Evaluation of water resources management strategies to cover the shortage in future demands using the WEAP model in high Andean areas

Settlements in the Peruvian Andean highlands strongly depend on rainfed irrigation for agriculture activities and water supply depends on water storage capacity. This work analyses this vulnerable situation, for present and for future water demands and their coverage in the time horizon of 15 (2034) and 30 years (2049). For that, an application using WEAP software was carried on the "Blanco" watershed. Water resources were considered separately for each of the districts in the watershed, rather than analyzing together as a whole. The water-saving potential, the coverage of the demands for normal periods and dry periods, in addition to the different structural and non-structural measures, were analyzed under different simulated scenarios. The results show that different demands will increase considerably in all districts and that there will be a supply deficit after 2034 if there is no work on new water supplies. The decrease in water supply will occur from June to August. The installation of new reservoirs (structural measures), and better water distribution (non-structural measures) can generate water-saving potentials of 89% and 35% by 2034, respectively, while the adoption of both strategies can save 100%. Similarly, for 2049, the structural measures allow a saving of 50% and the non-structural measures allow a saving of 35%, while the use of both at the same time reaches 100%.