Running head: POTABLE WATER IN ​LA GUAJIRA,​ COLOMBIA
JOSE MAX LEON SCHOOL
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
WRITTEN PROPOSAL
POTABLE WATER IN ​LA GUAJIRA,​ COLOMBIA
MANUELA ACOSTA FAJARDO
ELEVENTH A
FOURTH TERM
2017 - 2018
POTABLE WATER IN ​LA GUAJIRA,​ COLOMBIA
ABSTRACT
Water is the most important and vital resource in all of our lives. The lack of it means
a huge and inconcebible issue, because not having access to potable water implies
terrible risks to human health. All over the world people die due to the absence of
potable and clean water. Lots of projects are working to solve this problem, but some
of the countries that suffer of this situation are kind of left appart. An example of this
is Colombia, with a terrible lack of water in the region of La Guajira. Despite there
are some ideas and proposals that try to contribute to solving the problem, there is
not enough monetary capital to carry them out. This text presents a project to
contribute to the situation mentioned before. The main purpose of it is to create an
organization in charge of collecting funds and donations, in order to reach enough
money to make possible all the projects that have been presented, with the final aim
of helping the people that is suffering in this place of the country, ensuring the right
of having potable water to all of them. The idea of this proposal is make possible the
development of all the projects presented to help the country in this problem.
The lack of potable water is one of biggest problems in the world. This is
because the water is, as of its worth and importance for humanity, the most valuable
resource. A lot of countries all over the world suffer of this issue, and nowadays it is
a popular concern. Water is a really important and controversial matter in must of the
political purposes. All the countries must be concerned about it, taking into account
that it has a huge importance for all of us. “Water is at the core of sustainable
development and is critical for socio-economic development, energy and food
production, healthy ecosystems and for human survival itself.” (UN Water)​1​. It is also
worrying that the population is growing in enormous ways, at this is directly
connected with an increase in the demand of potable water.
“Water is also a rights issue.” (UN Water)​2​. As it has been said, because of
the population's’ growth, the demand of potable water also increases, in an alarming
way. It is took for granted that everybody must have access to water. The
importance of water in human life is the reason why it has been declared as a right.
“The human right to water is the right that all of us have to boast enough, healthy,
acceptable, accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use.” (ONU,
2002)​3​. ​However, in many countries this doesn’t happen because the water is really
limited in here, denying this vital resource to the in need people.
Latin America is the continent with more availability to potable water, with the
33% of water sources of the world, according to the World Water Forum​4​. Despite
this fact, this availability doesn't mean it is an accessible resource for everybody.
This continent also presents a really high level of inequality in terms of water access.
The CEPAL organization estimates Latin America population in 647 million people.
AVINA foundation says, in estadistic studies, that approximately 35 million people in
this continent does not count with access to water. This information is really
worrying, taking into account that water has been declared as a right, as it has been
said previously, and here we can see that this right is not being respected. This is
why some world organizations of huge importance are working together to ensure
the affordability to this vital resource.
One example of this attempts of helping with the water crisis is the one made
by the United Nations, named Water For Life Decade. This project attempted to
promote efforts to fulfill international commitments in the water field. “We’ve tried to
raise the profile of water in the global agenda, and to focus the world’s attention on
the groundbreaking, lifesaving, empowering work done by those implementing water
programs and projects.” (UN, 2015)​5​. This initiative helped around 1.3 billion people
in developing countries gain access to safe drinking water and drove progress on
sanitation as part of the effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals.There is
also another project that works nowaday, providing access to clean, safe and reliable
water across sub-Saharan Africa, called The Water Project 6​​ .
In Latin America is working a comunitary management based in the OCSAS
organization, that tries to make the water more accessible for everybody. In this
project, common people is associated with their neighbourhoods, searching for
solutions to water issues in their peripheral zone. This initiative has helped many
countries, as Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras,
and more. This is a very promising project, but in spite of all this effort, it is still
necessary to find more alternatives that solve this issue, and that guarantee this right
to all the Latin American people.
Talking about a closer case of this issue, I am going to deepen in Colombia’s
situation. First of all, it should be emphasized that many congressmen have
defended the water, and have proposed to consider this resource in the Colombian
Constitution 7​​ ; so, taking into account this, it could be said that water is a national
concern, and it is also a political matter. The country has presented huge
transformations in the last years in terms of water, necessarily having to get adapted
to the current and future demand in front of critical situations of shortage that the
most vulnerable regions of Colombia are going through. The most affected place in
here is the region of La Guajira. Here, more than the 65% of the inhabitants doesn’t
have access to water, and consequently, suffer of lots of different diseases. The
National Government has been requested to make a humanitarian intervention in the
zone, designing and building reservoirs of potable water.
Furthermore this projects, some other organizations have made researches
and have raised ideas of possible solutions to the issue in this part of the country.
There has been made an investigation by the Universidad Libre, which attempts to
simulate a desalination plant of sea water, through the IMS design software 8​​ . This is
a strategy to strengthen the social development and to reuse the sea water, to
produce potable one, in the North Caribbean region of Colombia. However, this is
just an idea, and it has not been implemented yet. That is why I highlight the
importance of carrying out a project, that work really well, and that make possible to
help all this people to have access to this vital resource.
The main problem here is that, despite there are lots of projects and ideas
that can solve this issue, there is not enough monetary capital to carry out them.
