Project Overview
After many delays and obstacles, Global Brigades built its largest water system to date in Honduras with the support of volunteers and the community members of Los Hatillos. This system provides clean water to 650 beneficiaries.
Los Hatillos, Honduras
Prior to Global Brigades’ partnership with the community, Los Hatillos never had a centralized water system providing access to all members of the community. Community members used various strategies to obtain water depending on their neighborhood. Regardless of how they accessed water, there was no central treatment and few families treated the drinking water within their homes, increasing the risk of waterborne disease.
In Los Hatillos 1, some community members had dug shallow wells to fulfill the water needs of the community. These families allowed neighbors to fill buckets and tubs with water from their wells and the recipients then carried the water back to their homes. Similarly, those living in Familias Unidas went to nearby wells to collect water and carry it to their homes.
Many of the wells dried up during the dry season and people had to travel further away from their homes to access water. Luckily, most community members in Los Hatillos 2 were already connected to a local water system, however, it only worked roughly twice per week, and many complained that the water was contaminated. Community members believed that the contaminated water caused both skin rashes and diarrheal disease.
Water System Solution
Global Brigades volunteers first broke ground in Los Hatillos in December 2014. Over the course of the project more than 20 groups of brigaders and hundreds of community members performed the following tasks:
• Built a dam at the water source, approximately 13 km from the community
• Constructed two 10,000 gallon storage tanks equipped with chlorinators
• Dug over 24 km of trench and laid pipelines for the entire system
• Connected approximately 150 houses and 1 school to the system
• Provided education seminars to children in the community on water and health-related topics.
To ensure the sustainability of the project, a Water Council and Basic Sanitation Committee were established and trained by Global Brigades staff. Los Hatillos and Global Brigades overcame a long wait and many obstacles to complete the system, the largest to date built in Honduras. The process of obtaining rights to the water source delayed the project for over a year, but ultimately with the support of the Honduran government, the souce was purchased and ground was broken. The project was inaugurated in late 2015.
Water Project Stages
All stages of this water project have been completed.