Get Involved in Wine & Water!

Let’s bring safe water to a thirsty world!

Summer has not officially begun but we know it’s here. As we make our way through the heat at Texas Water Mission, we are already at work on our fall fundraiser.

Please join us to achieve maximum event impact. Your skills on our event planning committee, purchase of ticket or table, or commitment as an event sponsor all bring the gift of water to communities in need in Honduras and the Navajo Nation.

Call for Volunteers

Our Events Committee seeks interested volunteers to help plan this year’s dinner. We invite you to share your skills (from writing to photography to audio visuals, social media, outreach, coordination and set up) to increase our capacity to provide safe drinking water.

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Volunteers in action for Wine & Water 2023 from left to right below: 1) Board member Cindy Fuqua preparing SHIMA of Navajoland goods for sale at the dinner; 2) Volunteer Coffee Roasters Steven and Erin Bolden selling our coffee at the dinner; and 3) Eddie Bibb helping with the auction.

As Scott Harrison of Charity Water says, we have the tools and technology to end global water insecurity in our lifetime. What we need is the will and financial resources to do so! We can do this. Join our small group and help us make a big difference.

SPONSORSHIP & EVENT SUPPORT

We hope to engage sufficient sponsors to cover event costs so all proceeds can be directed to safe water projects. * If you own a business or participate in an organization, please consider the opportunities listed below. * We also have tickets and tables (8 seats each) for sale. purchase a ticket and make new friends or buy a table and invite a group!

DRINK COFFEE

Consider trying our premium Honduran-grown, Texas-roasted coffee - whole bean or ground - to support TWM’s safe water projects in Honduras and the Navajo Nation. In just 4 easy steps you can bring water closer to the people who need it: 1) click button below, 2) order your preferred size and type, 3) brew and 4) enjoy! Thank you!

SPRING UPDATE: Events, Programs & Job Opening!

Urban 15 presenting the grand finale of “Cochineala”, a Festival of Art and Nature in Honor of World Water Day. the theme of this year’s festival was bioluminescence.

World Water Day Recap

TWM held its third annual World Water Day celebration Saturday, March 23 in collaboration with Celebration Circle, San Antonio River Foundation (SARF), and the City of San Antonio. The nighttime festival was held at Confluence Park, located at the junction of San Antonio River and San Pedro Creek. SARF estimated attendance of 1,000 people!

The free family art and nature festival was designed to entertain and educate San Antonians about the importance of caring for natural resources in keeping with the international theme of Water for Peace and the event’s focus on bioluminescence.

Prior to the event, TWM posted inspirational stories on social media on the ways water is tied to peace and security such as the fact that more children die from lack of water in conflict zones than from violence.

Participants learned about the global water, sanitation and hygiene crises through a treasure hunt in which they had to answer questions by visiting all the festival booths. Each booth had a fact about water included in its signage. People who completed the water test received prizes. The water quiz turned out to be very popular!

The booths had a variety of activities showcasing bioluminescence and nocturnal creatures including rock painting, doing “black-out” poetry, black light sidewalk art, and places to view moths, bats, and other animals of the night. There was free prickly pear agua fresca, food trucks, and live music during the event, which closed with a dance performance by Urban 15.

Alamo Ranch Rotary

In early March, Sa Huynh, President of Alamo Ranch Rotary Club, reached out to Texas Water Mission with a request that we speak about our work. The Club was focusing on water security for the month of March. Sa also volunteered at the World Water Day event.

Top photo: Rotary club members at the Alamo Ranch Club meeting on March 21 which focused on World Water Day; Bottom photo: President Sa Huynh presenting gifts and plaque to Linda from Texas Water Mission

HONDURAS

Community members of La Jagua, a mountainous village of 175 people preparing to sell fried plantains with crema and queso fresco to help raise money for a well they requested last April from Texas Water Mission.

It is with sadness I report we have not drilled a new water well since May 2023 due to insufficient funds. I hear regularly from Water Committee leaders from the 11 Honduran communities that submitted well requests in the last couple years. Maria Cristina from La Jagua recently sent videos of mothers and children sourcing water from a small spring on the side of a hill, and carrying it (on heads and in their arms) as they walked the steep slopes back home.

On a bright note, we were awarded a $10,000 grant from the World Missions Department at DWTX towards purchase of a replacement truck for well maintenance in Honduras. I have submitted proposals to Alamo Heights Rotary Club and St. Mark’s Episcopal in San Antonio for the remainder of the funds needed.

We have also submitted a grant to the Mays Family Foundation in collaboration with the Water Resource Lab at Texas A&M San Antonio that will allow students to build Atmospheric Water Harvesting (AWH) Systems with locally sourced materials in Honduras (at Zamorano University), and install them in nearby villages to test them out. We expect to hear back on all of these requests in May.

NAVAJOLAND

Mother Paula Henson (right) with community member showing Navajo weaving created at St. John’s the Baptizer church and community center.

Texas Water Mission works in the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation, in collaboration with the Episcopal Church in Navajoland (ECN). Most recently we have been working with Mother Paula Henson, Navajo priest at St. John’s the Baptizer in Montezuma Creek.

In October 2023, TWM submitted a grant request to DigDeep for St. John’s church and community center to improve its water access. The three components of the request were: 1) install switch for the pump on the solar powered cistern installed by TWM in 2020, to allow it to change from solar to grid power on cloudy days and at night, insuring a 24/7 water supply; 2) install new water heater to replace the one corroded by contaminated well water years ago; and 3) construct shed to store the water tank used to deliver potable water to the cistern. DigDeep’s Water is Life Fund covered the plumbing and cistern upgrades and TWM provided funding for the shed.

Photos top to bottom: 1) new electrical panel allowing cistern pump to be powered by electric grid when solar power not available; 2) new water heater installed at St. John the Baptizer to enable hot water throughout church and community center; and 3) shed for storing 250 gallon water tank used to supply the buried cistern.

wine & water 2024

Interior of Coates Chapel, SW School of Art, decorated for an event.

This year Texas Water Mission invites you to a new and very special Wine & Water Dinner, to be held in the Coates Chapel at the Southwest School of Art (now a campus of the University of Texas in San Antonio) on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. Our caterer will be renowned chef Elizabeth Johnson, owner of Pharm Table in Southtown San Antonio. Please contact us for sponsorship opportunities.

Exterior of Coates chapel, constructed by the Ursuline order between 1867 and 1880.

Accomplished local chef Elizabeth Johnson was born in Honduras, studied culinary arts in Mexico City, and wrote the curriculum on Central American cuisine for the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio.

Elizabeth’s Wine & Water dinner will feature locally sourced ingredients used by indigenous peoples, echoing the flavors and traditional foods of Honduras and the Navajo Nation.

executive director search

At the end of June, I will step down from my role as Executive Director of Texas Water Mission. I remain committed to the mission and essential work of the organization, and will continue to be involved. Currently, I am working with the Discernment and Hiring Committee to find the right person to take the helm. This person will be bi-lingual in English and Spanish, an excellent communicator, comfortable with change, a creative thinker, adept at fundraising, and a team leader. Our team consists of an active board of directors, some student workers, and a cadre of dedicated volunteers. Training and mentoring will be offered for this dynamic position. You can find a job description and important information about applying for the job HERE.

You too can get splattered with drilling mud if you join the team at Texas Water Mission!

