Honduras
In a few years, Pure Water’s work in Honduras has grown from one project in the Department (State) of El Paraiso, to projects in five other Departments. Pure Water currently is working in: Choluteca, Santa Barbara, Trojes, Colon, Atlantida, and Copan. The project headquarters are in these larger towns or cities, however, the communities with which we work are smaller villages in the surrounding region.
Pure Water’s mission is to work in rural, remote regions of Central America where there is little opportunity of these villages receiving an improve water system in the near future. Pure Water implements household water treatment systems along with training and education.
Over 18,000 families are receiving the benefits of safe drinking water and training.
Pure Water works with community leaders to determine the best approach to solving their water needs. Pure Water believes that community involvement, training and education are essential components to developing a sustainable water project.
Honduras is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, behind Haiti.
Consider these statistics according to a 2000 United Nations report
- Life expectancy was 69.9 years,
- 11.3 % of the population was not expected to survive to age 40,
- 38% of the people were without access to health care,
- Maternal mortality was 220 per 100,000 births,
- Over 66% of families in rural Honduras lived in extreme poverty; under $1.00 per person per day,
- Unemployment was at 50% with an even greater underemployment,
- Inflation rate has been running at 14%, and
- Adult literacy was 26.6%,
Water related statistics
- Barely half of the population had access to disinfected water,
- 50,000 Honduran children under the age of 5 died each year from the effects of drinking impure water,
- 80% of the illnesses detected in Honduras originate from the water they consumed
- 78% of the population depended upon surface water, and
- 26% of the people lived without access to sanitation
The need for clean water is enormous.
Rural Honduran Life
- Honduran houses are adobe brick, cinder block or bahareque construction. Cinder block is rare and it is more expensive. Adobe is most common, as mud bricks are easy to make and the raw materials readily available. Bahareque houses are made of sticks, rocks and mud and are the cheapest and very unhealthy. Houses do not have bathrooms but depend on shallow, hand-dug, unlined latrines or bushes.
- Kitchens often stand apart to reduce household heat and often do not have chimneys. Nearly 100% of kitchens use wood stoves and the smoke entrapped in the houses creates serious upper respiratory infections in the youth. Children generally eat 2 meals per day; though the recent drought may have reduced available food so that they are eating only once a day. The result is that the kids are even more susceptible to contracting diseases. This seriously lowered resistance to childhood illnesses makes these kids especially vulnerable to intestinal parasites, dysentery, diarrhea, dehydration and even death – all known risks of drinking contaminated water.
- Pure Water for the World can help reduce childhood illnesses by eliminating one of the factors that contributes to poor health – contaminated drinking water.
With your support, Pure Water for the World can eliminate the most significant contributor to childhood illnesses by providing them effective continuous access to clean drinking water.
Current locations in Honduras where we are or will be shortly providing clean water services.
- Danli
- Choluteca
- Trujillo
- Trojes
- La Ceiba
- Santa Barbara
- Copan
- La Mosquita
- La Pimenta
- Santa Rosa de Aguan
