Agustín González How One Community Inspires Others to Protect Their Health
Part 3
The Consequences
Located close to the Allende Reservoir (or “Presa Allende”), and no more than 20 minutes from downtown urban San Miguel, there are several rural communities that lack adequate and safe drinking water access, despite neighboring such a massive body of water. Many of the inhabitants of these communities visibly carry the health effects that result from drinking water contaminated with arsenic and fluoride, the two most prevalent contaminants in our regional water supply. Agustín González, a rural village at the heart of this area, is one of the most impacted communities whose fluoride levels have measured between nearly 4 and 6 times above the allowable limits – the highest levels our testing program has ever registered in the municipality of San Miguel. Arsenic also exceeds both the World Health Organization and Mexican limits.
The arsenic and fluoride contamination in our water supply is the result of the extreme depletion of our groundwater all across the Alto Río Laja Aquifer. As we continue to pump more groundwater out of our aquifer than can be recharged by rainfall (over-extraction), the water table drops – forcing us to drill wells deeper and deeper to reach the ever diminishing resource. Unfortunately, the deeper we dig, the more concentrated the levels of naturally existing arsenic and fluoride become. Some low levels of fluoride are beneficial to our health. However, in excessively high concentrations, like we see in Agustín González, fluoride is responsible for serious health effects such as dental fluorosis – the irreversible staining and deterioration of the teeth that mark a child for life. Fluoride can also become highly concentrated in bones, ultimately leading to severe bone weakening and deformation, especially in children. Even more worrisome is the impact fluoride has on the brain and nerve cells. Regular consumption of high concentrations of fluoride is tied to cognitive and learning impairments in children during the critical developmental stages of life.
Arsenic, on the other hand, is simply toxic to human health. Excessive consumption, even at relatively low contamination levels, is linked to arsenicosis, multiple types of cancer, skin lesions, and other types of chronic diseases, including chronic kidney disease.
Arsenic and fluoride are completely dissolved in the water. Odorless, tasteless, and invisible, these contaminants are, unfortunately, incredibly difficult to remove from water. Standard treatment options, including boiling water, most water filters, and even “whole-house” water treatment systems, common in San Miguel, cannot touch arsenic and fluoride in the water.
At Caminos, we’ve historically relied on Rainwater Harvesting as our ‘go-to’ solution for confronting water contamination simply because rain is naturally free of arsenic and fluoride. When paired with a simple water filter, like the Aguadapt ceramic filter we produce at Caminos, Rainwater transforms into a sustainable source of safe drinking water. This is how we initially became partners with the local SABES highschool at Agustín González. Thanks to the tenacity of 10 students, a couple of dedicated teachers, and the support of partner organization El Maíz Más Pequeño, we were able to implement an extensive educational program and build a first Rainwater Harvesting System at the High School, which served as a demonstrative model to teach others in the surrounding communities about the water crisis and the benefits of the technology.
For the students, clean water in the school wasn't enough, and they were ready to expand clean water access to their individual homes. So, together with the students, we partnered with the municipal government at the time and brought in resources from the Gonzalo Río Arronte Foundation, UBSA (a regional development firm), and individual donors to, over time, build dozens of large-scale rainwater harvesting systems in communities served by the SABES High School. Throughout the initial process, the students themselves were the ones in charge of surveying the neighboring communities, collecting data, educating others, and deciding which communities should benefit from the implementation of these new rainwater harvesting systems. As one student stated during the course of the project:
“Water contamination is a pressing issue today. Working on this problem is a way that we as students can contribute to creating a better world for the future. We need to raise awareness in order to change the direction of our collective future. We made simple changes here, but impactful ones.”
- Emmanuel, a SABES High School student in Agustín González.
At the beginning, nobody expected the project at Agustín González to create such an impact regionally. But, that initial Rainwater Harvesting System in the high school ultimately spurred similar projects in nine neighboring communities in the months and even years to come. It exponentially expanded the regional knowledge base, created new clean water access, and transformed the health of future generations.
In part 4 of our series next week, we will dive into the Response to our water crisis in much more depth, illustrating solutions, like rainwater harvesting, in much more detail while also highlighting the different technologies we’ve developed internally, like our Groundwater Treatment System and Aguadapat, that are helping us make a much deeper impact moving forward.
Photos: (Top) Henry Miller from El Maíz Más Pequeño together with a high school student learning how to attach piping to a rainwater harvesting system at the high school. (Bottom) students constructing a gutter system on the roof of the main school building.
