Student-driven construction of rainwater harvesting system

Local high schoolers take water issues into their own hands...

Caminos de Agua, in partnership with El Maíz Más Pequeño A.C. and Fundación Gonzalo Río Arronte, ran a workshop to construct a ferro-cement rainwater harvesting cistern at Bachillerato SABES Cerritos school in Guanajuato, over 5 days in February 2017.

The project was an initiative of a group of eight female students, who proposed the project as an alternative solution for access to water at the school. The cistern will allow the school to work on new projects where the availability of water was identified as a necessity, such as the growing of vegetables and trees among others. Over the course of the construction, around 60 students were involved in total.

This video was produced by Caminos de Agua to show and describe the process of constructing such a cistern, and to share some of the students' views on the project and the issues surrounding water scarcity in the region.

This project was highlighted on March 22nd during World Water Day, where Caminos de Agua and Ser Mujer celebrated Women in Water in San Miguel de Allende.