Saguapac -Drinking water and sanitation service cooperative, Bolivia.
The indigenous peoples of the plains believe that everything that exists in nature has life. In the case of water, the one who governs the water and every living thing that exists in its ecosystem is the o'e, or rainbow. In turn, the rainbow is responsible for the jichi who are the guardians of certain sources water sources and take care of the life that lives there. There is a jichi for each lagoon, for example, and can take different forms, it could be a viper, a mermaid, a crocodile, a stingray or something else. These jichi could be on land, underwater and flying in the skies.
In the illustration you can see a jichi in the shape of a crocodile. When he wanted, he could turn into a person, or take people to live under the lagoon, and then form a family and live both outside and inside the water.
When they do not treat the jichi well, or kill it in the lagoon or in the water source, the place remains without water. Similarly, when the local people did not take care of the water, it caused the anger of the jichi.
