Manuel de Jesus Escalente approved it and mobilised a group of volunteers to do the work. When Oxfam engineers returned to check that all was well, Manuel was busy repairing the original tank and pipes that had broken in the tremor, his enthusiasm undimmed. Oxfam's emergency team in El Salvador is now more than half way through its initial work and has handed over many of its projects to partner organisations or local communities. Scores of large water tanks have provided 163,000 people with clean water in the worst affected parts. Tens of thousands of hygiene kits have been distributed and following the second earthquake, more than a thousand shelter kits were provided in less than a week.
Work now moves on to the rehabilitation phase.
The reconstruction of some 600 houses is planned for La Paz, one of the provinces hit by both the January and February earthquakes. Water, sanitation and health education will be part of the package planned for the rural areas around the state capital. Across El Salvador, people remain on a permanent state of alert. Each new tremor is a reminder of their precarious position. With the real work in El Salvador only just beginning, it's right for those travelling to Madrid to remember that the future of some of the poorest people in Central America depends on the right decisions being taken on their behalf in Madrid.