10 years of progress on water access washed away in Honduras
Category four hurricane Eta left a trail of destruction after it made landfall in Honduras on 3 November. The destruction included water supply facilities in three municipalities that have been developed as part of projects supported by Water For People and IRC over the past ten years.
Stef Smits and Túpac Mejía, who worked with these communities and municipalities on water projects, call upon partners, funders and friends to respond and make sure that 10 years of progress is not washed away for good.
Heartbreaking images
Country coordinator Stef Smits of IRC Honduras and country director Túpac Mejía of Water For People Honduras find it heartbreaking to see the images of the devastation.
Both Smits and Mejía have been involved in water supply projects to raise the access to water in several municipalities. In an article published on the IRC website, they back the call by the Honduras government upon the international community to support the country in its recovery and reconstruction efforts.
Progress undone
‘Though a full inventory of the damages is underway, the first reports from the three municipalities with whom we have worked most closely, show a severe impact’, Smits and Mejía report in their article.
Prior to Eta the level of access to water supplies had been raised to 97 percent. For the three municipalities they expect a drop to 58 percent affecting 40,000 out of the 75,000 inhabitants. ‘We see several years of progress washed away.’
Quickly re-instated
IRC and Water For People are already supporting the Para Todos, Por Siempre partnership that is making an inventory of the damages to water supply and sanitation systems.
‘We also cannot just let 10 years of progress get undone’, Smits and Mejía write. ‘We need to get behind the communities and municipalities affected by Eta, and make sure that they get their water supplies back and functioning as they were before Eta hit’.
They call upon partners, funders and friends to do whatever possible to make sure that the progress is quickly re-instated.
Read the full article by Stef Smits and Túpac Mejía on the IRC website.
