Stories of Change


The water management committee works on the new system. Photo: Bethany Beachum


In Honduras, 600 families participate in CWS-supported food security activities.

Clean water for Nueva Libertad

“The kids would arrive to class and say, ‘Teacher, I want water!’ but I would say, ‘There isn’t any here, go home and ask your mom for some.’ But they would say there wasn’t any there either. So, our community really has suffered a terrible water scarcity problem. Water is life, so we have suffered too much from this – the crops, the poor men carrying water from way downhill in order to water the crops.“

For residents of the town of Nueva Libertad in Honduras, water uncertainty was a way of life. Young couples were waiting to build homes and start their lives together because they didn’t know what would happen. Children arrived to school with no water, and the school didn’t have any to give them, either.

Access to water is complicated here. The usual water systems, which use gravity to bring water down from higher elevations and into communities, don’t work here because of the town’s high elevation. Getting water to the residents requires a more significant investment in a system that will bring water uphill instead of downhill.

Through our partner CASM, CWS and Foods Resource Bank teamed up with the water management of Nueva Libertad to install a system that uses an electric pump to get water to all of the homes. CASM is working with the local government to help cover some of the extra costs of the system, and the water management committee will work to ensure that each household helps pay for a share of the electric bill moving forward.

Construction is now underway to get Nueva Libertad access to water and begin to lift the pause on life here.