Water and Poverty

This is a great article about the correlation of water and poverty.

humanosphere.org/

Meeting with the Oaxaca Finance Minister

Juan Jose (the director of INSO) met with the Finance Minister of Oaxaca on Monday night to discuss our proposal to help the State with some of its water and sanitation challenges. We have been working on this proposal for many months now and working hard to secure a discussion with Mr Cagija after we were hosted by him in earlier last Fall.

Our proposal is a four part plan to help the Minister better understand the water and sanitation situation in Oaxaca and proved him with sustainable solutions. Our proposal covers:

• Develop a strategy for water and sanitation for the central valley
• Review the existing wastewater treatment plants and determine if they can be brought up to federal standards.
• Provide the Minister with a framework (technical, economic, environmental, sustainability) to evaluate new water and sanitation projects.
• Plan the implementation of pilot projects to demonstrate the technology innovations outlined in our strategy.

Like many things in Mexico they move much slower than here in the US. Thus, we are cautiously optimistic that we can secure this contact within the next few months.

With roadblocks settlers claimed water

TIME
'2011-12-15 '
With roadblocks settlers claimed water
Ivan Castellanos

The protesters closed Crespo cruise and Allende. Photos: Taurine

[8:01] Inhabitants of the colony Monte Albán blocked access to the Direct Administration of Public Works and Water Services and Sewerage of the City of Oaxaca (Adosapaco) and closed the crossing on Crespo street and Allende, to require restore the water service was suspended them for over two months.

Miguel Angel Vazquez Carmona, treasurer of Life Committee Neighborhood (live together), reported that dependency is not received by sending payment receipts, including rate hikes, which they consider an abuse.
Adosapaco demanded to replace potable water service in this settlement, because more than two months do not receive liquid promptly charge them and their families are suffering the consequences. He said to try to resolve the conflict pipes to send them that people can collect water and cover your needs, but this measure is insufficient for the settlers. He replied that there are more than 5 000 inhabitants of this colony is one of the largest in the city, and should have some kind of priority it is that it generates more income to this agency also raised the price of quotas. He said they indicated that the two wells that supplied the area had collapsed, but they knew that new subdivisions were connected to the lines Sets by one of these wells, although it was exclusive to the colony.

"We want a quick response and demand the reinstatement of the Services so that it arrives by pipeline, but it is insufficient because there is no coordination with the Comviva of this colony," he said. He complained that despite not having the service, they still charge for providing receipts and send them without any discount, and they only occasionally lowered seven pesos, considered a joke. However, he said that the situation remains unchanged and have not had satisfactory answers to their demands even though they have acted properly and through legal channels to seek prompt attention. He said the despair and fell upon the settlers, so they decided to make this protest, because they do not know what else to do to address them.
In the absence Adosapaco care, said they are willing to go to the end, as this service is basic to any human settlement.

Water for Oaxaca - Rain Catchment Campaign

Saludos (Hi) from all of us at Water for Humans!

Imagine only getting municipal water once a week for 2 hours!

Imagine not flushing the toilet for 2 days because there is no water!

Water for Humans (WFH) is taking action to help alleviate the life-endangering effects of major water shortages in Oaxaca City, Mexico. We are responding to the cries for help from numerous families in the besieged Victor Bravo Ahuja district of Oaxaca City. They are asking Water for Humans and you to help them gain access to clean, safe drinking water. Here is a first-hand portrait of the human toll severe water shortages are exacting from the perspective of one family in Victor Bravo Ahuja!

Meet Susana Eva Vazquez
Suzanna is a community activist in the Victor Bravo Ahuja district of Oaxaca City. She wrote to Water for Humans and the Institute for Nature and Society in Oaxaca asking for our help in solving her neighborhood's chronic water shortages.

This is what Susana told us: "Our neighborhood was a landfill and quarry before becoming a residential district. Originally, water service consisted of two spigots; over time, the delivery system was expanded. Now, due to population growth, it is extremely insufficient. Last year, during the dry season most residences received water only two times per week for few hours per day. The water ... is not potable."

With your support, here is how WFH wants to help Susana and her family...

