Impact Story

One Jug a Day. Everything Else Is Three Kilometers Away.

In Santa Cruz, a rural community in Achuapa, León, Nicaragua, the day begins with the walk for water.

Of three hand-dug wells, only one still gives water, and only enough to drink: a single jug per family, then it runs dry. For cooking, washing, bathing, and laundry, families walk to holes dug in a ravine three kilometers away. They carry water home by foot, by horse, or by ox cart. The school has no water at all.

A day, counted:

• 7 trips a day for household water
• 3–4 more trips for drinking water
• 3 km to the ravine
• 0 water at the primary school
• 38 households a well would serve

"I couldn't refuse them a small glass of water," says Paubla, a mother in Santa Cruz, as children run out of water on their way to school and knock on doors along the road for more.

The community isn't waiting for someone else to solve it. Santa Cruz has committed labor, trenching, materials, and long-term maintenance through its water committee. What a drilled well would change goes beyond convenience: safer drinking water, hours returned to families, and water for the school.

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