Almost 3 in 10 people in rural areas don't have a decent toilet.
Almost 3 in 10 people in rural areas don't have a decent toilet.
There is a large gap between people living in the city and the country.
14% of people in rural areas don't have clean drinking water.
14% of people in rural areas don't have clean drinking water.
That's 4.2 million people without this basic right.
3 in 10 people in La Guajira live in extreme poverty.
3 in 10 people in La Guajira live in extreme poverty.
That means living on less than $2 a day.
Clean water comes to Kasichi
Kasichi is situated in Middle Guajira, a remote location in the Colombian desert. The climate is hot, with temperatures ranging from 30 to 38 degrees Celsius. People here rely on animals like donkeys for their livelihoods.
A member of the Native American Wayuu group, Graciela has lived in Kasichi for seven years. For clean water, she would travel to a jaguey, a man-made pool that collects rainwater, around a kilometre away.
Unfortunately, the jaguey was easily contaminated by animals, making the water risky to drink. Graciela's family suffered because of it. "When the children would get sick with vomiting and diarrhoea I would not be able to do things at home," she explains.
We worked with the people of Kasichi to install a new well, water tank and toilets. Once built, the community set up an association to collect funds that help maintain the tank, which Graciela encourages her neighbours to contribute to. "The water source is important," she says. "And I would do anything I needed to do to protect it."