Together with INSO, we are building 8,000 gallon rainwater catchment systems - a pilot project to be tested in eight homes in the neighborhood. The community members are committed to solving their water shortage problem by putting in almost $9,000, toward the total of $31,000!


Will You Answer Susana's Plea for Help?

You can help Susana and her family in this life-saving effort by helping Water for Humans today with a $25 donation via our site. Our financial goal is to collect $6,000 towards this cause. Your generous contribution will play a critical role in Water for Humans being able to implement this innovative, low-tech, sustainable solution. With your donation, Water for Humans will bring tangible and significant improvements to the lives of Susana and her family and so many others in Oaxaca City!

How to Help

First, you can help us spread the word via our site by inviting your Facebook friends and email contacts to join our funding efforts (by clicking the icons to the left of the "Donate" button on the crowdrise webpage). Your Confidentially is Guaranteed - Your personal information will not, under any circumstances, be shared with any third parties!

Thank you!
You are a person who cares about the world we live in and you have demonstrated that by supporting Water for Humans in its effort to help Susana and her family in Oaxaca City. Susana and her family thank you for your support! "Muchas gracias!"

See the Difference Your Donation Will Make For Susana and So Many Others In Oaxaca City!
Learn how your generous support will impact lives in Oaxaca and elsewhere by following the Water for Humans' Blog, our You Tube Channel and looking for updates on Facebook. We invite you to join the nearly 300 people who are "Followers" of Water for Humans on Facebook!

You can always donate directly at

Droughts threaten nation’s food supply in Mexico

BY VÍCTOR MAYÉN

On Sunday, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) deputies said that the country’s food supplies may be at risk. Nearly 500,000 hectares of crops of basic grains may fail due to droughts. 

In view of this situation, Manuel Humberto Cota Jiménez, the Secretary of the Agriculture and Livestock Committee, asked President Felipe Calderón to declare as disaster areas the states that have been affected by lack of rain. He added that the federal government must also send resources immediately to respond to the emergency. 

According to Cota, the federal government’s attitude regarding this situation is regrettable.

“The federal government is not offering the necessary resources to assist the rural zones that have been damaged by this situation. The government must destine resources to the affected states, not only to the states that are holding elections,” Cota said. 

The National Meteorological Service (SMN) said that the states that have been most severely affected are: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Jalisco and Guanajuato. 

The cold temperatures in northern Mexico earlier this year and the recent drought have devastated this region. If actions are not taken soon, Mexico’s food supplies may be endangered. 

Cota said that the drought will have a higher impact than this year’s freezing temperatures. Droughts are more serious because they can cause wildfires and death of livestock, which would cause a food crisis in Mexico.

Community Well Water Analysis in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla

From Nelly Fernandez Tellez Water for Humans-- Mexico Operations

On 25 April, I paid a visit to the community of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla.

I was there to obtain a copy of the results from annual analysis of community well water conducted last year, and to talk with the manager of the water committee.

Initial results show the water is fairly good quality, however the well pump failed last year and the new replacement pump is starting to show some corrosion.  Currently, the municipality does not have the funds to perform new water analysis, and they have asked Water for Humans to help them determine the root cause of the pump failure and better understand the water quality.

In response we are invigorating the costs of performing a more complete water analysis, and forecasting the funding requirements to support this request.

Water testing at the School in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla

MARCH 22, 2011.
By Our Oaxaca staff  Nelly Fernandez Tellez
I made a visit to the school in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla meet with the head master; Valentin Gomez Farias to test the water quality, receiving the parameters measured were: pH, hardness, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, iron, manganese, salmonella, E. coli, Aeromonas and other coliforms.

 
These tests were made because "Water for Humans", aims to get to install filters at school, and thus the school can stop buying jugs of water. The children will be able to drink water straight from the tap and the money save will be used to invest in material for children or school improvement in general.

 
The results were quite favorable and we can say that although the water is clean, We do not feel nor do the children & staff feel safe drinking untreated water. This is because none of the incoming well water is treated or inspected on a regular basis.  Thus we hope to install a water purifying filter to ensure the greater safety of the children and staff.

