Cabildo por el Agua de Cuenca

The Cabildo por el Agua de Cuenca (Cuenca People’s Water Council) was established in 2015 as a forum for social and community organisations and individuals to come together and develop a shared agenda to defend the moorlands and water resources of Cuenca against the threat of mining extractivism, which seeks to establish itself in the moorlands of the El Cajas Massif through thousands of hectares of concessions granted illegitimately and illegally. It is a deliberative, participatory and pluralistic citizens’ forum, exercising constitutional rights.

The Cabildo por el Agua de Cuenca aims to defend and protect the páramos, rivers and water sources against extractivist threats and threats of any kind; recognising the integrity of Andean socio-ecosystems and their fundamental role in regional and global water, carbon and nutrient cycles; the interrelationships and interdependencies between elements and living beings across diverse geographical areas; and the richness of biological and cultural diversity that has been interwoven throughout history, generating life.

Among its main achievements is having been the driving force behind the Cuenca Water Referendum, held in February 2021, in which 80% of Cuenca’s population voted to ban mining in the canton. It was also part of the group that organised the historic Quinto Río de Cuenca march in September 2025, in which more than 120,000 people demonstrated in defence of the water and the moorlands of Kimsakocha, and in support of the decision taken in the 2021 Popular Referendum on Water.