A typical Water for Life project, such as the one begun several years ago in San Marcos, Guatemala, is developing a potable water system. San Marcos residents credit their new system with bringing a decrease in illnesses such as malaria and intestinal worms. Earlier the farming community had relied on runoff from the mountains that was contaminated by animal waste, human waste, and pesticides seeping into the streams, says Ammanuel Moore, a CRS communications specialist who visited San Marcos in the fall. CRS organizes residents to help with drilling bore holes, installing pipes, and setting up storage tanks to collect water for the dry months of the year. Residents provide physical labor, retrieve materials, adopt rules for the use of water, agree to participate in hygiene training, and share the cost of running the project.
Many families now have faucets behind their homes that they share with other families.
The river irrigates arid areas for farmers, historically has provided salmon and a transportation route for Native Americans, and creates recreational opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts at public parks. Thirteen dams breaking up the free-flowing water in Washington and Oregon, the nuclear power facility at the Hanford Reservation, and an Army depot storing poisonous gases. Seven bishops of the Pacific Northwest and Canada, whose dioceses are touched by the Columbia River drainage, have launched an extensive pastoral letter project to address all of these often competing interests in the river. They aim to apply Catholic social teaching to economic, environmental, and social issues in a consultative process that will result in a letter to be issued in the year 2000. He expects the pastoral letter to address the past history of the river and what steps are necessary to heal past wrongs, such as some dams' displacement of towns and farmlands.