The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has facilitated access to water for more than 6,000 families in 44 rural and indigenous communities in central and southeastern Mexico, thus alleviating the lack of access to safe water caused by the pandemic of covid.
The project, carried out together with Fundación FEMSA and Ayuda en Acción México, focused on the states of Campeche, Chiapas, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tabasco and Yucatán, the United Nations said in a statement.
“The covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the lack of access to drinking water services, as well as the water needs and vulnerability in which more than 5 million people live in Mexico, mainly in rural areas and indigenous regions,” displays the document.
With a total investment of 8 million pesos (about 408,000 dollars), the organizations have carried out 321 actions in 44 locations, which have allowed them to reach almost 23,000 people and each beneficiary family has access to 200 liters per day.
Actions include installing rainwater harvesting systems, repairing and installing spare parts in the public drinking water network, and improving domestic water supply and distribution.
They also focused on installing hand washing stations, installing water purification filters, strategic reforestation in water recharge areas, and environmental protection of natural water sources.
“Ecotechniques have also allowed us to guarantee the conservation of ecosystems and to benefit the entire environment. Together we promote the right of access to water, today and tomorrow, for the new generations,” said the general manager of Ayuda en Acción México, Tania Rodríguez, about the work done.
For his part, the sustainable development manager of the FEMSA Foundation, Carlos Hurtado, underlined “the strong link that exists between water and health, from hand washing to its intake and its use in the production and preparation of food”, facts that have become evident since the coronavirus pandemic.
Likewise, the people living in these communities received technical training to install, maintain and repair the new water infrastructure.
According to the testimonies of the beneficiaries reported in the release, the project has allowed water to reach all homes in the town of Acalapa, in the state of Puebla, and in other places it has prevented women from having to travel long distances to access it.
“Women are the most interested in solving the water shortage. We walked through the hills to get to the spring, carrying 40 liters and the baby on our backs. (Now) we don’t have that daily concern, we take that weight off our shoulders,” stressed an unidentified member of the Women’s Water Committee from the city of Luquilhó in the southern state of Chiapas.
