ETHOS Technical Reports
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
9-10-2004
Abstract
The Marianist mission’s base of operations in the Uxpanapa Valley of Southern Mexico runs a dormitory for students whose families live too far away from the valley’s middle and high schools for them to attend. This dormitory, in addition to other buildings onsite, consumes more water then the current well can provide in the dry season. After surveying the property and carrying out research, a number of appropriate technology solutions were suggested. These included conservation practices, improving existing wells so they will produce more water, digging a new well, rotating between the use of the two wells onsite to allow the water table around each one to “recharge,” and building a water storage system to supplement the wells in the dry season.
The poorest group of people in the Uxpanapa Valley are the Zoque tribe. Two Zoque villages were visited for the purpose of making cultural contacts and surveying their water sources. Most of these sources fail in the dry season. Several appropriate technology solutions were suggested to the Marianists, but more research and contact with the people is needed before any specific solution is chosen. These suggestions included digging a well at the site of springs which are the towns’ current water sources, and building rain collection and storage systems onto each residence. The water table currently offers safe, potable water in these towns. To keep the supply clean, recommendations were also made for improving the latrines used by the villagers.
The problems encountered in the water systems in the Uxpanapa Valley are both surprisingly simple and surprisingly complex. The lack of water is a simple problem because it falls from the sky in great amounts nine months out of the year. It is complex because solving it brings all the additional considerations of poverty, culture, and environmental contamination. Much more time, cultural understanding, collaboration, and research are needed to adequately solve the water supply problems of the Uxpanapa Valley.
eCommons Citation
Kosmerl, Paul and Neiport, Chris, "Mexico: Topographic Survey and Solutions to Lack of Water" (2004). ETHOS Technical Reports. 90.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ethos_reports/90
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