1 Million Liters of Safe Drinking Water in Mexico

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters, 

I am very excited to report that 2024 was our most successful and impactful year to date, in many areas, but specifically with our rainwater harvesting program. We have been promoting our rainwater harvesting program on GlobalGiving for many years now, and we are grateful to all of you for being such an important part of providing clean drinking water access through rainwater solutions. 

In an era where water scarcity is one of the most pressing global challenges, the simple act of collecting rainwater has emerged as a powerful and sustainable solution. At Caminos de Agua, we have been dedicated to addressing water security in Central Mexico—a region heavily affected by one of the worst water crises globally, which includes not only severe water scarcity conditions due to over-extraction of groundwater and depleting aquifers, but also contamination of difficult-to-remove chemicals, specifically arsenic and fluoride. 

Rainwater harvesting is a transformative approach that empowers communities and safeguards their water future. By capturing and storing rain, communities can access clean, safe water year-round, reducing their reliance on contaminated and depleting groundwater. We have embraced this practice as a cornerstone of our mission for nearly a decade now. Our rainwater harvesting systems are designed to address the unique challenges of Central Mexico’s environment and its communities. These systems are built to be durable and adaptable to local needs, and they are easy and affordable to operate and maintain over time, making them an accessible option for even those most vulnerable.  

With the incredible support of our community, including all of you at GlobalGiving, and our growing network of rainwater partners, we have installed a record-setting 430 rainwater harvesting systems this year together, completely shattering our original goal of 350!  These systems are providing sustainable and clean water access to more than 3,200 people throughout our watershed who, before, were suffering from severe water quality and scarcity challenges.  Together, we’ve made rainwater a source of hope, health, and resilience for so many in areas where it was once a daily challenge.  

This year, we received substantial support from the Gonzalo Río Arronte Foundation through our greater “Agua en Acción” (Water in Action) project. Their support provided the funds for materials for over 200 of these systems. We also partnered closely with the Municipal Government of San Diego de la Unión—a northern municipality that suffers from some of the highest levels of arsenic and fluoride contamination we have ever registered. Together with the municipality, we built a total of 244 rainwater systems this year, and we signed a contract with the government just this month to build even more systems together in 2025. By the end of the year, with support from the Community Church of San Miguel de Allende and Amistad Canada, we started rainwater programs in two new communities—San Pedro de la Sierra and Vivienda de Abajo—the former struggling from extreme water scarcity conditions and the latter with excessive levels of contamination in their water supply. 

In 2024, we also worked with many other NGO and, especially, grassroots and community partners. With CUVAPAS, a coalition of dozens of communities in northern Guanajuato Sate, we built 104 large-scale, ferrocement rainwater harvesting systems. Each of these 12,000-liter capacity systems can provide upwards of 15 people with a lifetime of clean drinking water. We also worked with SECOPA and COENLAVIS, two grassroots initiatives in the municipalities of Dolores Hidalgo and San Diego de la Unión, to build 80 systems. At the end of the year, we were also breaking ground in a small village called Rincon de Canal with the support of Salvemos al Río Laja, a long-term partner NGO, to build another 14 systems. 

We literally cannot do any of this work without this deep network of close collaborators, which includes all of you. While we have a growing base of institutional partners, most of them only provide limited support to purchase materials. We rely on individual donors, like our GlobalGiving network, to not only build more systems and leverage support from others, but also to support the educational programs, materials, and overall supervision that is necessary to make this projects successful, and sustainable in time. So, sincerely, thank you all for making 2024 an incredibly important year for changing the water reality for over 430 families. 

The success of our rainwater harvesting program demonstrates the transformative potential of simple, community-driven solutions and collaboration. In 2025, we are looking to expand even further, thanks to our partnerships with the aforementioned grassroots and community organizations, local government, institutions, and network of individual donors. Together, we plan on building another 300+ rainwater harvesting systems across more than two dozen rural communities. We hope you will continue to support us and join us in the new year. 

On behalf of the entire Caminos de Agua Team, thank you for being a part of this critical work.

Saludos from Mexico. 

