By Stephanie Miller | Business Development Writer
The Central Water Committee of the 17-Communities Project located in the district of San Antonio de Cortes, signed a purchase and sale document permitting them to acquire four plots of land located within the micro-watershed of Montana de las Nieves. This watershed provides water to more than 17 communities and the efforts to protect it began in 2008. The Committee has gradually acquired more land, and with this purchase, a commitment was renewed for each owner to contribute an additional amount in order to build savings for purchasing additional territory within the watershed. This serves as an important and notable increase in empowerment and initiative among water committees to protect the principal water source in the district.
On a different note, Water For People recognizes that monitoring is a vital tool for programmatic sustainability and improvement. Therefore, Water For People and our local government partners collect data that goes beyond ensuring that water is flowing and infrastructure is functional to assessing levels of service and the capacity of the institutions responsible for providing continued and expanded water service. We use technology called Akvo Flow, a mobile-based monitoring system built from Google Earth mapping and cloud computing, to collect data annually. Additionally, Water For People holds annual Reflection Sessions in each country where we work, with participation from Water For People staff and local partners, to gauge progress and identify successes, as well as barriers, to reach effective and sustainable service delivery. Since both monitoring and Reflection Sessions fully include our local partners, they double as capacity-building exercises, helping municipalities prepare to eventually take over monitoring and ensure that water flows Forever.
The annual Reflection Session in Honduras took place this summer with participation from local partners from each of the Honduran districts in which Water For People works. Considerable progress has been achieved in both EF districts, though there are still hurdles to overcome. Among the local organizations and district governments that facilitate the work, there continues to be a firm commitment to embrace the challenge of reaching Everyone!
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