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According to United Nations 783 million people do not have access to clean water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation.  If you have clean running water in your home, you are blessed beyond measure.

We are currently working in a village called Los Limones which is a very poor village in the city of Gualan, in the Zacapa region of Guatemala.  This village has no electricity, no clean water, and no sanitation, other than outhouses.  There are a few open wells which are often contaminated from dirty buckets and run off.

We have already seen sick children with parasites and other water borne diseases in the clinic.  One little girl had a skin disease like warts all over her.  She is featured in another story on our web site.  All preventable diseases.  This village has 75 families, 525 people total, consisting of 150 adults and 375 children and growing!  So you see why we are so concerned about the quality of water these children are drinking.

Good news is we have found 4 wells that were put in by another non governmental organization, however the wells were all broken or needed work, and after an extensive search no parts were found available in Guatemala to repair.

So we started from scratch and came up with a better plan that will be more beneficial to the community.  We have already repaired and upgraded one well.  We deepened and cleaned the well.  Installed a solar powered water pumping system.  The solar array will charge batteries and provide power to the water pump.  The water will be pumped into a 660 gallon holding tank and then exit the tank through a filtration system to a centralized sink where people can fill up their jugs with clean water.  Although their is sufficient water storage, the battery will supply power to the pump on rainy or cloudy days.  In addition, solar powered security lights were also installed around the facility.

One of the other projects we are going to do next, is build a centralized bathing area.  This will allow these families to bathe in clean water and not a dirty contaminated river.  This is very important because this river contains all sorts of nasty bacteria and diseases, not to mention feces.  As you can see in the photos above, children are getting wart like skin lesions all over their bodies from drinking and bathing in this water.

Will you help us build a bath house and repair another well?  The estimated cost for each well and bath house is approximately $4500 each.  We source everything in Guatemala.  With each project we purchase materials from local businesses and hire local labor.  This helps provide jobs for over 75 people and businesses in Guatemala.

We would greatly appreciate any donations toward this project.  Donations can be made to this project by clicking on the Donations tab on top.  100% of the funds donated on this page will go to clean water projects in Guatemala.