The Story of Juana

Juana Reyes Bocanegra and her family live in the ranching community of La Luz located in a remote area between San Miguel de Allende and Dolores Hidalgo. Having been born and raised there, she is keenly aware that community members have always battled for access to the dwindling supply of water. 

In 2004, a well was finally drilled near La Luz – serving 8-9 small communities. Things were better for a while, but over time, the well provided less water and the population grew. Today, water access is sporadic at best with water available only two or three hours a day but never arriving on a set schedule. “If you’re at your house when the water arrives, you can collect it, but if [you’re not at home], you go the whole day without water,” says Juana.

Over time, Juana has become an expert at managing her family’s water, but, despite her tight controls and ability to recycle as much as possible, the family still struggles to have enough water to drink, cook, wash, and bathe. 

A School Project Becomes a Unique Opportunity

Given the family’s history of battling for water, Andrea, one of Juana’s daughters, was eager to participate in a rainwater harvesting project with Caminos de Agua at the local high school she attends. At the end of the program, and when her family’s water scarcity situation was made known, they were given the opportunity to further collaborate with Caminos and build a rainwater harvesting system for their home. 

Without question, this opportunity is going to make a huge change in the lives of Juana and her family. By capturing and storing the clean, healthy water that nature provides, the family’s total water needs for the year will be provided for. 

Coronavirus Changes Everything 

But now, in order to escape infection with COVID-19, Juana and her family will have to wash their hands many more times a day, wash down all surfaces frequently, and clean everything that comes into their house. They must do all this while managing to stay well hydrated and take care of their normal water needs. 

Caminos de Agua is working with Juana and her family – as well as 10 other families – right now to get this rainwater system built as quickly as possible. Having the new supply of water from the rainwater system is going to make the critical difference between being at serious risk and doing what it takes to minimize the threat. 

At Caminos de Agua, Our Mission Right Now is Very Clear  

While we have to be careful and find new and safer ways of working to protect our staff and the people we work with in local communities, this is a time when we have no choice but to step up to make an even bigger difference. 

There are tens of thousands of people right here in our region who were already suffering from dwindling water supplies and increasing water contamination before the Coronavirus came on to the scene. Now, to have a fighting chance as the virus approaches, many of these communities need more safe, clean water as well as new strategies on how to minimize the spread when sufficient water just isn’t available. 

To accomplish this, we are continuing to work in communities where we have projects in progress to help expand water access, and we are finding ways to responsibly build more water capacity in other communities . We are also moving very quickly to produce new educational programming with a focus on communities with water contamination and extremely limited water access.