Goal 6.b: Participation of local communities (II)

The picture shows the area of Xesampual, cantón Chuchexic, in Santa Lucia Ututlán, in the Departamento de Sololá, on the day a group of Latin American professionals, who were attending an AECID course at the la Antigua Training Centre, visited the water catchment installations of the community. The system has the particular feature of a system of solar panels to make the pumping and impulsion mechanisms sustainable. The whole system was built with funding from FCAS.

The moment photographed is when the local community water committee explain the system to the visitors, and we should highlight the presence of women on the committee, who have been trained for all the system management and maintenance tasks, and who are explaining the improvements to the life of the community.

During the author’s work with the Spanish Red Cross, it was always kept in mind that an end user who hadn’t worked on building the water and sanitation system, would never appreciate it. Without reaching this extreme, because simply having access to drinking water and sanitation is, for someone who lacked them before, a life-changing event, we should remember that a system is more sustainable when the user takes charge.

Thus, for the present Goal, it is hoped that all interested parties will take part in all the processes which affect water management: design and construction of infrastructure, future management of the same, and all this using different organisation formulae like the water committees of Guatemala, where the presence and views of women are active and dominate, as they have so much experience in family water management. Ultimately, we need ownership of water management by the users, as this is the best step forward towards future sustainability.

It is also important to underline cultural aspects which, as with the indigenous Maya peoples, may have a historical view of the use of water which must be respected, as long as it is not counter to the aim of improving their lives.