Along with financing irrigation projects, the idea is also to encourage the efficient use of water resources in the region.Since its inception, the UMA (water, in Aymara) projects have not only sought to save water for irrigation by indigenous communities, but also seek to provide security for the irrigation of land used for agriculture and livestock. in the rural sector of Arica and Parinacota.The execution of these irrigation works is based on the increased efficiency in the use of water resources, which is increasingly scarce in the region and in the country.This implies the use of materials that also ensure the continuity of the irrigation, such as, for example, lining canals in concrete mitigates the losses due to infiltration that the runoff of water would have if it were a ditch, but if the route of the canal goes along the slope of a hill, it is more optimal to line it with pipes to avoid flooding of the channel due to landslides.“With these projects, the water is no longer lost, because it comes through a pipe to the property, so it runs faster than in a river;in 30 minutes the water reaches my property and in 5 hours I fill my pond, before it took a whole day to fill and a little more than 25% of the water was used, no more, because in the past they were rustic and were filled with fodder and stones, a lot of maintenance work had to be done, which meant hiring labor.Now, with all the advances that CONADI gives us, we no longer have to clean the gutters and no water is lost, which is the most important thing in times of drought," explains Marta Apata, who lives in the town of Saxamar, in the commune of Putre and that this year applied individually to the UMA contest.Marta is an enterprising woman who is concerned about the issue of drought and the efficient use of water, which is why her project was the construction of a pond with a pump for technical irrigation, "With this I irrigate potatoes, corn, peas and fodder. for my cattle, the water from the pond is enough to irrigate a month –just enough and necessary- and without losing a single drop of water, which is the most important thing nowadays”, he indicates.Improvements of works and protectionThe UMA contest has always been oriented towards financing irrigation projects for indigenous communities.As of 2010, an important change occurs by adding the modalities of indigenous natural person and part of an indigenous community, within the types of beneficiaries.This opened up a range of possibilities for people who, being members of their community, saw their chances of accessing the subsidy diminished because the communities prioritized off-farm or matrix initiatives, an instance that did not always favor them in the short term, either for reasons of geographic type or amount of investment.Sergio Mollo, lives in the town of Timar in the Camarones commune, grows peas and potatoes from the interior, and this year, he dared to plant Hass avocados, which will soon be sold at Asoagro in Arica.In his case, he applied as part of an indigenous community because he needed to improve the pond he already had (also built thanks to a previous UMA project) and build a protection wall for the rainy months: “The hills here are very steep and rocky. When it rains, the water washes away stones and mud and enters the pond, causing many liters of water to be lost for irrigation, but with this wall we solve all that problem.In addition, I invented Californian-type irrigation and I am trying to get my community to adapt to this technique, I am teaching them how it is done and how it works, because later on I want to apply for another UMA project but with the entire community, so that the water runs for everyone and it is used in a good way for all the crops in this sector”.For the Regional Director of CONADI, Emiliano García, these projects are delivered in order to be able to collaborate and support the agricultural development of the region: “We as CONADI are always willing to support any initiative based on the development with identity of the localities where they live. our indigenous communities, so that our community members have a better life.”Within the technical proposal, various topics are covered in order to describe the environment, that is, background on natural resources, water, soil and climate, as well as background on environmental and heritage impact, in order to avoid possible effects that it could have. the execution of the project in the territory and the respective mitigation actions and/or contingency plans, if they exist.Thus, the most submitted projects to the competition are the lining of canals (using reinforced concrete, stone masonry, gutters or prefabricated concrete tiles or using HDPE or PVC pipes) and the construction of accumulation ponds (reinforced concrete or lined with HDPE sheet).This subsidy has been sectorized by ecological floors in order to ensure a financing niche for the highlands, foothills and coastal valleys, including in all cases the three application modalities: Indigenous natural person, community or part of an indigenous community.With these real-impact projects that benefit indigenous people and communities, CONADI advances to make development with identity of the original peoples in their territories a reality.