‘Sowing Water’ for Life

The grandmother water defender, Carmen Santiago Alonso of Flor y Canto. Photo by Diana Manzo.

For thousands of years, the indigenous Zapotec people of Oaxaca managed periods of drought by digging wells to replenish the aquifer. After the Mexican government banned indigenous water use for agriculture, in preference to industries like mining, water resources dropped critically low across the Central Valley.

The visionary indigenous activist Carmen Santiago Alonso combined ancient and contemporary practices to bring the land back to life. Under her leadership, over 300 absorption wells were dug, and 100,000 trees were planted to capture the moisture that allows the region to flourish today.

After decades of political and ecological activism, the Mexican government formally recognized the collective rights of the Zapotec community to manage their water in 2019.

The Waters of Ccotataqui

Alpaca herding, the primary source of livelihood for indigenous communities in Peru, is threatened from climate change.

After years of observing changes in the landscape, the community of Ccotataqui, Peru identified water as a main concern for the future. Elders looked towards the young people to build partnerships, envision solutions, and take action for this vital element and sustainer of life- water.

The young leaders created a grassroots association, ASODEBICC (Asociación para el Desarollo y Bienestar de la Comunidad de Ccotatqui), and worked with various US partners to develop a four-phased plan that combines traditional ecological knowledge and western techniques.

Completion of Proyecto ‘Cruz Pata’ for water retention. Water is also returned to the earth in the ancient conservation technique of ‘amunas’, or recharging of the groundwater.

The Solar Mamas

The eldest solar mama, Julieta Tzoy aged 69, who had no formal education but says she ‘wants to learn forever’.

For over a decade, Barefoot College International has been working to share their innovative model in Latin America, and a new training campus for rural women has finally come to fruition in Bajul, Guatemala.

This unique program trains indigenous women to be solar engineers, or ‘solar mamas’, who will help bring new light and energy to their remote villages.

In 2021, We helped to support the first convening of indigenous women, the Embassy of India, Republic of Guatemala, and Barefoot College International. Due to their outstanding work, they have since been awarded the Presidential Environmental Medal for their work.

Locally led Adaptation

Who wants a cookie cutter approach? No one. Especially when it doesn’t work. But the ‘Mukuru Approach’? We like it.

With over 10 years in Community-based Planning for one of the largest slums in Nairobi, the outcomes were different. The Global Center for Adaptation shares their main principles:

• Meaningful Engagement (of over 400,000 residents! with every latrine, water tap, and electricity pole mapped)

• Genuine partnerships, at different levels (we must continue to widen the tent)

• Integrated solutions

• Out-of-the-box thinking on what planning and execution can look like in resource-constrained areas

Photo by Peter Muiruri on a new thoroughfare (once an ‘open sewer’ in Mukuru, Nairobi.)

Leave No One Behind

In 1995, during the inception of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), all 193 UN member states made a significant pledge to ensure that ‘no one will be left behind’. As we enter into the 5th year of the implementation period of the 2030 Agenda, have we clarified what Leave No One Behind really means?

First things first. We need a plan. ‘A calendar for bringing Leave No One Behind to life is crucial’, says the Brookings Institution. ‘At the time of this writing (2019), it is not yet clear whether any country in the world has yet internalized the relevant practical questions for action.’ 

Secondly, we reflect on the axiom, ‘what gets measured, gets done’.  Almost every SDG expert will bemoan the data gaps, especially for our most fragile populations.  There is also an enormous funding shortfall for evaluation, statistics, and governance in the countries where the farthest behind reside. 

And thirdly, is this incredible idea of intersectionality that has proven its point so well in 2020. In the face of the inextricable, compounding challenges we face, we hear beautiful strategies like ‘a holistic response’- even from our most pragmatic of colleagues. And yet holistic is hard.

‘How the Wealthy World has Failed Poor Countries During the Pandemic’- NY Times

And perhaps most heartbreakingly, as questioned by Paul O’Brian, is it being ‘Left Behind, or Pushed Back?’ How do we truly get at the heart of social inequities, without some major ‘coming to Jesus’ moments with ourselves and our institutions?

For us, as community engagers, it is about returning to the drawing board and identifying what we do not know.  Along with collaborators of Making Voices Heard and Count, this entails the development of community-driven data initiatives to give voice and agency to those left behind. Let’s make the invisible visible. Only then will we have a chance of designing an informed plan- the holistic and inclusive one that is at the heart of the SDGs.      

Intersectional Environmentalism

As America faces one tragedy after another, the idea of ‘intersectionality’, or how deeply our issues are intertwined, has never been so clear.  It was first coined by law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how social justice problems like sexism and racism frequently overlap, creating multiple layers of complexity. To bear witness and #sayhername for the Black women that have also been brutalized under police force, watch Kimberlé’s experiential Ted Talk on the Urgency of Intersectionality.

The intersectionality of racism and environmentalism is also evident of late. Environmental science is among the least diverse fields of scientific study, yet race (even more than class) is the number one indicator of how vulnerable someone is to climate change (EPA 2018). Thankfully, new leaders like @greengirlleah are at the forefront of this work, making sure that we frame the problem correctly, with all of its interconnections, in order to find a multi-benefit solution.