A seemingly impossible situation in Guatemala
In the mountainous regions of Guatemala where people rely on coffee farming for their livelihoods, access to safe water is extremely limited. The town, El Pajal, has access to a spring that provides clean water, but it is not nearly enough to meet the demands of all of the community members. While there is some water infrastructure that provides water distribution to roughly half of the community, the pump used to provide this water is regularly out of commission with frequent energy failures. Likewise, the pump is fueled by diesel, a costly fuel source. Remote energy is extremely difficult to sustain in rural mountainous regions. Adjacent to El Pajal is the town Cipresales, which is in an even more desperate situation with no water taps or nearby water source. These compounding factors seem to make providing clean water in El Pajal and Cipresales impossible.
Many organizations have turned away from El Pajal and Cipresales because the task of providing safe water seemed impossible. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested over the past two decades in building water lines and storage tanks along the ridgeline to serve the villages of Pajal, Reforma, Cipresales, and Chalum; yet water is still neither consistently available nor safe to drink.
Despite all of these challenges, the Healing Waters team would not give up. We partnered with 410 Bridge and Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS), working in Cipresales, as well as another coffee co-op organization, ACODIHUE, working in the community of El Pajal to develop a sustainable safe water network to serve the communities of this area.
Ingenuity is Needed to Solve Difficult problems
Problems like these require creativity and ingenuity. They require the ability to imagine what is possible. Imagining the possibilities, the Healing Waters team worked to utilize river water several kilometers away. The river resides in a valley and it would require pumping water uphill several kilometers to reach the people of El Pajal and Cipresales- no easy task.
The Healing Waters team has developed a two-system approach using the nearby stream and the river in the valley. The water from the spring is relatively clean and only requires ultrafiltration, which works by removing pathogens to produce clean water. However, the spring water alone cannot meet the community’s needs. Therefore, the system will also utilize water from the river, which requires more purification, and utilize nanofiltration to remove excessive minerals, metals, herbicides, pesticides, chemicals, and dyes.. Because the river water is located farther from the town and is in the valley, gravity is used to pump this water uphill several kilometers to reach people’s households and provide continuous safe water. Once fully operational, this project will ensure a consistent safe water supply for 2,500 people.
Pioneering Safe Water Solutions
“It makes me very happy to be a part of this project that is producing clean water. Because the water from the same river now arrives right to our homes as purified, clean water! So we are all healthier now! So much less sickness! It is a true miracle! When I was a child I never ever would have imagined that the water from the river that is so far below our community could get all the way up the mountain, to our homes, and that there would ever be a way for us to get purified water right from the faucet in our home!”
Carlos, Water System Operator, El Pajal
Healing Waters International takes an entrepreneurial approach to global development, leaning into hopeful solutions that others may find daunting. The staff takes a positive approach, pushing through barriers and boundaries because on the other side of these are precious people trapped in poverty who need access to water. Donate today to be a part of something that is revolutionizing lives.