Clean drinking water, healthy lives

Improving local wells improves community health in flood-prone parts of El Salvador.

Standing at the bottom of a narrow shaft of dirt and stones so deep it felt as though there was hardly air to breath, Florentino Diaz Cruz understood the value of clean water: he was tunneling for it, one of a crew digging a well for a school in rural Zacatecoluca Province, El Salvador.

That was 15 years ago. Today, clean drinking water is as precious as ever—and still hard to get. But now, with the help of Oxfam America, its local partner PROVIDA, and Oxfam America's charitable gifts, the well that Cruz dug is pumping enough clean water to satisfy the needs not only of the students but of about 80 local families. The well is one of five “healthy wells” in Zacatecoluca that PROVIDA recently lined, fitted with filters, capped, and outfitted with pumps.

Families in this area live in extreme poverty and have been strained by the necessity of adapting to the increased flooding, which contaminates their water sources. The “healthy wells,” along with 27 new composting latrines, have been a boon to families in the area.

The results are clear. “Kids are getting sick less; families are healthier,” says Santos Efrain Coto, a local leader.

At the school, a short distance from the classrooms sits a large plastic tank, sky blue and able to hold 1,100 liters of water pumped fresh from the well. Teacher Ana Elsa Cubias recalls how students used to have to bring their own safe water to drink.

Now, the refurbished well guarantees them a clean water supply on the spot.