Living Water

HONDURAS – Sabanas de Lorelay Community, Sonaguera
GPS: 15 38.540 N, 086 11.650 W

In the fall of 2008, severe flooding and terrible storms battered the northern coast of Honduras. The Sabanas de Lorelay Community is only one of many villages in the Sonaguera area suffering because of these storms. Finding potable drinking water after these storms is an incredible hardship for the people of Sabanas de Lorelay.

Before the floods, the people were getting water from a spring box high in the mountains, using PVC pipelines to funnel the water down to the village. The water wasn’t clean, but it was better than river water or the old hand-dug wells. When the floods came, the water washed away all of the PVC pipelines, and the people began opening up the old hand-dug wells that had been used as burial sites for dead animals. The nearby river was swollen with trash and other debris from the storm, but the people fetched drinking water only a few steps away from bathing livestock and floating trash.

Thankfully, LWI was able to drill two new wells in this area – one in the village and one down the road near the school. At the well dedication ceremony, the people of Sabanas de Lorelay expressed their thanks over and over again. The old hand-dug wells have been closed again, and clean, safe water flows from the new pumps.