Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Country statistics Population: 5.6 mio. People without access to improved water supply: 1.1 mio. Child mortality: 3.5% Source: United Nations Statistics Division Project Start of the SODIS promotion: 2003 Diffusion through NGOs, local promoters, teachers 100 000 users

With support of the SODIS Foundation, we started in 2003 to promote the SODIS-method in Nicaragua. First, we made sure the method is accepted by the local population, through small pilot projects. Afterwards, the SODIS-method was introduced in larger projects. By now, the method is known by all NGOs working in the health sector, which are member of the network organization “NicaSalud”.

Between 2006 and 2008, NicaSalud promoted SODIS and other methods of point-of-use water treatment (chlorination, boiling) in more than 300 communities, most of them in the Centre, North and West of the country.

The current project now takes place on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. This area is scarcely populated and difficult to access from the capital Managua. Unlike the rest of the country, the majority of the population here is of indigenous origins, and apart from Spanish, a number of native languages are in use. These conditions led to a chronic neglect of the eastern coast on behalf of government programmes, but also on behalf of NGO projects.

The new phase of the project started in 2009. The NGO “Save the Children”, which is the only international organization that has been present over many years, is leading the training activities and will organize the community meetings. The institution will cooperate intensively with local schools, where SODIS is the most promising method to bring safe drinking water to thousands of children. As a special feature of this project, local promoters will distribute simple water test kits to enable families the confirm themselves that many water sources are contaminated – and that the SODIS-method produces safe drinking water. As they say in this region: “seeing is believing”.

Local partner organisation

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