Physical Health Mexico Project #18715

Potable water for 400 in rural Mexico

by Caminos de Agua

Project Report | Jun 2, 2020
We are stonger because of YOU.

By Paco Guajardo | Associate Director

Recently built systems supplement water access

Dear GlobalGiving friends,

In late March, all of us at Caminos de Agua were excited to launch a week of events to celebrate World Water Day. Our featured guest had purchased plane tickets to fly to San Miguel de Allende from the US, venues were rented, a full publicity campaign had been developed in the months leading up to the event and we had recently organized a press conference to publicize events.

And then it all came to a halt.

The municipal government, who was a partner in our events, announced that no public events were to be held until further notice. We rushed to cancel everything and reached out to people that had purchased tickets to some of the events. Everyone was supportive and understanding and once that was done we huddled to figure out how we would redirect our work to meet the new reality and challenges related to water in times of COVID-19. Our lives have not been the same since and we have moved into a different era of communicating and doing our work.

World Health Organization recommendations to prevent the spread of the virus call for hand washing several times a day as well as cleaning surfaces and items that come into our home. While this seems a reasonable approach to many it is not feasible for at least half of the population in Mexico and a great number of the rural communities we serve in the region of central Mexico where we do our work. We also had to accept the fact that many of these communities have limited access to reliable sources of information to help them deal with the pandemic.

In record time we developed a communications network using channels used by many in these communities such as WhatsApp groups and Facebook. We also contacted the grassroots organizations we work within these communities and asked for their advice.
We developed a series of online workshops and materials with valuable information so that communities with little access to water could do the following:

Build a hand washing station, called a Tippy Tap, which has allowed many all over the world to wash their hands multiple times with only a gallon of water.
How to build an emergency rainwater harvesting system to supplement the limited amount of water available.
How to prepare hand sanitizing solution to readily available ingredients; and
Remind families that already have a rainwater harvesting system of the maintenance required before the arrival of the rainy season which is due to start soon.

We also reached out to our loyal friends in a targeted fundraising campaign and were overwhelmed by their generous response.

We have developed new and timely education materials, created communications channels using platforms used by communities with little internet access, and trained staff to help those at risk communities increase their access to water and prevent the spread of the virus in their families and communities. All of this was done thanks to your generosity and willingness to support our work.

We will be busy in the coming months with new initiatives with local government and major foundations.
We are also on track to test our Groundwater Treatment System which has been years in development at a community level. This solution has the potential to help countless communities in our region, elsewhere in Mexico and worldwide.

Thanks to you we are in a good position to help and do more. As always, your support is needed and appreciated, but at this time we want to take the opportunity to thank you and acknowledge all that your contributions make possible.

Much of the support we get from GlobalGiving comes from recurring donations. We know who you are, we are familiar with your names by now, and we welcome your loyal support every month. We hope that at this time you and your loved ones are well and safe. You are an important part of the Caminos de Agua family and we take this opportunity for helping us through when we needed it most.

We encourage all of you to share news of what Caminos de Agua is doing in response to COVID-19 with family and friends who may not know about our work. Information about our new online workshops and materials is available through our website and YouTube channel. Have a look and reach out to us if you have any questions or comments.

To say we are stronger because of you may sound like a marketing tagline, but it is the truth and a sincere statement of how we feel at this time. This response and our continuing work would not be possible without your support.

We will continue to update you on our work and latest initiatives. Rainwater harvesting is still a priority and your contributions are helping us extend our reach. We invite you to take a look at the materials and videos our great communications team developed in-house in record time.

On behalf of the entire Caminos de Agua team, once again, ¡MUCHAS GRACIAS!

Many communities have little or no access to water

Access to water is crucial at this time

Links:

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Nov 16, 2017
Final Update and New Project Launch!

By Dylan Terrell | Executive Director

A family celebrates their new rainwater system

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters,

As the year winds down, we’re excited to close out this project and start a new campaign that is more in line with our goals and current work! Our “One Million Liters” campaign will aim to build 85 large-scale rainwater harvesting systems and install 250 filter systems throughout 2018—giving more than 1,000 people a lifetime of access to safe and healthy drinking water.

