Water is life! Access to clean water in rural Puerto Rico is unstable due to constant power outages, exacerbated since Hurricane Maria in 2017. In this new context of COVID-19, combined with non-stop earthquakes and a hyperactive hurricane season, water becomes essential to the very survival of those that are at a higher risk when low hygiene conditions are present. We look to provide the means for some of the most vulnerable families to have access to water during service shutdowns.
COVID-19 is on the rise in Puerto Rico and access to clean water becomes essential to maintain proper preventive routines at home. Rural areas in Puerto Rico become easily isolated due to landslides and flooding during rainy days. When storms hit with strong winds, electric lines and trees suffer, leaving thousands of families without basic power and water services for days, weeks and even months at a time. Our project will allow for 20 families at higher risk to store clean water.
20 families with bed-ridden and elderly members will benefit from an install of a 400 gallon cistern that will provide access to clean water during emergency outages due to climate and natural disasters. This will lower the risk of COVID-19 in the household, as those family members that have to go out for work can properly wash when re-entering the home. We hope to expand this effort to include more vulnerable families in the near future.
Our work is community-centered and community-led, every initiative provides an opportunity for the community to come together and organize around possible solutions to common problems. Our area suffers from power and water service shutdowns at least once a week. As we expand the reach of this initiative, our hope is to lower the immediate threat of COVID-19 risk factors. In the long term, we will have provided a life source to vulnerable families in isolated areas of rural Puerto Rico.