Celebrating successes and looking forward…

2023 was a year of new relationships for Texas Water Mission. Despite a quarter century of working to improve safe water access, last year was the first time many of you heard of us and became aware of our impact.

Our Board of Directors is evolving…

To begin, we gained three stellar new board members in 2023…

THOMAS SPURGEON

Chair, Grants Committee

Tom joined us by way of the Master Leadership Program (MLP) of San Antonio. He has been in Texas since 1973, where he went to college and subsequently earned his JD at Southern Methodist University. He served many years as a municipal bond lawyer in San Antonio, and recently retired.

TERESA CHAVEZ LOMELI

Chair, Events Committee

Tere, from Mexico City, also joined us via MLP San Antonio. This comes after a long international career with Proctor & Gamble working in supply chain, program management, and organizational development. She has experience helping nonprofit organizations in Arkansas. She and her husband moved to San Antonio in 2020.

DR. WILLIAM GROOS

Bill is a native San Antonian, a graduate of Alamo Heights High School, Princeton University, and the University of Texas Medical Center at Galveston. He practiced pediatrics in a private group for thirty years, retiring in 2017. His late wife Monnie served on the Texas Water Mission board for several years. Bill has three daughters, eight grandchildren, and one shaggy dog

We had a change in leadership with longtime Board Chairman Bruce Flohr stepping down in December to focus on fundraising, and Secretary Peter Maddox stepping up to serve as our new Board Chair.

outgoing board chairman Bruce flohr

This is Bruce Flohr (right) with board member Rev. Jay Buzzini in May 2023 at a well TWM installed some years ago in El Campo, a small Honduran town. Bruce has been a member of the TWM board since 2008 and served as Chair since 2009.

His long career embodies entrepreneurship and philanthropy, recently celebrated by an honorary doctorate from St. Mary’s University and induction into the Shortline Railroad Hall of Fame.

INCOMING BOARD CHAIRMAN PETER MADDOX

Peter is a partner in Royer-Maddox-Herron Advisors, specializing in healthcare strategic development. He has extensive experience in governance having served on several boards for private corporations and not-for-profit organizations. He joined the board of TWM in 2012 and has served as it’s Secretary and Chair of the Governance Committee since then.

We’re being discovered!

The word is getting out about Texas Water Mission. I think its due to heightened awareness of Climate Change, Migration, the World Water Crisis, and people looking for ways to help. Here are two standout examples of inspired people finding TWM and truly making a difference:

SABLE NONPROFIT

Sable was founded by Emery Betts, second from left above, to support small nonprofits working in three areas: violence prevention, food and water security, and disaster response.

Emery reached out early in 2023 to see how they could help TWM. I told him we could use assistance finding interns, enhancing social media, and improving our website and SEO. Somehow he did it all by supporting us in the creation and marketing of a summer internship program that he then helped manage, mentoring our UTSA students Emzery Primer and Eberardo Trejo in the process.

The students completed many needed projects including a blog on the Water Crisis, social media posts and videos, content scheduling, and an overhaul of our water project request form in Spanish.

The third and fourth photos above are: 3) Emery and Emzery and their one year old sons having a check in with me, and 4) Eberardo with his plaque at our Wine & Water dinner in September.

MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

About mid-year, I received an email from Reed Smoot, a graduate student at Mays Business School, Texas A&M, College Station. She and a team of four other students participating in the Integrated Business Experience at the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship had selected TWM to be the beneficiary of the business they were going to create and run for one semester!

The team named their business Bring the Water (BTH2O) and designed some fun Aggie-themed products that they marketed and sold, with all profits designated for TWM. Reed and Jake Gartrell drove all the way to San Antonio to present and sell their products at the September Wine & Water dinner.

I visited Texas A&M for the students’ final presentation December 1, where I discovered they were the most successful team in the class, raising over $4,000 for Texas Water Mission! Because of their success, they are featured in this article by Aggieland Credit Union, which loaned the teams their startup funds.

Honduran Connections

On our May trip to Honduras we met with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Tegucigalpa (first photo on left is our group relinquishing passports and phone to be allowed entrance). While there, we learned of a network of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) organizations operating in Honduras called Para Todos Por Siempre (For All Forever). In the following few months we not only became a member of PTPS but published an article on our experiences in Honduras in the magazine Agua, pictured above. The photo on the right is the most recent gathering of PTPS members in Tegucigalpa. We plan to attend their April meeting during our trip in 2024.

Thank you to our 2023 grantors, old and new…

dwtx World Missions

Thank you to Dr. Marthe Curry and World Missions for supporting our work in both Navajoland and Honduras. Last year our World Missions grant supported water well maintenance in Honduras.

alamo heights rotary club

Thanks to the Alamo Heights Rotary Club, TWM was able to fund a new water tank in Ojo de Agua, an Honduran town of over 10,000 residents. The water committee surprised us with a little party when we went to visit the new tank in May.

creation care, episcopal church

In collaboration with the grants team of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas we successfully applied the the Creation Care Office of the Episcopal Church for a grant to support native agriculture on the lands surrounding St. Christopher’s Mission in Bluff, Utah.

flohr family foundation

Bruce Flohr’s family foundation funded the drilling of a well in the Honduran community of Quebrada Grande in May 2023. Photos left to right show Bruce and other board members arriving in Quebrada Grande for the drilling; the community water committee’s president, our well maintenance manager Luis Fernando, and volunteer Roxana Menes in front of the drill truck; families arriving for the health and hygiene workshop; and a scene from the training.

digdeep water is life fund

In 2020 TWM installed a 1,500 gallon water cistern for St. John the Baptizer Church and Community Center in Montezuma Creek, Utah. In addition to leading services at St. John’s, Mother Paula Henson holds gatherings of local women to promote traditional arts such as beading and weaving. This year TWM worked with Mother Paula to submit a proposal to Dig Deep to ensure water to the center 24/7, add a hot water heater, and build a shed to protect the 250 gallon tank used to haul water to fill the cistern.

ST. LUKE’S GREEN DOOR

Thank you to St. Luke’s Green Door Thift Shop in San Antonio for awarding TWM funding to invest in well repair tools!

Coffee!

MARKETING BRAINSTORM WITH ERNEST BROMLEY

These photos are today - January 8, 2024 - showing a coffee marketing brainstorm with TWM board and volunteers led by local marketing guru Ernie Bromley, who offered to help us out after attending our September 2023 Wine & Water Dinner. Next steps are to develop a marketing plan targeting the ideal customer we defined today.

And that’s it! Thanks for reading. To get involved, donate, and/or purchase some coffee, just click below…

Holiday Tidings from Texas Water Mission

Merry Christmas - It is Good - from Navajoland

This November, Texas Water Mission (TWM) volunteers Les Shephard and Carmine Palladino traveled to Navajoland to conduct a flow test at St. Mary’s in the Moonlight. The test showed the well has capacity for a public water point. However, this project is on hold for the moment due to a staffing shortage at the Episcopal Church in Navajoland.

To fulfill our goal of providing a public water point in the near future, we entered into a discussion with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and secured a commitment from them to construct a water station across the highway from St. John the Baptizer. We are hopeful this new public water source will be operational in 2024, and will keep you posted.

Meanwhile we are working with Mother Paula at St. John’s to ensure the church and community center have 24/7 water access.

