The water project in Ecuador

November 2021

Ecuador's relationship with water is very particular.
In fact, in the country, as in the rest of Latin America, there is a high availability of water resources, if you compare the water reserves with the population: but in the Latin American region as many as 34 million people do not have access to drinking water. And, despite Ecuador owning a ben one third of the planet's fresh water, this it is not evenly distributed even in the territory itself.
For example, in the Andean area there are no underground aquifers: the availability of water practically depends only on atmospheric precipitation and the conservation of a very particular ecosystem, the so-called Páramo Andino. THE páramo they are extremely important because they have an enormous biodiversity: 60% of plant species are endemic, i.e. present only in that part of the world. Furthermore, the paramos "supply" the nearby rivers, lakes and gathering places with water, and conserve it through their vegetation.

Despite this, in these areas the availability of water is very low, if not nonexistent.

So, even if at the national level the coverage of drinking water is higher than 70%, in rural areas there are only 35% of families who have access to drinking water. The communities involved in the WAMI water project are located in the Andean area of the country, in the central Sierra region of Ecuador: most of the families are indigenous and peasant, who are mainly dedicated to family farming. In particular, in the area of this water project, only 22% of the population had access to water and The rest of the population drew water for human consumption directly from rivers and springs.