Following the water footprints in Vorden: the imaginary of a recreated nature

After a few cold and somewhat rainy days in Wageningen, a sunny Sunday awaited us. Early in the morning we set off for Vorden, a picturesque little town where you can feel the warmth in the middle of the streets. On this short visit, we were accompanied by Rob, a Dutch friend who, with great passion for his work, would guide us between the 17th century castles that once belonged to the aristocratic families of the time. His explanations in fluent Spanish, the result of personal experiences in Latin America, immediately connected us with history and took us back in time through a book full of photographs that would act as a mirror of today’s landscape seen through the eyes of yesteryear.

As we walked through several states (similar to the “haciendas” of the Ecuadorian Andes), the water from some canals circulated between the imaginary of extinct swamps and non-existent mills. The latter were used to evacuate water from old communal lands that were perhaps considered unusable for human interests, becoming the infrastructural solutions of the time to control nature. As a result, many wealthy families have taken possession of these properties, some of which are maintained as private property, while others are managed by civil society initiatives.

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At present, these reconstructions of nature are imperceptible and we learned about them through a journey in time that showed us how a landscape has been reconfigured, where hiking trails are now opened in the midst of forest plantations that are confused with primary forests and water canals that recreate a unique landscape beauty. As I walked through this enveloping nature, I thought about how some rivers in my city, Riobamba, are trying to be restored through similar strategies, where man tries to make decisions based on his knowledge and technology.

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