Allie Alvarez: Bridging Technology and Community in the Water Sector

Our watershed, the Upper Río Laja, is in the throes of a severe water scarcity crisis, which has triggered both environmental and public health emergencies. Our region's dwindling water is often highly contaminated with arsenic and fluoride – two naturally-occurring chemicals that pose serious health risks when consumed, including dental and skeletal fluorosis, chronic kidney disease, skin lesions, developmental and cognitive impairments in children, and various forms of cancer.

Odorless, tasteless, and invisible, arsenic and fluoride are completely dissolved in the water and, consequently, incredibly difficult to remove. Standard treatment options, including boiling water, most water filters, and even “whole-house” water treatment systems, common in San Miguel, cannot touch arsenic and fluoride in the water. And while 100s of thousands of people are exposed to these contaminants regionally, upwards of 21 million people are exposed throughout Mexico, with few suitable options available, especially for those most vulnerable in rural communities. 

To create better, more targeted solutions to these increasingly complex water challenges, Caminos de Agua began building a technology development arm of the organization 7 years ago. And in 2019, Allie Alvarez arrived as Caminos’ first Director of Technology to help lead this transformative process. 

Allie's professional story began with a degree in civil engineering from Gonzaga University. From there, she embarked on a journey, fueled by the desire to make a difference in the world, which led her initially to Zambia. However, her experiences working abroad with community partners revealed a stark truth: foreigners, in many instances, were actually inadvertently hindering locally-led movements. This realization, coupled with her yearning for more engineering experience, then led her to the world of engineering consulting.

Allie worked with a firm in the Pacific Northwest; however, she later realized that the work was not aligned with her desire to create a more profound impact with communities at risk, which led her to participate in a fellowship program that exposed her to the complexities of international development work and the evolving approaches to supporting community-led projects.

“I was paired with a group of Ecuadorian women coffee farmers, and we spent time learning directly from each other. This made me realize that, with all of its challenges and limitations, I did want to work in the nonprofit space.”

Allie and her now husband made the bold decision to quit their jobs in Portland and move to San Miguel de Allende in mid-2019. Her mission was clear: to help bring Caminos’ mission forward while spending time with her husband's family.

“I was originally drawn to the community-centered work of Caminos, but have stayed because of the interesting and important connection of the technical and social. My work is so varied, and I love that about it.”

In her role as the Director of Technology, Allie serves as the backbone of Caminos' “Tech Team,” coordinating four in-house engineers, and a revolving door of technical fellows and interns, ensuring they have the resources needed for success. In this role, she helps oversee Caminos’ Water Monitoring Program – a crucial component of our operation that helps us understand and communicate the changing water issues, as well as the Technology Development Program. This includes the improvement and production of our Aguadapt water filter as well as the development – and now implementation – of our Groundwater Treatment System (GTS), a pioneering technology that removes arsenic and fluoride at the community scale. Allie also collaborates with our Community Outreach and Education Team as well as directly with our community partners to bridge the technical and social aspects of these projects.

“Although I have diverse responsibilities, in general I work to bring together groups of people to move our projects forward and help grow the organization and our impact.”

Through these efforts, the first GTS is now being completely run and operated by a group of mothers in the small rural community of Los Ricos.

“Women are strong and capable. There is an old-school mentality that women have to fit into certain boxes; they can do some tasks, but others are for men. And I think maintenance and troubleshooting of a water treatment system or plumbing, often falls in the "male tasks" category. Which is complete garbage, why do we engender chores? So it's really amazing to see the moms from the rural community of Los Ricos take on this work at our pilot Groundwater Treatment System. They were unsure about getting their hands on it at the beginning, but have been such important players in the success of this system. In addition to taking on these more "technical" tasks, the women running the pilot system have been crucial to helping us understand how the realities of life intersect with the implementation of a water treatment system. I think we've made a good team.“

From there, Allie presented GTS to the State Water Commission of Guanajuato, helped build proposals and secure funding for this groundbreaking technology, and is coordinating the team – a purposeful mix of engineers and community outreach workers – to bring GTS to scale. In just this past month, we’ve broken ground on our next GTS in the community of Alonzo Yáñez, a substantially larger community of more than 280 families suffering from fluoride levels more than 5 times above the allowable limit. 

The importance of addressing water challenges directly with, and not “for”, those most impacted cannot be understated in creating lasting change. Allie echoes one of Caminos’ core tenets that a technology is a tool, but not a solution in and of itself.

“No matter where you live, you will face water-related issues in the near future. […] So this is something that needs our attention. And in order to be successful at facing these challenges, we need diverse voices in the room. Let's discuss this with our neighbors, let's involve anyone interested in participating. Experts alone can't create lasting solutions. We don't need a million new technologies, we need integrated, appropriate alternatives, for each of our local contexts.“

Learn more about Allie’s story, and her work, in this short video produced by Discovery Education, in collaboration with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), to help inspire young engineers to contribute to their communities.

(Click on the image below to watch the video)