The Face of Water Scarcity: Coastal Communities of Colombia

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The Face of Water Scarcity: Coastal Communities of Colombia

SAROS Co-Creator & Engineer Chris Matthews recently spent a week in two small communities in La Guajira, Colombia, South America, where water is an extremely scarce resource.

With less than 23 inches of rainfall a year and groundwater which is too salty to drink, desalination and importing water are a necessity. Families in these communities live on between $100-200 a month. With water costing as much as 4 cents per gallon, people must sometimes choose between buying water and sending their children to school.

Six years ago, a small brackish water reverse osmosis [BWRO] plant was installed to service Boca de Camarones, Palaimaa and several other communities in the area. The plant, which provided water free of charge to the members of the communities shut down a month and a half ago.

While technicians wait for instructions to repair the plant, residents in the nearby communities are left to search for alternative sources of drinkable water.

This article reports the findings from Matthews' visit and interviews he held with two local residents about the water scarcity issues that they face everyday and the impact the loss of their desalination plant has on their families and their livelihood.  

Andrés Federico Avila Villa is a fisherman who lives in Palaimaa, a town with a population of 50. Until recently, Villa’s town gathered water from the local desalination plant. When the desalination plant was working, Villa and residents of Palaimaa collected water (about 27 gallons per person) two times a week.

Since the plant closed, Villa and others in his community have to buy water from other sources which charge about $0.25 for every 5.3 gallons. Villa lives with his wife and five children and their daily consumption is about 15-20 gallons of water a day, including showers, drinking and cooking. (By comparison, Americans use 80-100 gallons of water per day per person.)

That means that on average Villa’s family spends $1 a day on water. That may not sound like much, but Villa and other fisherman in his village earn a monthly income of about $100 which means almost 1/3 of their income is spent on water. 

Villa says, “I sometimes do not make enough money to buy the water necessary for my family or enough money to provide food.” Villa expresses that he has learned to accept this is the way of life for him, but admits that the lack of access to clean water is a burden. [ photo c/o Nathalie Fernandes ]

Luis Hernai is also a fisherman in town who shares his home with four family members. The daily consumption of water for his family is about 10 gallons every day and a half. Hernai said, “Almost no one in the community has a latrine and so open defecation is very common.” He also says access to clean, safe water would allow him to worry about other costs for his family. “It would help a lot. We would not have to worry about buying water on the days we don’t make enough to eat.”

In the meantime, villagers like Villa and Hernai struggle to afford drinking water while waiting for the desalination plant to open again. The situations faced by these fishing villages in Colombia show the need for continued investigation and discovery of alternative, accessible water sources for communities facing ongoing water scarcity. SAROS, a wave-powered desalination unit, is one such solution. 

Using only the power of ocean waves, SAROS provides drinkable water to coastal areas that do not have access to safe water. Matthews says, “It is our hope to bring an inexpensive, sustainable, and reliable source of clean water to these communities."

Sherri Walker is a Communication Specialist with  SAROS Desalination  who blogs regularly about water issues. Chris Matthews is Co-Creator and Engineer for  SAROS .

Read more at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/face-water-scarcity-coastal-communities-columbia-south-sherri-walker?published=t

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2 Comments

  1. I have new innovative technology solutions for drinking water saveing systems from invisible leakage and contamination control system for each house holds and other tap water users.

    It's pre-water leakage and contamination control system and also daily follow up system and no need other professional support.

    Now at a time I can manufacture prototype and also finishing pilot test by domestic regions with out results.

    So how can I get financial support and parteners?

    Many Tanks!

  2. the solution is directing the rainwater from extended large sloping roofs through a filter into a covered cement tank periodically treated with bleaching powder or keeping a copper net size 3x6 ft in the tank to kill pathogens.