That is why my proposal lies in raising up an initiative as “The Water Project”, which
was explained before, but that collect funds which are intended to make posible all
the projects and proposals that people have in order of contributing to this issue’s
resolution. In other words, what I am proposing is to create an organization that
unlock human potential by proposing and providing reliable water projects to
colombian communities, specifically the ones located in La Guajira.
But, ¿why is this proposal important? The reason why I am giving this idea is
because I think that we all know that the water is vital in our lives, and it is also
known that it’s necessary to look for solutions to the scarcity of this resource.
Knowing this make the people to get concerned and to act, providing interesting and
helpful projects to solve this problem. However, most of this projects are made in
different parts and locations all around the world, except in Colombia. We, as
colombian people, have to concentrate in our own problems before looking to the
global ones. If we want to contribute and to help people we must do it with our own
countryman. Then, if the national problems and issues are solved, we can help the
rest of the world. But now we have to focus our efforts on looking for projects and
solutions here, in Colombia. And for making these projects posible is necessary to
have enough monetary capital. Here is where my proposal lies, on creating an
organization that collects donations and founds that will help the people that made
this proposal to make them possible. If there is enough money, there would be
enough possibilities to carry out plenty projects, and consequently there would be
many opportunities to have this issue solved, and to help all the people in La Guajira
to have access to potable and clean water.
As it was already said, this project is an idea taken of the already working
organization “The Water Project”. The difference here is that the one that I am talking
about an organization that collects donations and funds only for Colombian matters,
because there are lots of ideas and proposals, but money is needed in order of
making all of them possible. The idea is also to give trainings and tuition to the
people that is going to develop the projects, in order of having the best development
of this ideas, and looking for the best way of building these solutions. This idea will
help not only the in need people, but also all the persons who created and presented
the ideas and projects, because they would have the possibility of carrying them out.
The project will also help the country itself, because one of the main problems of the
nation will be solved, giving more quality of life to all the people.
It can be said that this proposal will work out if we compare it with The Water
Project. This initiative has already helped over than a billion people in Africa. But to
make it possible, and to reach the same, or better results of this idea, it is needed
the help of the people. Every person that wants to collaborate in this matter must
donate and help, because every help, despite it is small or considerably big, will
contribute to make all of this possible. The idea is to create an internet platform, in
which people can freely browse. In here, information and instructions about how to
donate are going to be found. There will also be found informatives texts,
infographics, videos, images, charts, etc. explaining and exposing the projects and
ideas proposed by the people, and also outlining process that you must follow in
case that you want to help. It is going to be a complete platform, in which you are
going to find tree main sites: “Learn”, where all the information about the issue is
going to be found, as the videos and explanations of how to act in this situations;
“Act”, where you will find the instructions and process to follow of how to donate and
get involved in the project; and “See”, where the results and processes are going to
be exposed, in order to make the people know about how is the project evolving and
what is being done with their donations and supports.
The way to proceed with this project is, first of all, creating a safe and reliable
website, controlled and constantly monitored by chosen and capable people. After
that, it is necessary to broadcast and distribute the information, making campaigns
and announcements in which the project is going to be exposed and explained, in
order to make the people know about it. Before starting to act, it is needed to make
sure that enough money is already collected, with the aim of making possible all the
proposals and projects, and not just let them in the air, as simple ideas and wishes.
Later, already knowing that there are enough monetary funds, what has to be made
is to start carrying out the projects, with supervision and advice from professionals in
that field. The idea is to proceed making this projects and solutions possible, working
in pursuit of solving the water issue, and beginning to guarantee to the people in La
Guajira the access to potable water. After the proposals and projects are built up and
are working, the idea is to have a constant control of the way they are working, to
ensure the best development.
The success of this project lies in, first and foremost, the donations and
supports that people will make, in order to collect all the needed funds. It is also
necessary a control in the destination on the funds, and the way they are used, with
the aim of giving them a correct and worthwhile use. It should be emphasized that
the purpose of this project is to help needy people, and not to enrich the ones that
manage it, so all the money is going to be designated to what is going to be done in
order to solve the problem. All the money collected is going to be used with the
purpose of guaranteeing the water right to everybody in La Guajira.
As it has already been said, lack of water is one of the main problems in the
world, and has to be solved as quickly as possible, taking into account that this is a
vital resource for everybody. Currently, there are 844 million people living without
access to save water, according to The Water Organization 9​​ . A considerable part of
that number of people lives in La Guajira, Colombia. That is way it is completely
necessary to act as soon as we can, to help those needy people, because it is
unthinkable that such amount of people are living in that terrible way. With
everybody’s help, a really big and useful project can be built and made, saving lots of
lives in this way. This issue is just a big opportunity to act all together and to reach
intelligent and radical solutions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
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Article.
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www.researchgate.net/profile/Juan_Pinos/publication/322962621
4. WWF. ​World Water Forum 8. Sharing Water. Retrieved from:
http://www.worldwaterforum8.org/
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2005 - 2015. ​Retrieved from: ​http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/
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https://thewaterproject.org/water-scarcity/
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http://senado.gov.co/component/k2/item/27812-congresistas-defienden-el-der
echo-al-agua
8. Universidad Libre. ​Simulación de una planta desalinizadora de agua de mar.
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