By alejandro itkin | Board Member
The aboriginal Wichi community in Salta, Argentina, is suffering extreme lack of water during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are currently 200 families with about 600 children who are isolated and some members have tested positive for COVID-19. They live 100 kms away from the nearest town and lack any means of transportation. Every year, there are severe droughts that affect the communities for many months. There is also a structural lack of water sources and few water reservoirs which complicates matters even more.
The population and their livestock depend almost exclusively on water extracted by hand from wells and carried in buckets or other unsanitary vessels. 1 in 30 people have access to shallow wells with salt water that only covers part of their daily needs and it is not safe for drinking or cooking.
The families of the Southern Region can access the Bermejo River as their source of water in times of drought, and some places have shallow wells, whose water has different levels of salinity not apt for human consumption. The families use the same containers to collect water and for all the domestic chores and do not have separate containers to store water at home. Therefore they cannot maintain isolation and hygiene conditions for the prevention of transmitting the disease are virtually non-existent. Lack of access to safe water also affects the physical well-being of women and the 600 children who have no choice but to carry heavy vessels long distances. As we face the COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever access to safe water is critical to the health of these families.
Sumando Manos is providing 200 water tanks with a capacity of 600 liters each to be installed in each one of the houses of these families
The local community is in charge of providing water by refilling the tanks on a regular basis. Once the tanks are installed, these 200 hundred families will have access to dependable, safe and clean fresh water and their lives will drastically change for the better.
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