the greatest risk. In poor areas, lacking homegrown scientific knowledge and expertise, communities can easily fall victim to powerful outsiders.