What’s in Our Water? / ¿Qué contiene nuestra agua? || Caminos de Agua

What’s in Our Water? / ¿Qué contiene nuestra agua?

Wednesday, May 22, 2019
at 11:00 AM and 2:00 pm

La Biblioteca

By Melissa Landman
Water quality, specifically excessive arsenic and fluoride contamination, is an increasingly concerning problem in San Miguel and the surrounding watershed region. Differing opinions and takes on the water situation in the region abound, and so Caminos de Agua is giving a presentation both in Spanish and English on Wednesday, May 22, with the intent of clearing up confusion.

Executive Director Dylan Terrell’s presentation, which will take place at the Biblioteca’s Sala Quetzal, will discuss the organization’s water-quality-monitoring initiatives. The first session, from 11am to noon, will be in Spanish, the second in English from 2 to 3pm.

In these information sessions, Terrell will discuss the current state of our aquifer, the history of Caminos de Agua’s water monitoring program, and the organization’s methodology and reporting.

The organization’s mission is to create clean water solutions in partnership with communities at risk. One large component of this mission is to raise public awareness surrounding complex regional water quality issues. Since 2012, Caminos de Agua has continuously sampled and tested water quality from rural wells and urban taps throughout the watershed with university partners such as Texas A&M University, the University of Guanajuato, Kansas State University, and Northern Illinois University. In order to develop a more complete understanding of regional water issues, the NGO has recently begun incorporating other indices into its monitoring program, including scarcity, historical water access, cost, and community water conflicts. Caminos de Agua shares its data with Mexico’s National Water Quality Inventory (INCA), and posts water quality test results on its interactive online map. Its records are available for public inspection upon request. The organization also offers free or subsidized testing and to local communities, study groups, and other NGOs, to allow them to better monitor the area’s water sources.

The session will end with a facilitated Q&A where audience members can share their concerns about water quality.

If you are unable to make it to this talk but would like to learn more, you can explore Caminos de Agua’s water monitoring page at caminosdeagua.org/en/water-quality-monitoring, where you will find a water quality map as well as information on the organization’s private testing services.

Caminos de Agua is a community focused, data-driven, and science-oriented non-governmental organization (NGO) based in San Miguel de Allende. We drive to empower local at-risk communities to obtain adequate supplies of safe and healthy drinking water. Today, Caminos de Agua is a team of ten full- and part-time employees, plus several graduate-level engineering and public interest interns from Engineers Without Borders UK and other universities and institutions. We’re a mix of expat residents and Mexicans, technologists and community organizers, researchers and educators, united by our concern for public health and welfare. Caminos de Agua is organized as a registered nonprofit in both the U.S. and Mexico. At Caminos de Agua, we believe that access to safe, healthy drinking water should be a fundamental human right. We help communities at risk confront challenges of water quality and scarcity through:

1. Water monitoring 2. Education 3. Community-led solutions 4. Research and development 5. Activism

José María Correa 23A, Colonia Santa Cecilia, 37727 MAP