The Peruvian coast is characterized by the presence of large desert areas, in the middle of which some valleys stand out as an exception. That is why the ancient existential pre-Hispanic hydraulic systems are particularly important to the extent that they allowed expanding the scarce water resources existing in the area. Thus, they enabled the emergence and development of the currently existing coastal agricultural valleys. Thus, various authors, including Macera, draw our attention to this aspect currently forgotten by researchers: understanding the development of coastal agriculture from recognizing it as hydraulic societies.

The Yayunkchik Platform emerged at the end of 1998, in the city of Huamanga - capital of the department of Ayaucho, in the central highlands of Peru -, when the region was going through the effects of a severe drought caused by the El Niño Phenomenon (FEN, 1998). . At the end of this year, a workshop on water management was held; a small nucleus of interested local institutions was formed in it, which would later give rise to the Platform.