Photos above from left to right show:

  • Dr. Les Shephard and Walter Shorty in the ceremonial hogan at St. Mary’s in the Moonlight, Oljato, Utah

  • Mother Paula Henson by a Navajo weaving in her church St. John the Baptizer, Montezuma Creek, Utah

  • Valley of the Gods, Utah - about an hour from St. Mary’s Church

  • SHIMA of Navajoland products for sale by TWM!

    • These handmade, plant-based items from the Navajo Nation include honey, blue corn meal, naturally scented soaps, and facial scrub. Text director Linda Stone at 210-275-0575 for information and to arrange pickup or delivery. We will also have them for sale at Church of the Reconciliation from 11:30am-12:30pm December 3 & 10.

¡Feliz Navidad desde Honduras!

In Honduras we continue to maintain water wells with handpumps in 37 communities, install new wells and pumps, provide health and hygiene workshops, and offer continuing education to our maestras.

We are also raising funds to purchase new work tools for Luis Fernando, the most important of which is the 20-year-old work truck needed for well maintenance.

Theses photos, from left to right, depict:

  • TWM well maintenance lead Luis Fernando Zuniga with the 2004 work truck we desperately need to replace.

  • A solar water installation in the mountains of Honduras - we are currently sourcing a solar pump for the well we drilled in Quebrada Grande earlier this year.

  • The new label for our gourmet Honduran coffee that supports small farmers AND communities needing potable water. You can purchase some on our website or meet Linda at the Episcopal Diocese in San Antonio to pick some up.

    • We are offering a 10% discount to anyone purchasing more than 2 pounds every 6 months. Email Linda to join our coffee club!

  • Today is the last day of a sale from our friends at May’s Business School in College Station! Here’s what they have to say about what they have been doing:

    • Howdy!

      BTH2O, a group of Masters of Business students selling Aggie-themed products perfect for the Holidays. As a part of the McFerrin Entrepreneurship Center, we run our business until December 1st, and all profits generated go to the Texas Water Mission!

      Please buy a Bottle Bestie or Caps-Off coaster on our website.

      Follow us on our page to be updated on our project

      Our products make the perfect stocking stuffers! So use the coupon code: STOCKINGSTUFFER for 30% off our Bottle Besties.

Reed Smoot and Jake Gartrell, Mays Business student partners, with Linda Stone, TWM ED at the 2023 Wine & Water Gala

You can find TWM at Church of the Reconciliation in San Antonio at their Alternate Gift Market selling our Honduran coffee and SHIMA of Navajoland products from 11:30am-12:30pm the next two Sundays: December 3 & 10. Hope to see you there!

Church of Reconciliation - location of Alternate Gift Market

Thanks to all for your interest and support of Texas Water Mission. We are extremely grateful for our generous community. If you wish to do something more or get involved for the first time, please consider volunteering, taking a trip with us, or supporting a project. Information on all of the above can be found here.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season. Ya’at’eeh!

Mays Business School Partnership AND Wine & Water 2023 Auction Soft Opening Online!

Hey Aggies!

You’ll be happy to know a group of Mays Business School grad students found Texas Water Mission and created “Bring the Water,” a business to benefit our water access projects!

Learn more about BTHO at TWM’s fall dinner where the students will sell their wares and present their project!

Starting NOW until Monday, September 25, we are opening our auction to allow bidding before the event! Check out the Live Auction Items and nab yours now!

Climate Change, Migration, and TWM's Safe Water Projects in Honduras (Sigue la versión en español)

Luis Reyes, President, Junta de Agua, Honduras; Luis Fernando Zuniga, Honduras Well Maintenance Manager for Texas Water Mission; and Roxana Menes, long-time TWM volunteer and the author of this blog post (along with Linda Stone)

Learning about the perils of climate change on a global scale has become a daily occurrence through television, the internet, newspapers, and magazines. In the developed world, learning about the impact of climate change on human populations is a remote intellectual activity conducted in the comfort of people’s homes while drinking their morning coffee and watching TV before they head off to work. Climate change in the developed world is mainly a construct unless people have experienced the devastation of climate change firsthand by surviving disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, tornados, and floods, which have significantly increased in frequency and severity in the last decades. 

During the most recent visit to Danlí, Honduras, a city located approximately 45 miles Northwest of Ocotal, Nicaragua, the closest border town between Nicaragua and Honduras, Texas Water Mission (TWM)’s Executive Director, Linda Stone, and long-time volunteer, Roxana Menes, bore witness to the phenomena of mass migrations making their way to “el Norte” from various Latin American and Caribbean countries. The reasons for this historic mass migration are various. They include political, economic, and security factors. But climate change is most likely the most impactful reason for the out-migration as longtime natural water sources dry up. Danli has become a vital waystation for international migrants, mainly from Venezuela and Haiti. International aid organizations like the Red Cross have set up offices in Danlí to manage this unprecedented crisis affecting the people of the Americas (South, Central, North America, and the Caribbean).

In Honduras, the internal migrant crisis is linked to lack of water resources. According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 60% to 70% of Honduran migrants making their way to the United States are from an area known as “el corridor seco” (the dry corridor). Honduran communities within the dry corridor are experiencing unprecedented precipitation patterns where storms and flooding alter natural watersheds leading to extreme droughts. Precipitation patterns have been changing due to global warming, so that the annual rainy season has less precipitation overall, punctuated by extreme storm systems where the water cannot be adequately absorbed due to quantity and intensity.

Since the 1960s, average annual temperature in Honduras has increased by 0.6°C per decade, with greatest warming in the dry season. Heavy rainfall events have also increased by 1.2% per decade. Although trends in annual rainfall have been inconsistent, Honduras has experienced reduced rainfall in the northwest and southeast. Additionally, the frequency and intensity of El Niño/La Niña events has increased.

Image credit: The Alliance for Climate Protection: How the Climate Crisis is Driving Central American Migration https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/how-climate-crisis-driving-central-american-migration

In addition, communities that have historically relied on using surface water are at the highest risk of losing their livelihoods in rural farming. Their ability to exist is becoming impossible due to an increasingly inhospitable environment lacking water resources. As early as August 2018, the Government of Honduras declared a state of emergency based on the drought precipitated by climate change, which has significantly affected roughly 327,000 people or 65,500 families in 74 municipalities in the dry corridor.

The historical climate changes experienced by Honduran farmers make TWM’s mission essential for supporting communities in need by providing safe drinking water and hygiene solutions that are invaluable during global climate change. TWM continues its commitment to drilling wells and improving the health of communities in Honduras.

Women at TWM’s Health & Hygiene workshop in Quebrada Grande

Sources:

Euro.esEuro. (2023). Learn how foreign migrants live as they pass through Honduras on their way to search for an immigration process in the U.S. https://euro.eseuro.com/world/821122.html

Interactive Country Fiches https://dicf.unepgrid.ch/honduras/climate-change

National Drought Mitigation Center. (2023). What is normal precipitation. https://drought.unl.edu/ranchplan/DroughtBasics/WeatherandDrought/WhatisNormalPrecipitation.aspx

Regional Environmental Change (2022) Putting climate-induced migration in context: the case of Honduran migration to the USA. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10113-022-01946-8

Texas Water Mission. (2023). Our Story. https://www.texaswatermission.org/our-story-1

Unicef. (2018). The use of the INFORM tool in drought response in Honduras. https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/historias/el-uso-de-la-herramienta-inform-en-la-respuesta-la-sequia-en-honduras

Gisel from CAFEUNO, Linda Stone, and Roxana Menes at the Tres Piedras Coffee Plantation in the mountains of Honduras

Coffee farmers are very vulnerable to climate change. Texas Water Mission supports small coffee farmers by purchasing coffee from the Honduran Coffee Alliance sold via Volunteer Coffee, our local roaster. You can support both the coffee farmers and communities needing wells by purchasing our brand Coffee Into Water. Twelve ounce and one pound bags available, ground or whole bean.