While we did not bring in many donations through GlobalGiving this last quarter, we still implemented some great rainwater harvesting projects through other partners. In September, we were invited to a massive community party with United Communities for Life and Water (CUVA-PAS)—a coalition of 21 communities in the most impacted region of our watershed—to celebrate the 64^th rainwater harvesting system we have built together! You can read more about the festivities here.

We held a week-long, university-accredited course with Western Washington University. The course intimately blended theoretical and practical hands-on learning. Lectures focused on water politics in Mexico, development work’s impact on local communities, development of community-led solutions, and technical topics such as water contaminants and rainwater harvesting systems. The students spent several days in a rural community with one of our local partners and participated in the build of a rainwater harvesting system that they funded.

Most recently, we began collaborating with Casita Linda, another local organization. Casita Linda helps families in the region, making less than USD $275/month, build their own homes. Their newest home design incorporates Caminos de Agua’s rainwater harvesting collection and treatment systems. Our team lead a workshop at the local elementary school in the community of Palo Colorado just last month (October, 2017), where Casita Linda families learned about reginal water issues, helped build a 12,000-liter cistern, and installed five ceramic water filters that will serve the school with safe and healthy drinking water for years to come. Additionally, six families in Palo Colorado will receive their own rainwater harvesting systems on their new homes in the coming months. Learn more about this budding new partnership here.

Spanning over nearly three years and involving dozens of partners—including GlobalGiving supporters like yourself—this has been a long and exciting campaign! Since the launch of this campaign at the end of 2014, we have:

Built 124 rainwater harvesting systems in 42 communities, representing over 1.7 million liters of rainwater storage. Global Giving directly supported 49 of those systems, or nearly 60% more than we promised due to the massive contribution by the local communities themselves who provided nearly all of the labor for the systems.
In community homes and schools, we installed 225 ceramic water filters—with a combined capacity to treat 9.8 million liters of water over their lifetime.

On behalf of the Caminos de Agua team, we are grateful for all of your support to help get this very needed rainwater harvesting project off the ground! We have become much more efficient and helped support community processes along the way, but the need is only getting worse. That is why we have decided to start a new campaign, which more accurately reflects the current state of our organization and the growing need for safe and healthy water in our region. So as we say goodbye for now, please keep your eyes peeled for our new campaign starting up immediately, and help us get to one million liters in 2018!

Thank you again for all of your support.

Saludos,
Dylan and the Caminos de Agua Team

A community member teaches a US student technique

San Jose del Carmen Celebrates 5 new cisterns

Celebrating the end of the Western U course

First cistern in Palo Colorado with Casita Linda

Learning to build: beginning of a 7 system project

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Aug 18, 2017
On Track to Shatter our Goal of a Million Liters!

By Dylan Terrell | Executive Director

Students working with Caminos staff

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters,

I’m thrilled to be sharing with you one of our biggest updates yet! We had big news last time. Thanks to the support of GlobalGiving supporters like yourself, in conjunction with the Gates Foundation, we provided dozens of new families with rainwater harvesting and filtration systems. This time, through new and existing partners, we were able to increase that impact substantially.

A quick recap: so far this year we've built 68 rainwater harvesting systems representing more than 730,000-liters of rainwater storage - bringing us close to the 75% mark of our 1 million-liter goal this year! And, we're only halfway into 2017!

Working in partnership with various organizations, community groups, and literally dozens of school students, we’ve built 26 new rainwater harvesting systems this quarter – representing more than 206,000 liters of safe water storage – accompanied by an additional 30 ceramic water filters. Additionally, we’ve expanded one of our high school projects to include a slow-sand biofilter and a biochar treatment system (both with a 300 L/day capacity).

These projects were generously funded by 100 Women Who Care, Lloyd’s of London, University College of London, El Maíz Más Pequeño, GlobalGiving supporters, and even our own staff who turned their wedding into a rainwater harvesting fundraiser!

There is so much going on with these projects, so I’ll try to break them down by region and partners.

