WaterLife in Peru

Written, developed, produced and executed by Phillip and Caroline Amell
On-location photography by Caroline Amell

The Fresh Water Problem In the Amazon Basin of Peru

Over 1.2 billion people exist in the world without a safe, sustainable supply of drinking water, and over 2.4 billion live without adequate sanitation facilities.

The access that people have to fresh water varies dramatically around the world. In the United States, most people wake up in the morning and get potable water running through multiple taps within their household. Deep within the Peruvian Amazon, lines consisting of tired women with old bottles and buckets begin to form before dawn to collect whatever water is available for the day. Sometimes they get lucky and can bring home a few liters, but the amount is always unreliable and the water extracted is not always safe to drink. Contaminated water has become a major health issue in the Peruvian Amazon, as sewage systems and garbage disposal intertwine with waterways and not all fresh water access points are maintained properly. Many illnesses stem through drinking contaminated water.

General Goals

Helping to create a sustainable supply of clean drinking water to the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon will have incalculable heath benefits. Over 80% of preventable illness in the developing world stems from water access and quality, and successful drinking water projects lead to significant decreases in the number of water-related diseases present in participating villages.

The WaterLife Foundation supports a holistic approach to water supply, sanitation, and hygiene promotion programs in the smallest, poorest communities. WaterLife is confident that its involvement can positively impact individuals, small communities, and Peruvian society as a whole.

By using a holistic approach to improve water and sanitation programs in this region, Waterlife Foundation works with local residents and organizations to decide what is best for the community. Collectively, the major goal is to set up improved fresh water access points and separate sanitation systems that will ultimately be sustained by its own residents. This is necessary to ensure the efficiency of such programs after the research team departs, as monitoring is difficult due to the remoteness of many locations.

The WaterLife self-sustaining, high-impact approach utilizes its access to next generation water and sanitation innovations. Coupled with the support of entrepreneurs and microlenders, WaterLife projects strive to ensure community ownership and operation of all water and sanitation systems and improvements.

Background

Tourism/Nonprofits

The upsurge in Peruvian Amazon tourism is centered primarily around Iquitos. The symbiotic relationship between the local community and increasing number of tourists is leading to significant infrastructural improvements including access to potable water and sanitation facilities in the Iquitos Region of Peru. The combination of increasing tourism and locally-focused nonprofit organizations such as TierraVida Eco-Resort and Seed Tree Foundation are paving the way for similar improvements in the areas around the Ucayali Region of the Amazon.

Rural villages such as Nueva Luz, San Francisco, Pao Jung, Pao Cocha, and Alfanso Ugarte will benefit tremendously from Water Life's involvement. It will also help leverage the power of multiple sectors to establish a collaborative, self-sustaining, philanthropic model to implement projects that help the communities surrounding this region to own, create, and maintain sustainable water and sanitation solutions.

Nueva Luz

Nueva Luz is located off the Ucayali River on the oxbow lake of Yarinacocha. The nearest airport is in Pucallpa, a 30 minute ride to the port via wooden, motorized canoe followed by a 15 minute mototaxi ride to the airport. This village has approximately 30 families who typically reside in multi-generational, thatched-roof homes with one or two bedrooms. Water can be obtained from a drilled well roughly 60 meters deep and serves families in Nueva Luz and a few more in the surrounding area. Flooding and erosion require fairly regular maintenance, however water access remains inconsistent. Another common way is to buy bottled water from the closest town of Puerta de Yarinacocha.

Because Nueva Luz is on an oxbow lake, this means there is very little access to water during the dry season. As they make the dampened lands into rice fields and are able to drive moto-cars up the dried lake, many local residents end up buying bottles of water from the port town, la puerta de Yarinacocha, during this time. This is not sustainable, very expensive, and contributes to the garbage problem in the area. During the rainy season, Nueva Luz becomes an island off the lake, making wells and good maintenance more critical.

Human waste is currently drained directly into the lake, which is also where all fishing, laundry and dish washing takes place.

Children with bellies bloated from water-borne parasites are a common sight.

Tierra Vida

Tierra Vida is a fledgling, cooperatively-owned healing and eco-resort that neighbors the village Nueva Luz. While exploring the area in 2000, three young and environmentally conscious entrepreneurs from Maine, found a piece of land for sale next to the village of Nueva Luz. With the support of SeedTree.org, they bought the land as a way to help preserve the rainforest as well as ancient traditions and cultures within the Peruvian Amazon.

As the flagship property, Tierra Vida intends to create a place that attracts and motivates like-minded individuals to help preserve the rainforest through purchase surrounding land before it is sold to and destroyed by oil companies and other environmentally-hazardous industries.

Tierra Vida Healing Center and Eco-Resort Developments
1 water tap, connected to the same well as Nueva Luz
5 compost toilets, 1 kitchen compost disposal
- To promote eco-sustainability, Tierra Vida utilizes human, organic, and kitchen waste through ecological sanitation to recover nutrients used for crop production.
- When incorporating these methods of fertilization, Tierra Vida works along with locals to promote the old Incan tradition collecting human excreta which was then stored, dried, and pulverized for use as fertilizer.
Two outdoor showers utilizing both collected rainwater and well water running from the well in Nueva Luz. Laundry is done in the river, building sauna for clothes drying- high humidity prevents drying and allows clothes to mold.

Neighboring Villages

There are many more villages that can be found in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon. Ones that have been visited on behalf of seedtree.org include San Francisco, Alfanso Ugarte, Pao Jung, Pao Cocha, and Cotamana.

Residents in these towns located about 8 hours up the Ucayli River typically wake at 4am to begin their long hike to the communal well. Primarily a female responsibility, it is not unusual to arrive at the well and find it dry or needs repair. These towns are even more remote and a sustainable access to potable water does not exist. Many children suffer from parasites and diarrhea. Many of the sicknesses could be prevented around the area if there was a sustainable potable water system in place.

Objectives/Results

Goal: To improve the health of the population of communities in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon by having increased access to potable water supplies and appropriate sanitation facilities.

Improve access to potable water via village-level, sustainable systems.
Increase access to appropriate sanitation facilities such as compost toilets.
Increase awareness and improve hygienic practices and education, including how to keep water clean during transport and use and how to differentiate water use according to its source and purity level.
Reinforce community organization and maintenance with water and sanitation committees.

Conclusion

WaterLife's projects benefit the entire participating community. Working along side with other organizations currently in the area, together we can help make a positive impact in the lives of many people. Women and children, the groups most responsible for and affected by water and health-related activities, will especially benefit from improved access to clean water. Alongside the incalculable health benefits, water and sanitation improvements lead to local development opportunities in business and agriculture in the Ucayali Region of the Peruvian Amazon.