Articulo en Español: Observación del cambio climático en Honduras

Por Roxana Menes MPH, Voluntaria de Texas Water Mission (TWM) con comentario de Linda Stone, directora ejecutiva de TWM

Miembros de la comunidad de Las Acacias, Honduras, alrededor de un pozo seco cavado a mano. Han presentado una solicitud para un nuevo pozo a Texas Water Mission.

Aprender sobre los peligros del cambio climático a una escala global se ha convertido en una actividad cotidiana a través de la televisión, el internet, los periódicos, y las revistas. En el mundo desarrollado, aprender sobre el impacto del cambio climático en las poblaciones humanas es una actividad intelectual remota que se lleva a cabo en la comodidad de los hogares de las personas mientras toman su café matutino y ven la televisión antes de irse al trabajo.

El cambio climático en el mundo desarrollado es principalmente un constructo abstracto, a menos que la gente haya experimentado la devastación del cambio climático de primera mano sobreviviendo a desastres como huracanes, incendios forestales, tornados e inundaciones, que han aumentado significativamente en frecuencia y severidad en las últimas décadas.

Durante la visita más reciente a Danlí, Honduras, una ciudad ubicada aproximadamente a 45 millas al noroeste de Ocotal, Nicaragua, la ciudad fronteriza más cercana entre Nicaragua y Honduras, la directora ejecutiva de Texas Water Mission (TWM), Linda Stone, y la voluntaria de largo plazo, Roxana Menes, fueron testigos de los fenómenos de migraciones masivas que se dirigen a 'el Norte" desde varios países de América Latina y el Caribe.

Las razones de esta migración masiva histórica son varias. Incluyen factores políticos, económicos, y de seguridad. Pero el cambio climático es probablemente la razón más impactante para la migración a medida que se agotan las fuentes naturales de agua. Danlí se ha convertido en una estación vital para los migrantes internacionales, principalmente de Venezuela y Haití. Organizaciones internacionales de ayuda, como la Cruz Roja, han establecido oficinas en Danlí para manejar esta crisis sin precedentes que afecta a los pueblos de las Américas (América del Sur, América Central, América del Norte, y el Caribe).

En Honduras, la crisis migratoria interna está vinculada a la falta de recursos hídricos. Según la Agencia de Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), el cambio climático se ha convertido en un importante motor de la migración hacia Estados Unidos desde una zona conocida como "el corredor seco". Las comunidades hondureñas dentro del corredor seco están experimentando patrones de precipitación sin precedente, donde las tormentas e inundaciones alteran las cuencas naturales que conducen a sequías extremas.

Los patrones de precipitación han cambiado (debido al calentamiento global) y ahora están salpicados por sistemas de tormentas extremas más frecuentes donde el agua no puede ser absorbida adecuadamente debido a lluvias más intensas en comparación con los niveles de lluvia "normales." El nivel normal de precipitación es el valor promedio de precipitación en 30 años.

Además, de perder sus medios de vida en la agricultura rural, comunidades que históricamente han dependido del uso de aguas superficiales corren el mayor riesgo. Su capacidad de existir se está volviendo imposible debido a un entorno cada vez más inhóspito y carente de recursos hídricos. En agosto de 2018, el Gobierno de Honduras decretó el estado de emergencia debido a la sequía precipitada por el cambio climático, que ha afectado significativamente a unas 327,000 personas o 65,500 familias en 74 municipios del corredor seco.

Los cambios climáticos históricos experimentados por los agricultores hondurenos hacen que la misión de TWM sea esencial para apoyar a las comunidades necesitadas proporcionando agua potable y soluciones de higiene que son invaluables durante el cambio climático global. TWM continúa su compromiso de perforar pozos y mejorar la salud de las comunidades en Honduras.

Referencias:

Euro.esEuro. (2023). Learn how foreign migrants live as they pass through Honduras on their way to search for an immigration process in the U.S. https://euro.eseuro.com/world/821122.html

National Drought Mitigation Center. (2023). What is normal precipitation. https://drought.unl.edu/ranchplan/DroughtBasics/WeatherandDrought/WhatisNormalPrecipitation.aspx

Reichman D. R. (2022). Putting climate-induced migration in context: The case of Honduran migration to the USA. Regional Environmental Change, 22(3), 91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-022-01946-8

Texas Water Mission. (2023). Our Story. https://www.texaswatermission.org/our-story-1

USAID. (n.d.). USAID Honduras: Climate change, food security, and migration. https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00XXBJ.pdf

Unicef. (2018). The use of the INFORM tool in drought response in Honduras. https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/historias/el-uso-de-la-herramienta-inform-en-la-respuesta-la-sequia-en-honduras

Easy Lift

AN EASY LIFT: Join us to provide access to safe drinking water for rural Hondurans and residents of the Navajo Nation

Inhabitants of Las Acacias, Honduras, around a dried up hand dug well. They currently have no source of clean water in their community and must purchase it.

Defunct water access point in the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley. TWM is working to install a new water access point that will serve several thousand residents who lack running water in their homes.

Your purchase of tickets to our September 26, 2023 gala supports water solutions for Honduras and the Navajo Nation…

Photos of last year’s Wine & Water celebration, left to right: speaker Rev. Paula Henson from Navajoland, guests being entertained during live auction, and the auctioneer hawking a weekend at a luxury Austin condo.

You also have the opportunity to sponsor a table or help underwrite the dinner expense…

Benefits of Sponsorship or Underwriting: It costs $150 per guest to put on this annual event. That means any amount you give to offset the basic cost (a 100% tax deductible donation), allows more event income to go directly to projects. Click on the button below to purchase tickets, sponsor a table, or make any size donation to help underwrite event expenses. You will be recognized (if you wish) for your generous support.

And don’t forget - you can always buy coffee!

Proceeds support water well drilling and maintenance, and health and hygiene education in Honduras.

Discounts available for purchase of multiple bags.

Our single origin, small farm Honduran beans are freshly roasted (and ground if you desire) by local partner Volunteer Coffee and delivered to your door.

We will have coffee for sale and sampling at the gala. In the meantime, click below to order and enjoy!

For questions, comments, or interest in becoming involved, please email ED Linda Stone.

The Global Water Crisis is Everywhere and is Not Going Away: How Will We Cope?

““All is born of water; all is sustained by water.”
”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Imagine a world without access to safe drinking water. You go to the sink, but it’s not working. The fridge, and the water cooler aren’t an option either. Where would you go if the stores can’t sell you water? How would your community respond? Every person, big or small, needs water every day to stay healthy, yet over 2 billion people worldwide don’t have access to safe drinking water. The water crisis impacts health and sanitation, our environment, climate, and our economies. Texas Water Mission works with communities to provide potable water and hygiene solutions. In this blog post we explain the global water crisis, why it’s happening, and what we can do about it.

