Ecuador - Los Rios
PROGRAM BACKGROUND:
Los Rios is a remote, rural community located within the Napo province in the amazon region of Ecuador. Most of the residents are mestizos and most of the surrounding communities are Indigenous. Their main economic driver is agriculture, primarily cacao, corn, and rice. Several years ago, they were able to install a small water treatment system that pulled water from a shallow river that runs through the community. However, the river is becoming increasingly at risk for contamination with chemicals and heavy metals as illegal mining companies are trying to extract gold upstream. There are also multiple oil extraction pipelines that cross the upper parts of the river. Climate change is also exacerbating the risks as more erratic weather is causing flooding and mud is clogging pipes and pumps more frequently, damaging the system and compromising the water quality.
Current work:
After a visit to the community and several other visits and conversations between the EWB in-country office in Ecuador, a local NGO, the Los Rios community, their elected leadership and their water board, we have come to the conclusion that the best solution with the most support from the community is to dig a well that can avoid the contamination that exists in the surface water. This will require expensive procedures like vertical imaging to determine the best location for a well, as well as exploratory drilling and testing to confirm that the water quality is satisfactory, and of course the drilling of the well itself, all of which can be quite costly, especially in such a remote location. Our team is raising money to be able to cover these costs and volunteering our time to help complete the project as quickly, effectively, and inexpensively as possible.
See below for how to get involved.
Get Involved
Check out the Events Calendar for upcoming team meetings and fundraisers
E-mail volunteer@ewb-sfp.org to find out about getting involved on this team
Join us in the fall at SFari, our annual fundraiser
Make a donation! All funds, whether $5 or $500, help the teams in changing someone’s life