1 Million Liters of Safe Drinking Water in Mexico

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters,

As the year comes to a close, we’re reflecting on what has been one of the most productive and collaborative years in the history of our rainwater harvesting program. Thanks to your support—and to the leadership of communities themselves—2025 has been a year defined by momentum, partnership, and scale.

Communities Leading the Way

San Pedro de la Sierra
In San Pedro de la Sierra, the project has truly come full circle. Building on the original installation phase, families in the community organized themselves into a core leadership group and led the construction of 17 additional rainwater harvesting systems for 17 new families. This entire phase was driven locally, with Caminos de Agua providing accompaniment and technical support. Once again, this work was made possible largely through our partnership with Amistad Canada, demonstrating how long-term collaboration can result in genuine community ownership.

Pájaro Bobo
In Pájaro Bobo, we recently celebrated a major milestone with a community inauguration marking the completion of 31 rainwater harvesting systems, as outlined in our last report. The event was a powerful moment of collective pride—families coming together to celebrate not just new infrastructure, but the result of months of shared work, training, and commitment to securing safe water for their community.

San Diego de la Unión Municipality
Our collaboration with the Municipal Government of San Diego de la Unión continues to expand rapidly. This year, we are working together to complete 140 rainwater harvesting systems across more than two dozen rural communities. With the rainy season now behind us, our teams and community partners are working intensively to finish installations before year’s end in preparation for the next rainy season. This partnership combines municipal investment with foundation support from the Gonzalo Río Arronte Foundation and Caminos de Agua’s technical training, monitoring, and evaluation—allowing us to reach scale without sacrificing quality. Additionally, many of our “Multipliers”—regional rainwater technicians trained and certified by Caminos de Agua earlier this year—are leading the way on these new constructions, allowing us to make a much larger impact than we could do alone. 

Rincón de Canal
Together with Salvemos al Río Laja, we are also returning to Rincón de Canal, a community with no existing water access. After building 14 systems there in late 2024 and early 2025, we are now installing an additional 11 systems before the end of this year. Step by step, families in Rincón de Canal are moving toward reliable, safe water access where none existed before.

A Year of Remarkable Growth

By the end of 2025, we will have built an astonishing 291 rainwater harvesting systems in a single year.

To put that in perspective:

• In the first six years of this program (2015–2020), we built 250 systems total.
• Between 2021 and 2025, we will have built 1,538 systems.

This growth did not happen because Caminos de Agua dramatically expanded its size or centralized control. It happened because of collaboration—with municipal governments, grassroots organizations, funders, and most importantly, with communities themselves taking the lead.

Thank You

We are deeply grateful to our implementation partners Amistad Canada, Salvemos al Río Laja, the Municipal Government of San Diego de la Unión, the Community Church of San Miguel de Allende, and the Gonzalo Río Arronte Foundation—our single largest funder for rainwater harvesting projects—as well as to the community leaders who make this work possible on the ground.

And above all, we thank you—our network of individual supporters, many of whom come to us through GlobalGiving. Your contributions help bridge the critical gaps that allow us to respond quickly, stay flexible, and support communities as they organize and lead their own solutions.

Together, you are helping transform rain into safe water—and collaboration into lasting impact.

With gratitude,
Dylan Terrell
Executive Director
Caminos de Agua