El Salvadorian village getting outside help with water needs
The problem is that in the village in Piedras Azules there is just one water source with unreliable water access as the water table changes depending on the time of year and the weather. This leads to long queues at the well, with some residents sometimes waking up at midnight to beat the water rush.
It’s an intolerable situation that has occurred because the water supply system, which is little more than a well, was designed 50 years ago when there were just 40 homes in the village. In recent years the village in El Salvador has grown and there are now 400 houses and a school with 300 students.
Even the school does not have access to water and students are forced to bring with them bottles of water for everything from drinking with to washing their hands after going to the bathroom. Because of the scarcity of water, such hygiene practices become prohibitive, which puts the children at risk of bacterial infections.
El Salvador is a largely dry and arid country, water access has long been an issue that government has been tackling for years, with little success. There are a multitude of reasons for this, one is that El Salvador, like so many Central American countries, is recovering from a legacy of brutal authoritarian leadership, civil war, and socio-economic inequality.
For much of the 20th century El Salvador was run by successive dictators that saw the government become highly centralized, everything was centralized from finance to water works and to this day there is a single entity responsible for water provision and de-centralized control has not been handed down to individual municipalities.
In rural areas, such as the village in Piedras Azules, the official government statistics show that 76% of people have access to water, but only 42% have a water connection to their house. This means that up to 15% of productive time is spent fetching water in rural areas of El Salvador, which has a detrimental effect on local economies.
It is a situation which a foreign organization has now decided to try to rectify, in the village in Piedras Azules at any rate. The Minnesota State Mankato chapter of Engineers Without Borders recently announced a long-term project to provide quality water access to the village of some 400 families and is looking for volunteers.
The EWB is in need of volunteers who can provide translator services, public relations and health science knowledge. In a press release distributed to El Salvador news media the group said that although the word engineer is in their name, much of their volunteer staff is made up of non-engineers providing support services.
These volunteers will help in carrying out an assessment trip to the village so that the needs of the local community can be properly explored, this trip will also serve to get the EWB and local community on the same page in terms of matching what’s needed with expectations and the group’s capacity for delivery.
A decision will then be made on what action is best to take, either drilling a well, laying a pipe network etc will be decided, then a second trip will be done to make assessments of the land for design and surveying purposes and a third trip in 2011 will see the project finished.
Those interested should contact the group at mnsuewb@gmail.com.
Comments
More El Salvador News
RSS-
Editorial Justice Interrupted in Guatemala
Securing justice for victims of the brutal civil war in Guatemala that lasted from 1960 to 1996 was always going to be tough. But the ruling by the ...
-
Guatemalas Maya outraged at genocide ruling annulment
Native Mayas who survived massacres during Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war voiced outrage Wednesday at the overturning of the genocide conviction of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt. Guatemala's Constitutional Court on Monday struck down the 80-year sentence given to Rios Montt along with his conviction for genocide and war crimes. The annulment "mocks the Ixil people," ...
-
A Design Collective Creates Its Own Economy In El Salvador
The Carrot Concept is a multi-disciplinary design collective of artists, architects, and entrepreneurs in El Salvador. They launched their first collection during this past weekend's New York Design ...
-
Latin America Haiti Guatemala Paraguay With Highest Malnutrition
UN’s World Food Programme Paraguay, Guatemala, and Haiti are the countries with the biggest problem of food deprivation and malnutrition in Latin America, according to a report by UN. In the study by the World Food Programme, 25.5% of the Paraguayan population is undernourished, while the figure rises to 30.4% in Guatemala and 44.5% in Haiti. Nearly two million people worldwide are ...
-
El Salvador court delays ruling on abortion case while woman’s life hangs in the balance
After more than a month of delays, El Salvador’s Supreme Court has announced that it will decide whether or not a critically ill woman may receive a lifesaving abortion within the next two weeks. The 22-year-old woman, identified only as Beatriz, pleaded with the justices to spare her life last week, telling the court: ';This baby inside me cannot survive. I am ill. I want to ...
-
El Salvador president meets pope amid Romero hopes
VATICAN CITY -; El Salvador's president meets with Pope Francis on Thursday amid mounting indications that the stars have finally aligned to move slain Archbishop Oscar Romero onto the first key stage on the path toward possible ...
-
Honduras Three Farmers Killed During Land Eviction
Share/Bookmark In the north of Honduras, in the community of San Manuel Corts, three peasants were killed and two others wounded on Friday, when they tried to enter the lands that were expropriated last year by the Instituto Nacional Agrario (National Agrarian Institute). Valentn Caravantes, Celso Ruiz y Celedonio Avelar, who died at the scene, were members of the Farmers’ Movement of ...
-
IMF Executive Board Concludes 2013 Article IV Consultation with El Salvador
form part of the IMF's efforts to promote transparency of the IMF's views and analysis of economic developments and policies. With the consent of the country (or countries) concerned, PINs are issued after Executive Board discussions of Article IV consultations with member countries, of its surveillance of developments at the regional level, of post-program monitoring, and of ex post ...
-
OAS to Hold Workshop for Central America and the Dominican Republic on Participation and Access to Information for Sustainable Development in El Salvador
OAS to Hold Workshop for Central America and the Dominican Republic on Participation and Access to Information for Sustainable Development in El Salvador May 22, 2013 The Organization of American States (OAS) will hold, on Thursday, May 23, in San Salvador, the first Regional Workshop on "Mechanisms of Participation and Access to Information for Sustainable Development" for the ...
-
Guatemalas highest court on Monday overturned a genocide conviction against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt and reset his trial back to when a dispute broke out a month ago over who should hear the case.
Guatemalan former de facto president (1982-1983) and retired general, Jose Efrain Rios Montt,during a hearing in court in Guatemala City on Jan. 21, ...
-
Guatemala’s Rios Montt faces new trial
Guatemala's former dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt wears headphones as he listens to the verdict in his genocide trial in Guatemala City. File photo: ...
Looking at El Salvador
-
El Salvadorian village getting outside help with water needs
A non-profit organization, the Minnesota State Mankato chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) has set their sights on El Salvador and will be travelling to a small village in Piedras Azules to help the local community with their water access needs.
The problem is that in the village in Piedras Azules there is just one water source with unreliable water access as the water table changes depending on the time of year and the weather. This leads to long queues at the well, with some residents sometimes waking up at midnight to beat the water rush. Read more
News from around our Network