Filling water containers by truck

Filling water containers by truck in Haiti.

Global water crisis, explained

Over 2.2 billion people (approximately 1 in 4) worldwide lack access to safely managed drinking water sources. This means they don't have reliable access to water that is safe for drinking, cooking, and sanitation. Why? There is the same amount of fresh water on Earth today as there was millions of years ago - but so much less of it is safe and available to us.

The reasons for this global crisis are varied and related to one another. A growing population has increased demand for potable water. At the same time, infrastructure for delivering safe water has not scaled to match population growth. Additionally, climate change is making weather patterns more severe and difficult to predict.

Texas Water Mission began working in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch (1998) destroyed water delivery and filtration systems, forcing many residents to source their drinking water from unpurified sources such as rivers and streams full of mud and other runoff, and becoming sick with water borne diseases such as cholera. In the ensuing years, the rainy season has become more intense, and the dry season, significantly dryer so that communities must navigate the complex problem of how to source, store, maintain, and deliver clean water throughout the overwhelming rainy season, and the arid dry season.

Pollution has also worsened the global water crisis. Contamination of water sources by manufacturing industries has reduced the variety and availability of clean water to communities that desperately need it. There are two categories of pollution, legal and illegal. Legal pollution is the amount of pollution a company is permitted to emit. Many people are unaware how much pollution is permitted by the government despite the damaging effects on the local ecosystems. Illegal pollution is unsanctioned and is emitted by both corporations and individuals. Pollution can be illegal in it’s volume, composition, and/or location.

Hand wash station

Handwashing station and emergency supplies provided by Texas Water Mission during COVID to Navajo households without running water.

Health Issues

Lack of safe water often results in severe health consequences. Contaminated water is a leading cause of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. These diseases result in millions of deaths each year, particularly affecting children in developing countries. There are 2.2 million diarrhea related deaths globally each year due to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene. These deaths are completely preventable. When communities are given access to safe drinking water and waste treatment, disease and death from waterborne illnesses decreases dramatically.

Inadequate access to safe water also impacts sanitation facilities. Lack of proper sanitation infrastructure and hygiene practices further contribute to the spread of diseases. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) defines sanitation as “…having access to facilities for the safe disposal of human waste (feces and urine), as well as having the ability to maintain hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection, industrial/hazardous waste management, and wastewater treatment and disposal.”  Sanitation in this context refers to the proper handling and disposal of water.  Improper practices can destroy any water system.

Haitian children transporting drinking water.

ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSQUENCES

ECONOMIC: The global water crisis has significant economic implications. Water scarcity affects agricultural productivity, making it harder for farmers to grow crops and raise livestock. Lack of water also hinders industrial development and economic growth in affected regions.  “Clean water is a key factor for economic growth. Deteriorating water quality is stalling economic growth, worsening health conditions, reducing food production, and exacerbating poverty in many countries.” said World Bank Group President David Malpass.  Women and girls often bear the burden of the economic impacts of water scarcity, as they are responsible for fetching water, which can limit their educational and economic opportunities.

ENVIRONMENTAL: Water scarcity can also lead to environmental degradation. Overexploitation of groundwater and unsustainable water management result in depletion of water sources, affecting ecosystems, biodiversity, and freshwater habitats. Researchers recently discovered that overuse of groundwater may impact the Earth’s degree of tilt.  The change is slight but measurable. This happens because of the constant pull on the Earth’s fresh water supply and is an example of the impact of the need for clean and safe water. 

Changing weather patterns, including droughts and floods, affect water availability and quality. Rising global temperatures contribute to the melting of glaciers, which are essential sources of freshwater for many communities.  The United States Environmental Protection Agency published a related article that says “Climate change threatens the quality of source water through increased runoff of pollutants and sediment, decreased water availability from drought and saltwater intrusion, as well as adversely affecting overall efforts to maintain water quality.”   Other issues that affect water quality and are interrelated with climate change include:

  • Unpredictable rainfall patterns

  • Water stress

  • Shrinking ice sheets

  • Agriculture irrigation

  • Saltwater intrusion

The combination of rising sea levels, degraded coastal ecosystems, and drought can cause saltwater intrusion.  This is the process by which saltwater reaches available fresh water and degrades the source.  This can be reduced by limiting the amount of freshwater that is being removed from the ground on an annual basis.

Construction of rainwater cistern in Mombin Crochu, Haiti

what can we do?

It is important that people not only have access to safe water but can maintain and preserve that water. Existing methods must be used, and additional techniques developed, to capture, filter and store potable water to more sustainably meet water needs. It is important to be aware of issues such as climate change, and to take proactive steps to alleviate the global water and sanitation crises.

Efforts by governments, communities, families and individuals are needed to address and arrest the worsening water crisis. National, state and local governments must create / improve policies and provide funding to support safe water initiatives such as:

  • Water infrastructure investments

  • Improved water management practices

  • Health and hygiene education

  • Sustainable water resource management

Benefits of such a multi-faceted approach would reach far and wide with active participation from all stakeholders. We support the use of these practical solutions, which can be carried out by various combinations of governmental and non-governmental organizations, corporations, community groups, and individuals.:

  1. Infrastructure Development and Investment: This includes building and maintaining water treatment plants, pipelines, and distribution networks to ensure the availability of clean water to communities. Governments, international organizations, and the private sector can collaborate to fund and implement these projects, particularly in areas with the greatest need.

  2. Promotion of Water Conservation and Efficiency: Encouraging water conservation and efficient water use is crucial in tackling the clean water crisis. Education and awareness promote responsible water consumption practices at the individual, household, and community levels. Implementing water-saving technologies and practices would be beneficial, especially in rural communities.  Examples include: 

    • Low-flow plumbing fixtures

    • Rainwater harvesting systems

    • Efficient irrigation methods

  3. Sanitation and hygiene improvement: Access to safe water alone is not enough if proper sanitation facilities and hygiene practices are lacking. Implementing programs that focus on providing sanitation infrastructure, such as toilets and wastewater treatment systems, along with hygiene education, can significantly reduce waterborne diseases.  This includes promoting hand-washing with soap, proper waste disposal, and menstrual hygiene management.

Health and Hygiene workshop in the town of Quebrada Grande, Honduras.

Texas Water Mission currently works in Honduras and the Navajo Nation to help these two water-stressed geographies find practical solutions to their water issues. One of TWM’s income sources for water wells, cisterns, filtration, and health and hygiene training, is the sale of Honduran coffee. Gourmet beans from small sustainable coffee farms in the El Paraiso region of Honduras are exported raw and roasted to order near San Antonio. If you would like to support TWM’s safe water initiatives, purchasing this deliciously rich and smooth coffee can help! Your hands on support via volunteer activities is also welcomed. Please click on either or both of the buttons below for more information.

Honduras Recap: Water, Hygiene, Climate Change, Migration, and Coffee

On the balcony at Casa Encantada in Danli, Honduras

This year’s trip to Honduras provided an impressive array of experiences and perspectives for our little group (3 board members, 2 volunteers, 1 employee). We heard from government staffers at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Tegucigalpa, water lab professors at state-of-the-art Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School, health officials in a dusty office in Danli, residents of a broad east-west swath now called Corredor Seco (Dry Corridor) due to sustained drought, and small communities where we have installed water projects or received requests for wells. We toured Zamorano’s AguaClara water treatment plant, and a coffee plantation in the mountains near Nicaragua that is part of the cooperative where we source our coffee. Finally, doctorate student and volunteer Roxana Menes gave the first in a series of continuing education classes on climate change to our Maestras who teach health and hygiene in the communities where we work. See pics and particulars below.