World Water Week-- Update

I hope you all know that this week is World Water Week.  For us the week started off with an event at Chief Sealth High School in West Seattle on Monday Evening.  We had an information table where we met over 50 + new folks interested in our work in Oaxaca. We also had new promotional materials designed by Jeffrey Hostert Graphic Design.  This was followed by a talk by Robert Glennon. Robert spoke about the current state of drinking water here in the US and how we are potentially headed for some challenging times with respect to access to adequate safe water.


Then on Tuesday we again hosted a table at Seattle City Hall.  Again this event was a success in that we met a lot of new faces and we were happy to hear that some of the folks who came to the event already knew about us, but did not know exactly what we are doing. On the upside we had to print up more handouts as we almost ran out by 11am.


We now have a new sticker to help promote our work

IT's World Water Day :)

March 22 is World Water Day.  Please swing by Seattle City Hall, as we will be there as part of the cities and county's efforts to support Water awareness.  We will have an information table setup to help us spread the word about our work.

EXAMPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THE WORLD.

KOREA.
South Korea is, in many ways, a model of reforestation for the rest of the world.  When the Korean War ended, half a

century ago, the mountainous country was quite deforested.  Since 1960, under the dedicated direction of President Park

Chung Hee, the South Korean government put into effect a national reforestation effort.  Basing itself on the formation of

rural cooperatives, hundreds of thousands of people mobilized themselves to dig irrigation ditches and create terraces to

help the trees in the arid mountains.  Today, the forests cover 65 percent of the country, an area that comes to

approximately 6 million hectares.  When I drove through South Korea in November of 2000, I found it gratifying to see the

abundance of trees covering the mountains, which a generation ago were naked. 
www.ecogaia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=306:recuperar-los-bosques-con-elcambio-de-habitos&catid=3:noticias-y-articulos&Itemid=4

NIGERIA.

In Nigeria, the farmers who encountered a serious drought and the desertification of the 1980s, began, while they were

preparing the land for their crops, to allow some acacia shoots that grew in their fields to emerge.  When those trees

matured, they reduced the wind velocity, and with that, soil erosion.  Acacia, a pulse, fixes enriched nitrogen into the soil

and contributes to increased crop yield.  During the dry season, the leaves and the pods supply forage for livestock.  The

trees also provide the farmers with firewood.  This act of allowing 20-150 shoots per hectare to grow to maturity over

about 3 million hectares has revitalized the agricultural community of Nigeria.


DIFFERENT PLACES IN THE USA.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/las-10-tendencias-mas-prometedoras/1480

ONE-EYED ARGENTINE DEER.

COSTA RICA AND THE IRIS.
www.tendencias21.net/innovacion/Papel-de-lirio-un-ejemplo-de-innovacion-para-la-sostenibilidadosustentabilidad_a16.html

USING THE IRIS
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/10/18/index.php?section=sociedad&article=045n1soc


www.pym.org/.../ewg/ gaviotas/200506image001b.jpg
www.yesmagazine.org/.../ 33/6_Gaviotas_wind.jpg
www.revistavirtualpro.com/.../ ejemplo.jpg
www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/espanol/buildings/gbsstoc.shtml
www.encolombia.com/medicina/materialdeconsulta/Admon_Salud/Hospital_Autosuficiente.htm

Autonomous Life Conference --Oaxaca

 Water is not a commodity; it is an asset; it is considered sacred, from the ground, from the gods or nature, assured the professor of Morelos University, Jean Robert, a participant in the seminar to rethink the relationship with water.

As part of the meeting for an autonomous life that initiated the investigation Juan Jose dictated the masterly conference.  The tools of autonomous sustainability where he said: They removed from us the water and now pretend to return it as a commodity when water is a good, an asset that does not need to be sold because it is from nature and for those that require it.

He added that the first affected by the transformation of the water to an economic value is the poor.

The problem of the water should be the over exploitation of the aquifers, transference of the waters from another and the desertification stated the investigator.  He considered that one has to look for alternatives before the water crisis that lives in the country and world. He mentioned the Federal District case, where it had the inundation, but it is where the water problem also exists.

The Swiss investigator, a nationalized Mexican, said it is characteristic of the society of that greater the abundance, that greater the scarcity.Jean Robert was collaborator of Ivan Illich—author of a series of criticisms of key instructions of progress of modern culture of 30 years duration and works on water themes, energy, habitation, city and transport.  Actually he develops his reflections in the wheel of material culture.

