Blanca Rivera, Anthropologist from the National Training Program for Water User Organisations (CNR)
A porter’s job has a long tradition in the Chilean countryside and their performance involves knowledge and wisdom that are passed by the practice of the job itself from an old porter to an apprentice but, in many opportunities though, this transfer is done from one generation to another. This generational heritage going from father to son, is considered an eminently male job.
Those who have chosen this job as a personal decision and not as a family tradition, they see this job as an alternative for incomes and stability but, above all, spaces for personal freedom and the possibility to be in permanent contact with nature.
To be able to distribute water according to what corresponds to each user, the porter must go across canals, make measures, manage gates, check outlets and be watchful of any event occuring in the river or the canal. But not just that, he must also connect to users and many people who aren’t, in good times and bad times, with this being maybe the hardest and most exhausting part of the job. So porters have stopped being passive workers and have become real agents at water user organisations (WUO).
They implement, supervise, call, solve, inform, respond, check and develop a diversity of activities that make them excellent ‘decision makers’ in the area. Contrary to what many people suppose, the porter is a worker who is permanently facing a dynamic of changes and contingencies they must react and respond to.
While they develop their job, a porter can see how the distributed water allows seeds to germinate and crops to grow, building in this everyday links to nature full of sense, identity and belonging. A porter knows his job has an impact on the world in a specific and convincing way: “260 people and 560 ha. depend on my job” (porter from La Serena).
For their work on the field, porters are also the first observants of climate change, water scarcity, decrease in rain and transformations of nature in general. Their observations become more relevant each day, as climate variations demand frequent monitoring of canals and the needs of irrigators which they only know clearly and in an inmediate way.
More than ever, porters make a contribution to decision making by working groups in WUOs, their comments are appreciated and their opinion “can solve a conflict” (porter from La Serena).
24/7 Work
From a workers rights’ point of view, reality for porters is varied, with the challenge being the standardisation of the job’s exercise.
In this context, it’s possible to find people working as informal labour, which is preferentially done in small water communities with limited resources, up to porters who work in appropriate working conditions, which is the case of those working in some surveillance groups.
At both extremes, there’s conscience about a factor that characterises their job: total availability for work, especially during emergencies. No matter whether it’s day or nighttime, whether it’s working day or holiday; if there’s an urgent need, a porter’s commitment must be total and willing to work wherever he’s needed. This characteristic makes a porter’s job to be a 24/7 work, similar to an emergency worker.
Labour risk prevention is seen as another challenge. Manipulation of implements at river and canal borders, constant outdoor exposure, joruneys through irregular roads and other similar situations expose porters to different physical risks everyday.
The reduced use of personal care elements is related, among others, to cultural factors relating a porter’s job to the male gender, which values physical strength and resistance, and their constant demonstration. Whereas mental health risks are not assumed in their real dimension, leaving few evaluations to check this factor.
Gender
The ‘man’s job’ issue relies on the traditionalist side of the peasant environment. However, like everything in the society, there are women dabbling in all working areas. Marcela García Rivera, porter from Canal Saturno in Elqui Valley, admits the job is physically exhausting.
She came to gradually assume the job and she is satisfied for being able to perform correctly by just putting female learning into service: fineness in treatment, taking great pains for cultivating, and knowing how to keep dialogues in order not to break the natural respect she assures it’s given by country men to women for such condition.
Indigenous World
This job has particular features in the indigenous world. Indigenous communities relate to nature in a different mode, which substancially differs from the way our society relates to its physical environment. We can see this in Andean communities in the northernmost regions, which have an unknown cultural diversity, stressed with the justice system valid in the country, given the latter standardises the relations people have with water resources and the way they can use them. Nevertheless, traditional practices, rituals and indigenous symbols related to nature and water, remain valid.
Among the Aymara, the one who assumes the role of distributing water from canals is known as a water judge, also called mayor or water councilor, and he is responsible of distributing water resources through the ancestral practice of myth, or water sharing by sectors equivalent to half of the canal, which is done with one of two advisors. This practice is done for short periods of time, to be later done by another community person, which can be paid with cash or water, as told by an old water councilor.
In the Huasco Alto area, the denomination for who distributes and charges the water for irrigation is Camayoc, while he is known ‘in transit’ as Camayo porter.
Current Challenges: Professionalisation of the Job
Technology adoption and digitalisation of processes has created a new scenario in the distribution of water from rivers and canals, and porters have had to adapt to these changes. It’s not easy for anyone to move from an eminently pratical knowledge to scientific knowledge, especially when considering that a large percentage of porters only completed primary education. This aspect requires attention, because training porters seems to be a logical answer to this new scenario. However, porters lack independence and resources to access these training processes.
It’s the organisation itself who assumes that the professionalisation of porters is a shared, unavoidable and necessary responsibility.
In our country, the National Training Program for Water User Organisations, funded by the National Irrigation Commission, and implemented by the University of Concepción, has put a special interest in training porters, sensitising through courses and workshops about the strategic and fundamental parts of the job for proper water management.
However, this effort is still minor if compared to other realities, for example, Argentina, where a porter’s profession is achieved through formal education at university or technical institutions, such as the School of Water Techniques and the Water Training School, who run training for this specialty.
Also, Los Comechingones National University (UNLC) in San Luís Province, runs a three-year course that includes elements of law and hydraulics in the training.
This formal training is equalised by the recognition and valuation given to the porter’s profession in the neighbouring country, which is represented in the impressive monument built in Junín to tribute water and the tomero or porter’s job; there are also exhibitions of tools anciently used at many museums and, every year, there is a celebration to tribute this profession.
There are definitely many challenges. We are facing severe water scarcity issues in Chile, so it’s required to implement solutions that aren’t just technical. The magnitude of urgencies and demands also force to consider the valuation of this job given inside WUOs, given the strategic role taken by porters contributes directly to a sustainable water management in our country.