[This newsletter is roughly 1100 words, or about a 6-minute read]
Photo: Saul Juárez, a Community Organizer with Caminos (wearing a blue t-shirt and hat on the left), participating in a hands-on workshop for setting up a Rainwater Harvesting System as part of the Agua y Salud Project.
Our Joint Project with the Río Arronte Foundation: A Triumph for Clean Water Access
Since late 2020, Caminos de Agua (Caminos) has embarked on what stands as our most ambitious project over our 12 years of existence. Together with our core community and organizational partners – including INANA, A.C., CUVAPAS, SECOPA, and the San Cayetano Community Center – we've persistently expanded access to clean water through rainwater harvesting, sanitation, and water filtration solutions for those most affected by our region's water crisis. Over the course of three years in our collaborative project, "Agua y Salud" (Water & Health), we have collectively worked across a total of 76 communities – constructing an astounding 780 large-scale Rainwater Harvesting Systems, which can produce more than 290 million liters of clean water storage over their lifetime.
“Once we built our own rainwater systems, we couldn't stop there. We had to reach others from our broader community. We needed to keep on working, not just for us, but for all of our neighbors."
María del Jesús – teacher, organizer, and mother from the community of Salitrillo
Photo: María del Jesús, on the right, sharing information about the water situation in Salitrillo with her fellow community members.
The profound trust vested in Caminos and our collaborators by the Río Arronte Foundation for executing this pivotal project have been both an immense honor and a massive responsibility. Recognizing the urgent need for serious investments in our region, this prestigious Foundation's commitment sparked additional support among other organizations and government agencies dedicated to addressing the water crisis in our region. For Caminos, this support meant stepping up to a new level in order to expand clean water access to thousands; it has also translated into a substantial increase in our impact, elevating our organization in terms of visibility within Mexico's environmental community and beyond.
The original goal of the project was aimed at facilitating access to clean water in just 30 communities within the Upper Laja River Basin who were facing severe groundwater contamination and scarcity. However, utilizing the financial commitment of the Río Arronte Foundation, we were able to leverage support from other actors like the Municipal Government of San Diego de la Unión, Rotoplas, several smaller foundations, and individual donors, to provide additional support and expand the scope of the project. In fact, through this coalition of collaborators, we were able to more than double the number of systems and communities we worked in over the course of the project.
"Our collaboration with Caminos de Agua has been truly transformative for us... Now, we are able to capture rainwater and provide people with a reliable source of healthy drinking water, delivering numerous benefits to the families of San Diego de la Unión."
– Juan Carlos Castillo Cantero, Mayor of San Diego de la Unión
Photo: Mayor Juan Carlos Castillo Cantero of San Diego de la Unión gives a "fist pump" to Saúl from Caminos.
The project's achievements can be summarized as follows:
A 3-year process fortified the working alliance between Inana, A.C. and Caminos de Agua, which allowed us to engage with, and secure additional commitment from, new actors from the private, governmental, and social sectors.
Expanded clean water access to more than double the initially committed communities with 37 dry toilets, 780 Rainwater Harvesting Systems, and an equal number of ceramic water filters, significantly increasing access to safe drinking water.
Monitoring 22 wells in collaboration with grassroots organizations CUVAPAS and SECOPA to update our understanding of regional water quality and while developing a new, interactive “Educational Water Monitoring” Program.
Quarterly regional workshops in our “Water Learning Communities” Program that brought together dozens of actors from communities and organizations throughout our watershed, and from around the country, to foster skills, collective identity, organizational strengthening, and community leadership (learn more about this incredible program in an earlier newsletter in this series).
Strengthened grassroots organizations for sustained social impact, acknowledging the clear need for generational succession.
Implementing a massive internal Monitoring and Evaluation Program of our work, visiting more than 500 families to measure the impact of our intervention.
Receiving an external evaluation of this project with experts and observers from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Photo: Members of the UNPD program conducting an interview with a beneficiary of the Agua y Salud Project.
This project underscored the extensive collaborative effort that dozens of rural communities, grassroots partners, other NGOs, institutions, government, and even the private sector can have on water security in a region facing serious water quality and scarcity challenges. Over three years of unwavering dedication through extensive meetings, community gatherings, workshops, and longer technical trainings, this coalition of actors has made a significant imprint on our shared region – the Alto Río Laja Watershed.
"We do not settle; we continue. We strive to inform ourselves and others who at times refuse to know or believe. Here we stand, defending our territory, having faith in rural life, teaching the youth to value water. Dreaming of being healthy in a place that is healthy for us."
The “Collective Voice,” Water Learning Community Session
The support from the Río Arronte Foundation enabled additional funding through collaborations with the Rotoplas corporation, Alstom Foundation, Planet Buyback, UBS, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Miguel de Allende, Clean Water for Life (an independent fundraising initiative of individual donors in San Miguel), other individual supporters, and the Municipality of San Diego de la Unión. Notably, this project leveraged more than USD $1.3 million dollars, all of which went to provide clean water solutions for those most vulnerable in our region.
Today, after a nearly 6-month extensive and meticulous review process, we are thrilled to announce the extension of our collaborative partnership with the Río Arronte Foundation for a new phase from 2024-2026! Over the next three years, we plan to substantially amplify our influence and impact, greatly surpassing the achievements of our current efforts. The Río Arronte Foundation has more than doubled their commitment and allowed us to expand our scope to include a critical public health study and new technologies, like our Groundwater Treatment System. We are eager to update you on this ongoing journey of our Agua y Salud initiative, as it continues to foster a lasting and transformative impact in the months and years ahead. All of this work is made possible by a continuously growing community of collaborators who have proven we can work successfully together for the greater good.
Photo: Luz Villafuerte, from CUVAPAS, sharing information with a group of community members regarding our regional water situation.
"There are so many things that make us stronger together. Caminos de Agua is in San Miguel, and we [partner organization CUVAPAS] are in San Luis de la Paz, but we all belong to the same watershed. By being united, we make the [water crisis] visible, which allows us to propose solutions to government and authorities, solutions that are affordable, practical, and real; Solutions that actually reach people – because buying bottled water that costs 42 pesos each, that’s not a solution.”
