De los páramos a la urbe: historia ambiental, fuentes de agua y gobernanza más que humana para la ciudad de Quito, Ecuador

Objective/context: This paper presents a historiographical review to characterize Quito’s expansionist water policy, tracing its origins from the colonial and republican periods to the development of the expansionist model of municipal hydraulics (1950-1975). It then identifies a turning point influencedby dominant trends in welfare programs and conservation efforts. Finally, it outlines a third phase of this model: Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) (1990-2000), culminating in a new form of environmental governance for the city of Quito, Ecuador (2000-present). Methodology: Based on a historiographicalanalysis of drinking water services and environmental policies in Quito, this study highlights the different stages of hydraulic expansionism and draws on specialized literature on environmental conservationin Ecuador. It explores conflicts within public water policies and their effects on contemporary water management. Originality: While historical overviews of urban water in Quito exist, they tend to focus only on the early dynamics of the city’s modernization, based on a simplified view of technology. This article first addresses this deficiency by highlighting later phases of the urban water system as correlates of differentmoments in the expansionist model and, second, by exploring the connection between technology and the environment. Conclusions: We examine the role of the Water Protection Fund (FONAG, for its acronym in Spanish) in Quito’s environmental and infrastructural transformation, arguing that this fund is innovative not only because it connects water conservation with environmental protection but also because, through its work, it provides input for a more-than-human environmental history.