Rio Arriba County, New Mexico

Acequia Stewardship (no specific acequia named; acequias of Rio Arriba County generally)

Problem

Public assets—parks, greens, waterways, buildings—slip into neglect, privatization, or misuse when no one clearly owns their care.

Solution

Acequias are community irrigation ditches that New Mexico law makes political subdivisions of the state, governed by three elected commissioners and an elected mayordomo who superintends work, distributes water and collects fines and fees in lieu of labor; their meetings fall under the Open Meetings Act and their records are public by statute. Rio Arriba County had 175 acequias in the New Mexico Acequia Association's 2018 database, the most of any county. The book's story names no acequia, and its specific scenes (posted turn maps, text-summoned repair crews, a seven-day turno posted each Monday) were not matched to any identified ditch.

Patterns used: Commons Stewardship

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