Street scenes in Tegucigalpa, May 2, day of our visit to USAID…

checking in at usaid

We turned in our phones and were ushered into a large conference room where American and Honduran USAID employees working in Economic Growth, Environmental Protection, and Disaster Relief, shared information on topics from climate adaptation to rainwater harvesting to concerns about out-migration. They listened to our story and were pleased to see TWM Board Member - and former Ambassador to Honduras - Jim Creagan appear on Zoom from San Antonio. Creagan was Ambassador in 1998 when Hurricane Mitch struck and he directed significant aid to Honduras.

USAID on Climate Change and Adaptation: In Honduras climate challenges manifest in a vicious cycle that erodes communities and contributes to internal and external migration. Droughts weaken the country’s forests so that the trees are more susceptible to insects and fires. They are further degraded through expansion of agriculture and extraction of minerals. Meanwhile, changes in the precipitation patterns where drought alternates with stronger storms and flooding is altering the hydrology of key watersheds. Communities that rely on surface water are at the highest risk of losing their livelihoods (the majority of rural residents farm) and suffering from natural disasters.

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These climactic challenges make TWM’s work drilling wells and educating communities all the more important. We received 5 new requests for wells during this visit, so now have 10 communities waiting for relief and more planning to submit requests. To address relevant education needs, Roxana began preparing lessons on climate change and environment to teach our Maestras so they can add training on composting, recycling, tree planting, and gardening to the health and hygiene workshops.

SETTING DRILL IN PLACE AT QUEBRADA GRANDE MAY 3

The next day we visited Quebrada Grande, a rapidly growing rural community of about 600 people. They had been sharing a well with another community and it is no longer enough. They are building a new water tank and hope to run water from the new well into the tank via solar pump. The well, completed one week later, has a flow of 60 gallons/minute, enough to fill both new and old tanks and meet the community’s water needs into the future. TWM Board Member Jay Buzzini is working with a Texas company to source the proper solar pump for Quebrada Grande. In the meantime, TWM’s well maintenance team will install a handpump.

TWM Board president Bruce Flohr was touched by seeing the faces of those TWM is helping - the group that was waiting for us to arrive, and the women listening intently how to keep their families safe from contamination. Board member Josh Levine was impressed by the professionality and competence of the drilling team, while Rev. Jay Buzzini felt like he was back in the Texas oil field where he learned how to drill. We stopped at Quebrada Grande one more time before the board members left and witnessed the final segment of the workshop - community members role playing a scene at a well pump and receiving their own countertop water filters.

That evening, back at Zamorano’s Kellogg Center, where we were staying, we met a group of young people from the Corredor Seco, who had received week-long scholarships to learn agricultural and aquaculture techniques. They were disappointed in the experience, telling us it would be impossible to implement these techniques without water! We started a WhatsApp group with them to share resources such as NGOs that might be working to help people access water within the Dry Corridor.

The next day we were invited to celebrate completion of a new water tank in Ojo de Agua, another project funded by TWM. The community again came out to meet us and even threw a little party.

The photos above (clockwise from top) show our group with the Junta de Agua (water committee) in front of the new tank, Junta Treasurer Antonio, TWM Board Chair Bruce Flohr turning on the tap to fill the new tank, a plaque the Junta made to recognize TWM’s contribution, 3 scenes from a little party celebrating the new tank, and finally, the old tank which will now be repaired.

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Later on we met with water laboratory professors Erica Tenorio & Lourdes Espinal at Zamorano. We learned we could work with local health departments to empower communities to get their water tested regularly. We also discussed methods of water treatment from household to community levels. The profesoras described the zero-energy AguaClara system developed at Cornell University in collaboration with Agua Para el Pueblo, a Honduran NGO that builds potable water systems for communities. Roxana and I accepted an invitation to tour Zamorano’s model AquaClara plant the following week…

Profesora lourdes espinal and plant manager gimy elvir at zamorano’s aguaclara water treatment plant

The AguaClara gravity-fed design is uniquely designed and suited for Honduras’ geography as well as the climatic impacts discussed above including deforestation and increased flooding which increase turbidity in surface water. To date, there are 8 plants in Honduras in low to moderate income communities of 1,500+ people. They are fairly inexpensive to build and operate and very effective in reducing sedimentation. Skilled operators like Gimy are essential. More information about the system can be found in this online paper.

The week after our board members left, Roxana and I relocated to a hotel in Danli, the largest population center in El Paraiso, central to most of the communities where TWM works. During both weeks our well maintenance lead and driver Luis Fernando Zuniga took us communities that are using TWM wells or have submitted well requests to us. Here are a few scenes from these communities…

From left to right: Jay & Bruce at TWM well in El Campo; Roxana, Luis Fernando & Jay at well TWM funded in El Barro that is ready for it’s electric pump; residents at Las Acacias around hand dug well that is no longer functioning; a father and son pumping water at Colonia Emanuel.

Roxana and me with Gisel from cafe uno may 11 at coffee farm tres piedras

High in the mountains of El Paraiso, Honduras, Pedro Zuniga farms approximately 40 acres of coffee and banana trees. The species are complementary, supporting each other’s growth and providing a constant source of product between the two. The farm, Tres Piedras, is a member of the Honduran Coffee Alliance, the organization from which TWM sources it’s brand, “Coffee Into Water.” Coffee is harvested is between November and April, peaking in January / February. We may try to go during this period in 2024 to see what it’s like to pick coffee beans!

We need a lot of support to keep existing wells in good order while providing safe drinking water and education in more communities. Not only do we pay our well maintenance team and Maestras for their services, but we currently need tools for building needed pump parts, a new work truck, a storage shed for pump parts, continuing education for the Maestras, and a way to provide more solar pumps, a new expense for TWM.

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During our meeting with USAID we learned about the Red Humanitaria (Humanitarian Network), a program of UNICEF in Honduras that collaborates with NGOs to address crises. We had a Zoom call with the coordinator and learned that their current focus is the mass exodus of Venezuelans and other migrants from countries to the South that are flowing through Honduras. It is truly unprecedented and we saw many of them in Danli, an important waystation on the way north. The coordinator of the Red connected us to PTPS Honduras, an organization with a mission similar to that of TWM. Roxana and I will talk with them next week with the goal of collaborating on an interactive map showing what NGOs are doing what and where. Our goal is to integrate ourselves into the country’s NGO network to create alliances and achieve greater efficiencies.

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In the meantime, please consider supporting Texas Water Mission with a donation for Honduras and/or purchase some of our gourmet Honduran coffee, freshly roasted in San Antonio.

If you have questions or comments about anything in this blog, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Thank you for your interest and support!

Honduras Day 4: Christening a new water tank and visiting with the Profesoras

The newly set plaque thanking Texas Water Mission for supporting the construction of a new water tank in Ojo de Agua.

