Raquel Delgado Navarro has become a civic leader in the small community of Arenal de Arriba located in the arid hills of the municipality of San José Iturbide in the State of Guanajuato. As far back as she or Maria, her 81 year-old mother, can remember the most consuming issue facing the community has been water.
Back in 2013 we were asked to test the drinking water in Terreros de la Concepción (Terreros), a community in the municipality of San Luis de la Paz, for the first time. What we found was a single well, serving Terreros and five other nearby communities, that produced some of the highest levels of arsenic contamination we had ever seen at the time, roughly 6 and 7 times what the World Health Organization considers acceptable for human consumption for arsenic and fluoride respectively. These communities are only an hour’s drive from San Miguel.
Read MoreLocated down the road, only 15 minutes from Centro , is the community of Agustín González in San Miguel de Allende. Unfortunately, for the last fifteen years, Agustín González’s drinking water has been contaminated with some of the highest levels of fluoride ever measured in San Miguel – more than four times what the World Health Organization considers safe for human consumption.
Read MoreRecently, Caminos de Agua (Caminos) was named as one of three winners of the Innovation Showcase Award, hosted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) in Washington D.C. Caminos was recognized for its new modular water filter – Aguadapt. The day…
Read MoreFor All Who Attended Dr. Mariana Cárdenas’ Keynote On March 20th.
First of all, thank you for attending this important keynote address and for supporting Caminos de Agua, we can’t do it without you. With so much important information being sent your way Wednesday night, due to our running over and not being able to pull it all together, we’d like to “connect the dots,” and provide you with this summary.
Read More
We are very excited to update you in the next couple of days on our incredible week last week to celebrate World Water Day. We had seven events culminating in the signing of an agreement with the Municipal Government to create a Water Plan for the Future of San Miguel! But, before that, we would like to share a response we wrote to a recent news article published in the local paper, Atención, about our Water Monitoring work. An important part of our mission is to educate diverse audiences on extremely complex water quality issues.
Read More
December 5th has been designated as International Volunteer Day. Over the last year, the number of volunteers involved in our work has grown, and we would like to thank each of you for believing in our work and mission to make safe, healthy, and accessible water a reality for many.
Read MoreOur Research and Technology Development Team was named a finalist in the Mexican James Dyson Award for our proposed water filter system, Aguadapt. For ~$30 USD, Aguadapt lasts for over four years, removes organic chemicals and 99.9999% of all pathogens, is easily installed in common containers, and can be adapted to treat other contaminants.
Read MoreRead on to learn more about our work philosophy, rainwater harvesting programs in local communities, and how our groundwater treatment system will enable us to move from serving hundreds of families to thousands. Additionally, you’ll get a chance to meet some of our staff and learn more about our private water testing services and fundraising campaigns.
Read More
In mid November, two representatives from Caminos de Agua traveled to Guadalajara for the first ever annual Mexican rainwater harvesting system conference (1er congreso de captación de agua de lluvia). Elena Diek (a former volunteer now working on her master's thesis) and Aaron Krupp (our Research and Technology Development Coordinator) set up a table to promote our educational materials and ceramic water filters.
Read MoreThe JWH initiative recognized staff member Saúl Juárez’s environmental leadership in 2016 with a €2500 prize to be dedicated exclusively to his professional development. The grant submitted solicited funding for Saúl to learn from diverse organizations and the work they do.
Read MoreThank you for standing by our side!
While the roots of Thanksgiving Day may be in the United States, the act of giving thanks is global. Today, we take a moment to share some of the reasons we have to be thankful as Caminos de Agua.
Caminos de Agua’s research and technology development team (tech team) just got bigger! The Tech Team carries out the research to improve our current technologies as well as design new technologies based on the needs of the communities in our watershed. The research can be tedious – our biochar removal experiments often require 24-hour attention for example – but are solutions that ignite scientists’ and engineers’ imagination and creativity.
Read MoreCaminos de Agua consistently monitors the water quality situation in our watershed by testing hundreds of samples from wells and private residences; conducting interviews with community members on water access and tracking our projects. This year’s data (both quantitative and qualitative) makes the case that the situation is more urgent than ever since we are tracking more contaminated wells and water sources than ever. Our interviews reveal new levels of concern and desperation around water scarcity from community members.
Read MoreDozens of members of the United Communities for Life and Water ('CUVA' in Spanish) coalition gathered together on September 15th in San José del Carmen to celebrate the completion of 15 rainwater harvesting systems in eight different communities with Caminos de Agua since July of this year.
Read MoreCasita Linda and Caminos de Agua have joined forces to work with the community of Palo Colorado to build six large-scale rainwater harvesting systems in five new homes built by Casita Linda as well as one in the community’s elementary school. The 12,000-liter capacity cisterns, combined with ceramic water filters, ensure that families and students will have access to safe and healthy drinking and cooking water year-round.
Read MoreDuring the first week of September, Caminos de Agua – a San Niguel based NGO – ran a six-day course for a group of students from Western Washington university in partnership with Jorge Catalan, a local liaison with the university.
Read MoreSeptember 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.
Read More