Project Status at Visit: Complete – Successful | Project Implementer: Agua Para la Salud
Date of Visit: April 2010 | Report by: Jodi Moss | Photos by: Tristan Moss
The inhabitants of the Guatemalan village La Libertad often went without water for days at a time during the summer months. The village’s water distribution system, being 20 years old, was no longer sufficient to service its increasing population.[1] Agua Para La Salud, led by Lynn Roberts, partnered with US Engineers Without Borders (University of Wisconsin and Milwaukie chapters) on a project to solve this La Libertad’s water problems. In January 2010, they expanded La Libertad’s water distribution system by adding a second spring and a chlorination tank.
Cecilia Bernal Reondo and Elena Romiras Corio are 5th grade students at the school in La Libertad. Before the expansion project, their mothers often used to send them to the neighboring village, Sarquil, to ask for water. Cecilia and Elena would wait, sometimes hours, until the families in Sarquil finished their own chores so that they could take whatever water was left over.
Sometimes the families in Sarquil would have no water to spare, and Cecilia and Elena would walk another 30 minutes to collect water from small seeps and puddles in the hillside. There was competition for the water that was there. Often they were able to collect only a very little.
The need for water was a priority above all other things. Cecilia and Elena were often late for school and sometimes their hunt for water would take all day. Their mothers would pull them out of school in the afternoon so they could go collect water when it was particularly scarce. Cecilia and Elena say that the fact that water was unreliable made their lives stressful and unpredictable.
Cecilia and Elena were each required to bring two liters of water to school every day to be used in preparing food, washing dishes, and washing hands during the dry months. But Jose Cobo Guzman, school principal, says that conditions at the school have improved dramatically now that the village has a reliable water source. Attendance at school is more regular, students are cleaner, and the school always has enough water to wash and prepare food. This leaves more time to focus on learning.
When asked what difference the water expansion has made to their lives, Cecilia and Elena say that life is more tranquil because they always have water. They do not have to wear dirty clothes, they can wash every day, and they attend school every day. In the afternoon, they spend more time on homework and helping with household chores because they do not have to collect water.
Cecilia and Elena asked Lynn what would happen if the new water system breaks. Lynn explained that because the community in La Libertad helped to build the system, they understand how to fix it. Agua para la Salud continues to play a consultative role and will help with repairs if needed. Other similar systems installed by Agua para la Salud are still operational after decades of heavy use due to the work of the maintenance programs that are funded by International Rural Water Association (a US not-for-profit organization).
According to Lynn, the January 2010 expansion is a vast improvement for La Libertad, but the population is continuing to grow and the village will need more water before long. Agua para la Salud has identified a number of accessible springs that could be tapped, but the village is unable to save enough money to install the required pumps and distribution system on their own. International aid will continue to be necessary in order to help this community become self-sustaining.
[1] La Libertad was a “free fire” zone during the Guatemalan civil war. Most of its former inhabitants fled to nearby mountains. In 1996, the Peace Accord agreements relocated these and other refugees to the village now known as La Libertad. Under the Peace Accord agreements, the Guatemalan government installed a simple system that distributed water from a single spring to a single water faucet for each household. Now 15 years later, the single spring water source is no longer sufficient for the post-war population increase in the village.
Agua para la Salud is an internationally funded Guatemalan not-for-profit organization and member of Blue Planet Network’s Peer Water Exchange. More Info>>