On Thursday, Texas Water Mission celebrated the inauguration of a new water tank for Ojo de Agua, home to lead Maestra Marlene Barahona and Well Maintenance manager Luis Fernando Zuniga. Their 35 year old tank was leaking and the community of over 10,000 inhabitants needed to get a new tank constructed before the start of the rainy season (May-November) The community put in the labor and TWM supplied the materials. They sent photos and videos throughout the construction process, some of which are below…

Upon our arrival Thursday, community members came out to celebrate with us.

TWM Board Chair Bruce Flohr opened the spigot controlling the flow of water from the source in the mountains above, and the community brought out wine and sparkling grape juice with a snack of tortilla chips and tuna salad. We sat around and enjoyed each other’s company.

Later that afternoon we returned to the Kellogg Center at the University of Zamorano where we met with Profesoras Erika Tenorio and Lourdes Espinal who run the water labs at Zamorano.

Kellogg Center, Zamorano University

We had a fascinating conversation with the profesoras where we learned:

  • who to talk to at Health Department to get the well water tested on a regular basis

  • about the Guatemalan ceramic Eco-Filtro that filters out 99% of pathogens - available at Walmart in Honduras for $100

  • the Agua Clara approach developed at Cornell University, which is a water treatment plan being used in Latin America that are completely gravity fed and constructed with local materials

  • how they could do a demonstration of different water purification types for communities.

    The profesoras invited us to come tour the Agua Clara plant at Zamorano the following week.

Recycling station at Zamorano classroom building

Honduras Day 3: A New Well and an encounter with the Corredor Seco

Drilling rig starting up, Quebrada Grande, El Paraiso, Honduras

Early Wednesday we headed to Quebrada Grande - a rural community of 375 people - to catch the start of the new well we are sponsoring, and later to sit in on some of the 5-day health and hygiene workshop given by our team of Maestras. Ironically the name Quebrada Grande means big ravine, generally one that is full of water. Nowadays water is scarce - in ravines and elsewhere - and wells are the preferred source of secure water.

Residents, who have been waiting for this well for over a year, greeted us on the road. We posed with members of the Junta de Agua, the committee that organizes water projects for the community. Then we hopped back in our mini bus with a few members of the Junta and headed to the well site…

The photos above show community members watching the drilling unfold below, the rig and truck full of mud for drilling, a worker setting the drill in place, Jay & drilling foreman Luis, drilling parts, and me getting inaugurated with mud splattering up from the hole being drilled.

We took a lunch break in Cantarranas (a mural-filled town called Singing Frogs)…

After lunch we caught up with the Health & Hygiene Workshop, and learned about the serious issue of childhood diarrhea from contaminated water. Children and pets came in and out of the classroom space where their parents and older siblings sat engaged, speaking up, and taking notes.

Late in the aftenroon we headed back to Zamorano for dinner and discussion. It turned out a group of leaders from the Corredor Central or Corredor Seco was eating at the table adjacent to us. We had learned about this dry corridor that runs north and south in the center of the country from our visit to USAID the day before. It turned out these leaders had been brought to the University to learn agriculture and aquaculture techniques.

Leaders from the dry zone in the middle of Honduras

These young people told us that climate change has hit hard in the last three years. Wells that always produced are drying up as are the fields which they rely on for food and jobs. Unemployment is universal. Not surprisingly, this section of the country is experiencing the greatest out-migration from Honduras, mostly to the U.S. The people we spoke with are desperate yet hopeful and ready to embrace the right solution. We promised to start a WhatsApp group to share resources and contacts to ameliorate their situation. All nine we met wrote down their numbers and the sharing has begun. We will post updates in this blog.

Honduras 2023: Days 1 & 2

Students walking to an early morning class at Zamorano.

This premier agricultural university teaches students from Latin America and the Caribbean sustainable growing techniques for their countries.

Texas Water Mission has been staying at Zamorano’s Kellogg Conference Center for many years, and we arrived here again late Monday afternoon. I brought with me three board members and two volunteers.

Monday morning we flew from Houston to Palmerola Airport west of Tegucigalpa and, after lunch, made the three hour drive to Zamorano. Tuesday morning we were up early to head back to Tegucigalpa for a meeting with USAID.

Downtown Tegucigalpa near the U.S. Embassy, on our way to visit USAID

Texas Water Mission team signing in at the united states agency for international development (USAID) in downtown tegucigalpa

No phones were allowed inside where we met with Honduran and American staff working in environmental protection and economic development.

Thanks to Texas Water Mission board member and former ambassador to Honduras we had our first meeting with USAID in Tegucigalpa. It was wonderful to meet in person after a video call a few months back. We had a broad conversation touching on the connections between water, climate change, health, and economic development. A couple TWM board members in San Antonio, including Ambassador Creagan, were able to join by video chat. We found areas of common interest and potential collaboration and left with a list of follow up items on both sides. We were particularly excited to learn about the “Red Humanitaria,” a collaborative of NGOs developing guidelines and synergies for the aid work they conduct in Honduras. TWM hopes to join this important group.

Hotel Honduras Maya, a little oasis where we had lunch

After lunch we headed to our second meeting of the day at the Santa Maria iglesia and school where the Episcopal Bishop has his Tegucigalpa office.

Volunteer Roxana Menes, Rev. Karla Reyes-Guillen and TWM board member Jay Buzzini at Santa Maria Episcopal School in Tegucigalpa

Rev. Victor Velasquez of Manos de Dios in Danli and Revs. Karla Reyes-Guillen and Connie Sanchez of Tegucigalpa met with our group to discuss the status of our well projects and how we might collaborate to find those communities able and willing to work with us to ensure the greatest success. Father Victor brought four more well requests with him to give to TWM, and it was agreed that the regional heads of the Episcopal Church, which include Revs Velasquez and Reyes-Guillen, can work within their region to select those who will benefit them most fromTWM funded water wells and health and hygiene education.

Jesus on a Tegucigalpa hillside under skies grey with the smoke of burning trash and trees.

After our second meeting in the big city we returned to Zamorano to rest, eat and reflect…

More soon…

IT'S WORLD WATER DAY!

World Water Day 2023 theme: Accelerating change to solve the water & sanitation crisis

Thirty years ago today (March 22, 1993) the United Nations created World Water Day to raise awareness and inspire action to tackle the global water and sanitation crisis of 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water.

Girl collecting water in Montanuela, El Paraiso, Honduras

What does the crisis look like?

  • Water scarcity affects 4 out of 10 people.

  • Global demand (water withdrawals) is projected to increase by 55% by 2050.

  • 1.4 million people die each year and 74 million have their lives shortened by diseases related to poor water, sanitation, and hygiene.

  • One in four people – 2.2 billion people worldwide – lack safe drinking water.

  • Almost ½ the global population – 3.6 billion people – lack safe sanitation.

  • Globally, 44% of household wastewater is not safely treated.

  • Women and girls spend an estimated 200 million hours – global daily average – collecting water.

  • 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused.

  • 90% of all natural disasters are water-related.

  • A third of the homes in the Navajo Nation do not have running water and now their water rights to the Colorado River are under threat.

Sources for the above come from the United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and National Public Radio (NPR).

Hand washing station and emergency supplies being provided to a home with no running water in the Navajo Nation during Covid.

What can I do?

  • Save water: Take shorter showers and don’t let the tap run when brushing teeth, doing dishes, and preparing food. Plant drought hardy flowers and trees; replace lawns with xeriscaping.

