The Shuar community of Uunt Suants has had no access to water since 2007 when an increase in the flow of the local stream destroyed the existing aqueduct that supplied water to the communities of Uunt Suants and Tuna Wempaim.
Similarly, the water used by the Shuar community of Wee until 2010 was insufficient and highly contaminated. It was not only sourced from a local stream with a deficient amount of water, which made the distribution difficult, but was also polluted with runoff from cattle farming.
The water solutions designed by Step Forward and built together with the Shuar communities of Uunt Suants and Wee provide water to all of their households and allow for an easy future increase of distribution points, by manually connecting them to the collection source.
The construction of these rural aqueducts has allowed members of the Shuar communities of Uunt Suants and Wee to have a better quality of life. Its members can now (i) bathe in their residences easily, (ii) wash their hands often, (iii) wash their kitchen utensils and clothes with clean water, (iv) easily purify the water to obtain drinking water, and (v) use their time more efficiently because instead of walking to collect water and sanitize it, women dedicate themselves to family activities and other jobs.
Some inhabitants of Uunt Suants association stated in December 2019 that “this project is not only “one step forward” but a thousand steps forward for our community.” There is no doubt that water is life for everyone!
