Kevin Lane, a British-Argentine archeologist who works at Argentina’s top publicly-funded research institute CONICET, won a UNESCO award for leading a team that restored two pre-Hispanic dams in Peru. His work helped small Andean communities get better access to fresh, safe water, and preserved a part of Peruvian cultural heritage.

Lane won first place at the UNESCO-ICOMOS Culture-Nature Prize, which rewards initiatives aimed at preserving and protecting cultural and natural heritage worldwide. ICOMOS is an acronym for the International Council on Monuments and Sites, a professional organization that offers advice to UNESCO on World Heritage Sites.

The “Past Water Futures Project” was carried out between 2022 and 2024 in a mountainous area called Cordillera Negra in the central Andes area. It allowed 440 families to meet their basic water needs for personal use, as well as crop and livestock farming.

The ancient dams are already operational. The first one was restored in 2022 and can hold 20,000 cubic meters at a time. The other, which was finished in November, 30,000 cubic meters.

The restoration project was an alternative to building modern dams in the area, which are more expensive and don’t last as long, according to Lane. “Cement dams tend to be very........

© Buenos Aires Herald