Hurricane Mitch

Water in Our Community

Water is very important for both plants and animals. It is also important for us humans because we depend on it to drink and stay hydrated, wash our clothes, take bathes, cook and water our crops. Our municipality is located in the mountains and includes the entire watershed of the Pueblo Nuevo River. This river begins in the mountains. When it rains, the roots of the trees trap and maintain a lot of this water in the ground. The rest of the water rolls downhill into small streams, which eventually empty out into the Pueblo Nuevo River located in the valley below.

The majority of families in the municipality of Pueblo Nuevo get their water from wells. In the small, mountain communities some families have their own well. However, sometimes water can't be found underground in all areas or the family doesn't have the money necessary to build a well. These people depend on community well for water, where they walk each day to pull the water up by hand and bring it back in buckets to their house. In the town of Pueblo Nuevo there are municipal wells built near the banks of the river that suck the water up with powerful pumps. This water then passes through a series of tubes to people's houses. To have running water in your house, first you have to pay for the installation of the tubes. Then, you have to pay each month for the amount of water you have used. Washing clothes by hand requires a lot of water, so some families who don't have a lot of money prefer to take their clothes to the river to wash them on the rocks there.

It used to be that we never had problems with our water here in Pueblo Nuevo, there was always enough for use in the home as well as for the cultivation of crops all year round. But this has changed. Because of the deforestation in our watershed caused first by families cutting down trees for firewood and building materials and then by Hurricane Mitch, now our river and wells sometimes dry up completely in the summer months. In some communities the problem is so bad that they have to ration the water that people can use so that the little water there is covers everyone's basic needs. ~ Gema Isabel