Celia's family drinks clean water

By Casey Callais -- Celia and her family live in Santa Rosa neighborhood in Bluefields. Her husband works long hours as a taxi driver, her three kids are all in school and she works from home selling cooked beans.

Celia's house. Notice the contaminated well on the right.

Not having clean water is an inconvenience few people in developed countries have to face. For Celia's family, it has been a way of life. With no running water, they were having to haul buckets of water from a well in their backyard. When that became too contaminated to drink or even bathe with, they started using a communal well several blocks away which cost about $.50 per bucket. Unfortunately, the contamination levels in the communal well increase in the dry season as the water level decreases and eventually runs dry. Celia's family is an example of a typical Bluefield's household.

Celia washes her hands with well water stored in the green tub

The first part of blueEnergy's water program methodology is to give classes on sanitation and cleanliness. While sanitary conditions in a typical Bluefield's home are not ideal, a little soap can go a long way.

Thibaut helps Celia fill out the paperwork for the water filter

Celia worked with blueEnergy to build her own biosand water filter and drill a new Baptist well that is shared with several surrounding families.

Celia and her daughter showing off their water filter

Celia stand with her daughter in front of their new Baptist well

This year blueEnergy plans to help 200 households in Bluefields build and install their own filters. 30 of them will work to build shared Baptist wells. Check out our gallery to see more photos from the project!