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Give the gift of clean water and change lives in Colombia
La Guajira is an arid desert peninsula on the Caribbean coast in the northeast of Colombia with a population of approximately 985,500. It is also home to the Wayúu people, the nation’s second largest indigenous group, who live largely in rural communities.
In La Guajira, women and children spend much of their day searching for water for their family, walking miles under the scorching sun. The water that they do find is often contaminated and makes them and their children sick. Without sanitation at home or school, students and their families are forced to go to the bathroom out in the open.
The remote location and the arid climate present challenges to clean water access in the area. We’ve made impressive progress in water access in La Guajira, but there’s still much to do to ensure clean water is available for everyone, everywhere.
Education starts with water
What would you do if your students had to leave school every time they needed to use the toilet?
That’s the issue Kenia Bolaño faced as a teacher at the Guaymaral school in Manaure. Her school previously had one working tap and no bathrooms. They were forced to send students to the bushes behind the school. Many would leave class and not return for the rest of the day, interrupting their education.
Last year, WaterAid installed drinking water taps and bathrooms at the Guaymaral school, ensuring that students have regular access to clean water and privacy to handle their needs.
These changes mean more parents are sending their children to Guaymaral, especially teenage girls who previously spent the school day collecting water. “Now that the school is growing at a very fast pace, during recess there are big lines at the toilets. So likely in a few years this won’t be sufficient anymore,” says Kenia.
Your gift this summer can help set schools like Guaymaral up for long-term success by expanding bathroom facilities to ensure ALL students have safe and sanitary resources to focus on learning.
Community involvement and training
Community involvement is the key to long-term success. Our approach is to ensure that communities receive the infrastructure that meets their needs, and the training to maintain those systems for years to come.
Jose Maria Benjumea Epinayu is the fontanero – leader in charge of the water system – in the El Colorao community here in La Guajira. They’d previously had a new water system installed in 2014, but it only lasted two years before becoming unusable. “We were never taught how to maintain the installation and it stood there with a broken filter for three years after that. The years after that we kept going to the local governments to see if they could repair it, but they never came.”
Thanks to a partnership between WaterAid and the Government of Colombia’s Ministry of Housing, we were able to come in 2024, assess what the community needed – new infrastructure and the training to maintain it – and set El Colorao up for continued access to clean water.
Your gift this summer can help us reach more communities like Jose Maria’s to ensure they have the systems and the training needed to access clean water for the long-term.
Your impact in Colombia
WaterAid has been working diligently in the La Guajira region of Colombia since 2016. Thanks to your support we have changed lives and fostered future potential. But we aren’t satisfied with short-term solutions – we’re continually working towards long-term, sustainable, community-led solutions to the water crisis.
What your gift this summer can do:
handwashing and toilet facilities at schools so ALL children have access to clean water and sanitary bathrooms.
Connect remote communities to existing clean water systems.
Train community members to service and maintain clean water infrastructure so the water keeps flowing.
Recruit and equip community members to monitor water quality and ensure it’s safe to drink.
Promote long-lasting technologies that are appropriate to the local environment and sociocultural context.