I had the opportunity to travel to Sardegna, Italy on October, 2000, to work on a Research Project related to irrigation issues, which had been developed together with several International Institutions. This travel provided a wonderful possibility for me to visit again UNESCO-IHE in Delft. This was my fourth visit to IHE since I studied there in 1981, and I consider that I was very lucky because on this fourth visit I met our dear and well-remembered Mr. Ronald de Heer, who was the mentor of our Hydraulics Branch B-1 Group.
This visit constituted a very special time for me, as it also coincided with Mr. De Heer’s retirement. When I arrived and saw Mr. de Heer he said, “... my party for my retirement is next week, you arrive on time...” We laughed and recalled many stories from our time together in 1981-1982. As we talked I remembered how important it has been in my life to have studied at IHE; in fact it was a great GOAL for my professional life!
The most important result of my studies at IHE has been the opportunity to work as a professor at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (UNALM), in Lima, Peru. Here I have taught Hydraulics, Structures Design, and Design of Dams, and I developed several research projects, all of them related to hydraulics issues. When I began in the Water Resource Department, the Hydraulics Area was not yet developed as it is now, with most research projects of the graduate students involved with hydraulics issues.
Today there are many projects located in different basins of the country, including: Water Resource Management, Water Conflict Management, Hydraulics Planning for different sectors of the basins, and reservoir water management for electric power generation. We also developed several proposals to improve the use of small reservoirs, and their impact on the use of water and its social and economic effect on agricultural stakeholders and small villages. These research projects contributed important solutions in more than 20 basins located in the Pacific, Atlantic and Titicaca Streams areas of my country.
At the same time, as a part of my duties as a professor at the university, I developed many extension projects, all of them related to hydraulics issues. At the beginning these projects were oriented to the energy sector, later I developed some other projects in the agricultural sector.
These projects developed planning proposals to improve the water management systems, reservoir proposals to improve use of water resources, and others which were the main source for hydraulics research developed with the students. In summary, I feel that my studies at the IHE during 1981-1982 really supported many of my realizations as a professional.
It is very important to mention that during the last five years, my university has been working very closely with UNESCO-IHE, firstly through the Wet-Net Project, secondly through Water Education and Research financed by ALFA, and thirdly working together on an important project related to international support from IHE to the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina and Partners.
This Project is called “ Capacity building in integrated water resources management and water quality management for sustainable strategies in the basins of peru” and is presented in detail in this history. This project has correlated many important data from the demand for knowledge in the WATER RESOURCES AREA from different governmental and private institutions. The main part of the proposal considers the support of IHE, while local and regional experience is taken into account too.
..read further in the PDF file..