Disaster relief and project support for southern Mexico
September brought disaster to southern Mexico in the form of a 8.1 magnitude earthquake and hurricane Katia which destroyed buildings and infrastructure, displaced families, and disrupted water supplies. our thoughts are particular with the families who lost loved ones.
Friends of ours quickly reached out asking for support of the community San Juan, located in Chiapas - Mexico’s southernmost state. The community was cut-off from its drinking water and turned to water from a filthy, stagnant lagoon. Immediate health effects were seen in the children. Due to the urgency of this situation, Caminos de Agua is responding quickly by working to supply all 23 families in San Juan with ceramic water filters.
We are able to place these filters thanks to our relationship with Concern America in Chiapas who distributes our ceramic water filters as part of their clean water programming. Bruno Morales, their Project Coordinator for Chiapas, installs our filters in 5-gallon buckets systems. These systems have proven to be robust, with users reporting that their systems easily survived the earthquake. Bruno is working with local partners to get the filters delivered to San Juan by the end of the week.
Caminos de Agua funded these filters as an unplanned budget item in a time of crisis. Help us to cover this expense and reach more families by making a donation earmarked for Chiapas today.
For just USD$30, you can provide a ceramic water filter which provides safe drinking water to a family.
Caminos de Agua will continue to support communities and organizations throughout southern Mexico impacted by these natural disasters through ceramic water filter distribution and coordinating an on-ground workshop for organizations and communities in Chiapas State to construct large-scale community water treatment plants. These systems—designed by our partner Dr. Joshua Kearns at NC State University— use up-flow gravel, slow-sand biofiltration, and high temperature biochar for remediation of organic chemicals and are an excellent, high-quality solution for communities with an abundance of surface water, like those in Chiapas.