San Luis de la Paz: Working in partnership with United Communities for Life and Water (CUVA in Spanish) – a coalition of more than a dozen rural communities in the most affected region of the watershed – we continue to make our greatest impact. This quarter, we built 15 new 12,000L ferro-cement cisterns with local communities and CUVA in this region. We returned to communities we’ve worked with before – like San Antonio de Lourdes, Los Platanos, and Rancho Nuevo – all of whom were ready and eager to get building and finished their projects in record time.

Thanks to the organization efforts of CUVA, we were able to offer new capacity trainings and break ground in new rural communities as well who have been participating in the coalition and eagerly wanting to take advantage of the rainy season. Through this partnership with CUVA, we invited Las Negritas, Misión de Chichimecas, Pozo Hondo, San Antonio de las Mujeres, and San José del Carmen all into our project base – building a total of nine rainwater systems in these new communities.
San Miguel de Allende – EMMP: Thanks to our on-going partnership with El Maíz Más Pequeño (EMMP), we made amazing strides with students from Cerritos High School (take a look at our video and report from last time). We worked with more than 20 students and eight community organizers to build rainwater harvesting systems in five rural communities. Prior to the build, we worked with the Cerritos students to perform a water quality monitoring program in eight different communities, which was followed by a 3-day rainwater harvesting workshop. During the course, we built a 2,500L rainwater harvesting system with the students in the community of San Antonio de Varal. Over the next week, the students broke into four groups and built their own 2,500L systems in community homes in Cañajo, Cerritos, Santas Marías, and Guadalupe de Támbula. The students designed, made materials lists, and installed the systems on their own with no additional technical support from Caminos de Agua! The capacity of young people in the region is growing exponentially! Funding and support were provided by El Maíz Más Pequeño.
San Miguel Viejo: Thanks to a relationship with Ojala Niños, a local education-based nonprofit, Caminos de Agua was invited to work with mothers at the kindergarten in San Miguel Viejo – a small rural community suffering from excessive levels of Arsenic and Fluoride contamination. Roughly, 39 mothers participated in the workshops and construction. Together, we built a 5,000L rainwater harvesting system and installed three ceramic water filters that will serve the kindergarten with safe and healthy drinking water for years to come. Additionally, two more 2,500L systems were built by the mothers themselves, after our training program, in two community households.

Thanks to 100 Women Who Care for providing the funding for this project.
San Miguel de Allende - CBTis #60: This was an amazingly successful project done over 3-weeks with 90 students at the CBTis #60 High School in San Miguel de Allende. Students learned all about regional water issues, rainwater harvesting, and water treatment and ultimately built and installed a 12,000L ferro-cement cistern, a slow-sand biofilter, a biochar treatment system, as well as three ceramic water filters.

Pictures speak much louder than words, so if you have 2-minutes to spare, please take a look at this short video we have prepared.

Many thanks to Lloyd’s of London for providing the funding for this project through University College of London.
La Laguna Escondida: The CBTis project (above) really lit a spark under the students. They came to us after the installation at the High School and asked how they can continue to make an impact in their own communities. Utilizing additional funds from 100 Women Who Care, we were able to do a water quality monitoring project with the students in their own communities, which ultimately led to the building of an additional large-scale system in La Laguna Escondida. The project was completely organized by the students of CBTis. You can see pictures of the training and installation here.

To continue following the progress of our work in rural communities, or to get detailed information on any given project, please take a look at our continuously updated Project Map.

We continue to move forward and have already broke ground on new large-scale rainwater harvesting and treatment systems with partners in the municipality of San Diego de la Unión. But the list of those anxiously waiting to build their own systems is growing every day.

Please help us continue to make an impact in these communities who need safe and healthy water solutions immediately. Consider a donation to our rainwater harvesting and water treatment projects today! It takes less than USD $500 to provide a family with a sustainable source of safe and healthy drinking water for life! Any amount helps us get there.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Saludos,
The Caminos de Agua Team

A mother learns to install plumbing

Students setting the cistern in Laguna Escondida

A high schooler connects a rainwater system

Dozens of students working with Caminos staff

A decorated rain cistern in San Antonio de Lourdes

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