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Case Study

Providing the Colombian remote Wayuu Tribe with safe drinking water

2.1B

people lacking access to safe drinking water globally.

300+

people in the Wayuu Tribe without access to clean drinking water.

156

SOURCE® Hydropanels® will provide Bahia Hondita residents access to clean drinking water.

Guajira, Wayuu Tribal Land

Bahia Hondita, Colombia

Challenge

Located on the farthest tip of the La Guajira peninsula in Bahia Hondita, Colombia, members of the Wayuu tribe needed access to safe, secure drinking water despite the remote nature of their indigenous community. Until recently, residents of Bahia Hondita faced what seemed to be an impossible set of barriers to providing safe water for their community. Cut off from the rest of the country with no roads or infrastructure, Bahia Hondita’s residents lacked access to piped, bottled or even trucked water. Instead, they relied on unsafe brackish water from a local borehole. Without an existing water and electric supply, the Colombian government and NGOs had difficulty finding a solution to Bahia Hondita’s layered water challenges.

SOURCE Project

In partnership with Conservation International and in support of the Colombian Vice Ministry of Water’s efforts to expand access, SOURCE installed two commercial-scale Hydropanel arrays in Bahia Hondita, La Guajira, one of the most remote communities in the region.