  • Stop polluting: Don’t put food waste, oils, medicines, and chemicals down toilets or drains.

  • Eat locally: Buy local, seasonal food and look for products made with less water. Grow your own veggies.

  • Support Texas Water Mission and other organizations that provide sustainable sources of safe water and health & hygiene education for communities in need.

An ancient fable from the Quechua culture of Peru…

One day in the forest, a fire broke out. All the animals ran for their lives. They stood at the edge of the blaze, looking at the flames in terror and sadness. Up above their heads, a hummingbird was flying back and forth to the fire, over and over and over again. The bigger animals asked the hummingbird what she was doing. “I am flying to the lake to get water to help put out the fire.” The animals laughed at her and said, “You can’t put out this fire!” The hummingbird replied, “I’m doing what I can.”

The moral of the story:

EVERY DROP COUNTS… YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Thank you for all you do.

There is still time to do Run4Water 5K AND join Texas Water Mission in Honduras!

Honduras is a beautiful country full of creative, energetic people, many of whom live in poverty. Texas Water Mission has worked with small communities in the mountainous region of El Paraiso for 25 years, and we look for opportunities to involve others in our mission.

Currently there are three things you can do:

  1. Register and complete (or donate to) Texas Water Mission’s 5K Run4Water until World Water Day (March 22).

  2. Join us on our annual trip to Honduras, Mary 1-6, 2023

  3. Purchase “Coffee Into Water,” our private brand of gourmet Honduran coffee that reinvests the proceeds into water wells for communities in need.

Run4Water 5K kicks off at Creative Confluence

Left to right: TWM Executive Director Linda Stone, Run4Water participant Patricia Falcon-Fuentes, TWM volunteers Isa Lew and Walt Buzzini, and Run4Water participant Serena Cuellar around the Navajo Nation flag, another region where TWM installs clean water projects. We tabled at Creative Confluence, to celebrate World Water Day.

We had an eventful afternoon at Confluence Park on Saturday, educating dozens of visitors about the world’s water crisis and what they can do about it, selling coffee, signing folks up for our 3rd annual virtual Run4Water 5K, and getting to know the many other groups offering activities at Creative Confluence. Here’s a few more pics from the event:

Viaje a Honduras

Mural in Cantarranas

It is time to purchase your airline tickets if you plan to join Texas Water Mission in Honduras, May 1-6. We will leave from Bush International Airport in Houston on May 1 at 9:35am (so it's a good idea to get into Houston the day before). Some of us will be staying here the evening of March 30 in case others wish to do so as well.

The trip will consist of visits to communities we serve, volunteer activities supporting the drilling of a new well, travel to scenic locations, and a lovely stay at Zamorano University’s Kellogg Center. We will be picked up at the Palmerola airport and chauffeured throughout the visit by our well maintenance team lead Luis Fernando Zuniga. It will be a unique opportunity to experience Honduran life and culture up close.

To join the trip and for more information please contact TWM Executive Director Linda Stone at linda.stone@texaswatermission.org.

Coffee into Water

Support safe water with Texas Water Mission’s 5K - virtually or in person - this weekend!

Texas Water Mission supports communities in need by providing safe drinking water and hygiene solutions.

This Saturday is the start of our annual Run4Water 5K held in conjunction with World Water Day. For the first time we will join Creative Confluence, a festival of nature, art, yoga, dance, musical performances, family activities, and amazing food: March 11, 3-6pm.

Come out and partake! At our table you can purchase a bag of Honduran coffee, win prizes for your water knowledge, and opt to plog (collect trash while jogging!) down the San Antonio Mission Reach trails. Sign up now or at the event to run for safe drinking water in Honduras and the Navajo Nation.

Not in San Antonio? Not able to make it Saturday? Not a runner? No problem!

  1. You can participate anytime, anywhere between March 11-22 using the RaceJoy app, which is available for use upon registration.

  2. If a 5K is not your thing you may also donate on the race site. Your dollars go directly to Texas Water Mission projects, giving us the means to facilitate access to safe water for Honduran and Navajo communities in the form of water wells, cisterns, water access points, countertop filters, and health and hygiene education for children and adults. The donation option can be found here:

We thank you!

These children are showing off their drawings of clean water at the close of a health and hygiene workshop in El Barro, Honduras, a rural mountainous town of 520 inhabitants, where Texas Water Mission drilled a new well in September 2022.

For you coffee lovers, we have a product that comes straight from a small family farm in Honduras and is roasted right here in San Antonio. Pick up a bag at our table on Saturday or purchase it from the comfort of your home. We thank you from the bottom of our coffee cups!

Run4Water 5K: Celebrating World Water Day 2023

Texas Water Mission’s annual 5K for safe water access is next week!

The race can be run or walked at Confluence Park, Saturday, March 11 between 3-6pm during creative confluence, a festival of art & nature: https://www.celebrationcircle.org/festival.

There will be the opportunity to plog (collect trash while jogging), supported by the San Antonio River Foundation and River Aid San Antonio while running or walking along the San Antonio River.

You can also do the 5K on your own time and location up until March 22, which is World Water Day. all participants will use he RaceJoy app, which can be downloaded at registration:

Support Safe Water Access Worldwide

This woman in Montañuela, Honduras, is collecting water for her family in the midst of the dry season, which runs from November to April. During this period, natural water sources often run dry and rural inhabitants, who comprise about 40% of the population, must purchase water or depend on wells provided by outside entities.

Texas Water Mission has been helping rural residents access safe drinking water since 2003, primarily though the drilling and maintenance of wells, along with and health and hygiene education for communities. We began in Honduras, and added the Navajo Nation, which is in the midst of a 30-year drought, in 2019.

TWO UPCOMING EVENTS

#1) TWM’s annual World Water Day celebration is March 11 at Confluence Park, offered as a part of Creative Confluence, a festival of nature, art, music and more www.celebrationcircle.org/festival. Come out and join the fun and learn about World Water Day. Sign up for TWM’s annual Run4Water and run or walk along the river with us on March 11. You can register and pick up a t-shirt at our table. We are partnering with River Aid San Antonio, the River Authority and Foundation to provide bags and gloves for plogging (picking up trash while jogging!) as you make your way down the river.

The race can be run or walked anytime in any location from March 11th to the 22nd, which is World Water Day. When registering you will be given information on the RaceJoy App, which will time your race and give you encouragement along the way!

This is the festival we will participate in and you can run from here.

#2) You are invited to join TWM’s annual trip to Honduras May 1-6 to visit our partners and projects, enjoy scenic towns and local coffee, and participate in volunteer activities around the drilling of a new well. We will fly into the new airport at Comayagua (which replaced the one at Tegucigalpa) on Monday, May 1, be picked up by our well maintenance lead, Louis Fernando Zuniga, and get settled in our rooms at the Kellogg Conference Center within Zamorano University.

From the spacious grounds of the university, we will head out daily to become familiar with our partners, community projects, and the region where we work. The trip will provide a balance of community engagement and volunteer work with time to explore the university, visit picturesque locations, and learn more about the water situation in Honduras. Translation will be provided as needed by Linda Stone and volunteer Roxana Menes. The return flight leaves Comayagua International (also called Palmerola) on Saturday afternoon, May 6. See below for selected photos from last year’s trip. Please contact Linda Stone for more information at 210-275-0575 or linda.stone@texaswatermission.org.