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters,

After nearly two years of pretty severe drought in our region, and throughout much of Mexico, we are thrilled to report that the rains this year have officially arrived! We received about 60% more rain in July than we normally would on an average rain year, which has helped to quickly fill the nearly 1,400 rainwater systems we’ve already built throughout our region.

With all the rain this year, we have taken advantage and hit the ground running on our “Agua en Acción” (Water in Action) Project – a three-year initiative we designed in partnership with our long-time collaborator, Inana A.C., and our grassroots community partners. “Agua en Acción” is funded in part by the Gonzalo Río Arronte Foundation and local government, but only made possible by individual donors, including all of you in our GlobalGiving Community, who we need to provide upwards of 30% of the funds needed for the ambitious program. You can learn more about this initiative in our prior update (originally called “Agua para el Futuro” in our last report).

But, here’s what we’ve been up to since our last update.

Over the last several months, we in Caminos de Agua have been moving forward aggressively with our Rainwater Harvesting Program. So far this year, we have built a staggering 253 Rainwater Harvesting Systems (RHS) in more than 40 different rural communities.

We built 178 of those systems with the Municipal Government of San Diego de la Unión in an on-going partnership with the current administration. Caminos provided the funds for 50 of the systems, as well as all of the educational and technical training programs in the participating communities, which we implemented across 5 different community centers throughout the municipality (including one massive training program at the municipal center as well). The Municipal government provided the materials for the additional 128 RHS built during this time period and supported Caminos on logistical coordination.

The other 75 RHS we built this year were in collaboration with CUVAPAS, a grassroots community organization we have partnered with for 13 years now, with funding for these systems provided by the Gonzalo Río Arronte Foundation through “Agua en Acción” as well as individual donors to Caminos de Agua. We plan to break ground on more systems with CUVAPAS later this year, and we are also awaiting news from a potential new Foundation partner who will help Caminos and CUVPAS build even more systems into 2025.

Our goal for 2024 is to build 350 RHS, and we are well on our way. Along with the 253 already built, we recently broke ground on 80 new systems in rural villages with our partner SECOPA, another grassroots collaborator we have been working closely with for more than a decade. We have started the initial educational and technical training program in two communities with SECOPA, and will begin breaking ground on the first systems in the coming weeks. We will also be building additional systems, up to 70, with the Municipal Government of San Diego de la Unión; however, we are still working on the timeline of those systems, which may not be fully implemented in 2024.

Importantly, with new funds becoming available through different individual and institutional supporters, we are in initial conversations with new communities in the region suffering from excessive water scarcity or arsenic and fluoride contamination in their water supplies. Specifically, we are working with the community of Estancia de Canal, which does not have any regular water supply. All of their water has to be trucked in by water trucks, which are costly, inconsistent, substantially insufficient, and potentially contaminated. We have already built two rainwater harvesting systems with the elementary school earlier this year and are looking to expand to community homes. We are also in conversations with the community of Vivienda de Abajo, which has limited water access and the water it does receive has fluoride levels more than twice the limit.

One important note is that we continue to implement our Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) program on our rainwater harvesting projects, which evaluates dozens of indicators across 8 distinct categories and helps us improve our technical implementation and educational programming. This year, we have visited 130 families directly with follow-up surveys and technical evaluations of the systems, and we have done initial registration with 265 systems (some roll-over from the previous year).

Through all of these actions, we plan on surpassing our annual goal of 350 new Rainwater Harvesting Systems.

Along with installing multiple community-scale water treatment plants, launching a new educational initiative called the Water School, and implementing an innovative new public health study (to name a few), our collaborative “Agua en Acción” project will allow us to build, we hope, upwards of 700 new rainwater harvesting systems across dozens of rural communities by 2026. But, we can only get there with your help! The funds currently provided by the Gonzalo Río Arronte Foundation, local government, and other partners and supporters only gets us part way to our goal. We still need to bring in about 30% of the project total to meet our goals, and the clean water needs of thousands in our region. So, please, consider supporting this initiative and help us get clean drinking water to another 6,000 people in the next two years!

Thank you all so much for your support. Together, we are making an important contribution to the health and well-being of dozens of rural communities through new clean water access.

Saludos,

Dylan Terrell on behalf of the Caminos de Agua Team