Safe Water Olancho: 100 Projects in 5 Years
June 2, 2016
Safe Water Olancho projects completed in 2015
In 2015, the first year of the Safe Water Olancho initiative, Food for the Poor partnered with Water Mission to provide safe water to 10 communities in Olancho, which is located along the Nicaraguan border in Honduras. In the first year, this partnership has changed the lives of over 2,800 families, or about 16,800 men, women, and children, with the goal of providing safe water to about 30,000 additional people in 2016.
“My wife and I live alone, but we believe the project will help children in the community to improve health and then they will develop the community in the future,” explained Ulises, a resident and school teacher in the community of Bo Bella Vista, which received a safe water solution through Safe Water Olancho in 2015.
Through Food for the Poor, an anonymous family foundation, churches, and individuals, the remaining Safe Water Olancho projects are now fully supported through 2016.
Water Mission completed a similar initiative, Safe Water Colón, from 2007 to 2012, which was the largest scientifically documented water and sanitation project in Central America. Partnering with the Pentair Foundation, this comprehensive, multi-year, $4.7 million project was designed to provide sustainable safe water and sanitation access to the residents of the Department of Colón. Over 200 safe water projects were built to serve more than 250,000 people, and nearly 16,000 latrines were installed to serve about 100,000 people.
“This [was] the first ever project in the country [of Honduras] to cover a whole department or state,” explained Water Mission Honduras Country Director Hector Chacon. “It has helped people to help themselves. We work alongside community leaders and direct beneficiaries to decide the best way to accomplish each solution and allow them to participate as proactively as possible in the development of the project.”
The Safe Water Colón initiative led to an approximate 52% reduction of clinical visits for diarrheal illness within three years of the project’s launch. Those illnesses are largely caused by inadequate drinking water, poor hygiene, and poor sanitation practices in the community. Water Mission seeks to duplicate these results in Olancho, which is the biggest department in Honduras.
“I have a little girl, 3-years-old, and we want [her] to never suffer illnesses for consuming contaminated water,” explained Wilmer, a local merchant in Colonia Poncaya, a community in Olancho. “We believe that she will be a good student.”
In addition to building safe water and sanitation solutions, Food for the Poor is working on sustainable community housing projects in Olancho with partner CEPUDO in Honduras. Water Mission and Food for the Poor look forward to seeing 75 communities and 25 schools in the department of Olancho receive access to safe water and sanitation solutions by 2020.
Please keep the Water Mission Honduras team in your prayers as they work to implement nearly 100 projects within five years and saturate a whole region in Honduras with safe water and sanitation. To invest in the remaining projects of Safe Water Olancho through 2020, donate here, specifying Safe Water Olancho.
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