Amid the Pandemic, Rural Farmers Install Solar Energy in the Montes de Maria Region
“Many were forced to walk an hour away to a location with electricity to charge a cell phone, but now we can do it right here,” explained Yarleidis Castilla, 32, a resident of the small village of La Cañada in the north of Columbia. Thanks to Tierra Grata, new solar panels will allow 20 families in the […]
Rural Guajira: Teacher and Mother
The day she received the news, Ana María Uriana was teaching a class to twenty children. It was a hot summer day in the arid desert of the Middle Guajira when she heard the news: The Ministry of Education had compensated her for the decade she devoted to teaching by appointing her teacher in the […]
Education Without Water: The Guajiran Challenge
Columbia is a beautiful and diverse country which allows tourists to enjoy a variety of landscapes that vary between seasons and latitudes. However, many residents experience a sharply distinct reality: the conditions in which they live often prevent them from fundamental rights like access to water and education. When we talk about “education” in the […]
The Water Supply in Santa Marta: An Update
A new promise for clean drinking water in the city of Santa Marta was declared in August 2014 by then-mayor Carlos Caicedo. Caicedo contemplated the idea of using the Guachaca River as the primary source of water for the city and the adjacent municipalities. The idea was axed in December of that year by the […]
Water Replenishment in Santa Marta: Recurring Drought Without Respite
While chewing a leaf of ayahuasca under a tree’s shade, Héctor Rodríguez Anchila, president of the Association of Artisan and Cultivation Fishermen (CRÍAPEZ) wonders whether the afternoon’s heat is an omen that the river will suffer in the coming days. Every summer for the last three decades, the rivers that go down from the Sierra […]
SPECIAL: What Is Happening with the Water Crisis in Santa Marta?
At the beginning of the year, the mouth of the Aracataca River, which used to be frequented by fishermen’s canoes, was so dry that it became a busy passage by reses and horses. Fishermen warned of the annual nature of the phenomenon moved to deeper areas to remain profitable. The Aracataca River is one of […]