The meeting for an autonomous life ends April 11th, and in those days in the El Llano Park will have diverse activities and samples that have to strengthen an autonomous life.

Oaxaca faces severe water supply problems

March 10th, 2010

Oaxaca faces severe water supply problems
Summary:
“A bottle of water is 5,000 to7,000 times more costly than what one would pay for normal water distribution services.”

A public meeting was held to re-evaluate the relationship between Oaxacans and their water supply.  Specialists and academics in the field explained about the critical condition of the sewage water in Oaxaca from ecological and management point of views: there are serious water supply and pollution problems.

Pointed out were the serious effects of the irresponsible relationship society has had to its water resources on the water table and bodies of water, including overexploiting and contaminating the rivers due to a lack of functioning sewage treatment plants.

Juan Jose Consejo talked about the difficulties facing the water tables in the Valles Centrales region, where the number of wells have drastically increased in just 1 year.

Raul Corzo Jimenez, general coordinator of urban development, public works and municipal ecology of Oaxaca, highlighted the actions the municipality has taken to mitigate the effects of water contamination, but admitted that there is a lot left behind in the material.

He spoke specifically about the ecological ordinance (not sure if that’s really what the Spanish word means) signed recently in conjunction with federal and state offices, which will serve as a tool toward a new path to sustainable development and care for resources, like water.

There was a reading of a text by Jean Robert, of the University of Morelos, which talked principally about the origins of the philosophy of water as a resource for the community as opposed to a market interest for big businesses.  The arguments set forth in the text are supported in works by Carl Marx and Lockey Malthus.

After the public meeting, Carlos Plasencia, organizer of the Water Forum, indicated that according to studies, the cost of bottled water is 5-7 thousand times more than the cost of normal household water distribution services, and in addition, recent studies show that 20%of bottled water is not as clean or pure as the companies contend.

GEA and UABJO presented on alternative sanitation for sewage waters.  The conference ended with a review of the conclusions and proposals, which in future stages the seminar will return to.

What is the significance of the privatization of water?

Please check out this video from John Todd.

What is the significance of the privatization of water?

Why keeping water as a public asset.

Official Implementation Launch

This is a copy of an email letter we are sending out to our supporters. Please join our current supporters and help us meet our funding goal.

The time has finally come for us to really "jump in the pool." We are going to Mexico on July 7th to make it happen. Please help us launch our passion.

Help Water for Humans bring low-cost, safe drinking water to the communities of Guadalupe Etla and Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla in Oaxaca, Mexico .

Link to our project page

Over 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water. Lack of water and contaminated water sources are two of the leading causes of illness and death worldwide. Water for Humans ( www.waterforhumans.org ), a nonprofit social venture enterprise, is working to bring clean water solutions to communities in need by partnering with local, social entrepreneurs. These partnerships ensure clean drinking water, local job creation, and the protection of local water assets.

Your donation will help Water for Humans launch its initial pilot project in Guadalupe Etla and Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Our goal is to raise $25,000 to support the launch of this project in July, 2009.

All donations are greatly appreciated.

Make a tax-deductible donation now

Link to our secure online donation system

Your donation will enable us to forge key partnerships within the community and to begin the installation of water purifiers in key locations. These systems will provide families, schools, health clinics and restaurants with a low-cost alternative to purchasing five gallon jugs of bottled drinking water on a daily basis.

Water for Humans recognizes the critical need of ensuring safe drinking water today and in the future. We work to ensure immediate access to potable water while also supporting clean water in the future through watershed restoration. This initial project is designed to deploy water filter systems, build support for watershed restoration and to begin building the funds to support our long term mission.

To learn more about Water for Humans and our work in Oaxaca please visit our website: www.waterforhumans.org, and check our linked blog waterforhumans.blogspot.com to follow our progress.

Thank You,

Rick McKenney

Stan Brown

El agua es un elemento indispensable

“El agua es un elemento indispensable y... [al] momento no podemos abandonar la atención a los mantos freáticos”. 

Nazario García Ramírez, dirigente del Frente Ecologista “Aguas San Felipe”. Gobierno del Estado de Oaxaca