ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses glacial retreat in the high Andes with focuses on the provinces of Quispicanchis and Urubamba in the Cusco region of southeast Peru. The people living in these areas deal with rainy season and a dry season. During the dry season all the water that people and animals use throughout the Andes is derived from the glaciers in the mountains' high peaks. It describes primarily indigenous Andean knowledge known in some areas, but forgotten in others as waterways are restored, agricultural practices are adapted to prevailing climatic conditions and new methods are devised to collect water and use it sparingly throughout the dry season. Since virtually all the water available to Andean peasant farmers and past-oralists in the dry season comes from the snow and ice fields of their high mountains, the repercussions of melting glaciers are immense for local communities. Melting glaciers may provide added water in the short run, but they cause rock falls, landslides and floods.
