In 2015, the nonprofit Pro Comunidades Indígenas (PCI) offered to help the people of Margarita Island to create their own water treatment facility. Though they already had a water committee, the residents jumped at the chance to address the problem at a larger scale. With help from PCI, and funds provided by WWF, the community would now have the resources and trainings to make a significant difference.
“Getting clean water to my community has always been my main goal,” says Margarita Gayoso, head of the island’s water committee. “We can live without a lot of things, but not without water.”
Accessing the materials to build the water tank and pipe system to the island wasn’t easy. Flooding had washed out the one road that came closest to the community, and the only option was to bring them through Brazil before crossing the river by boat.
Today the facility is up and running. Strategically built on high ground to protect against flooding, the plant treats the water and then distributes it to the single tap in each of the community’s homes. With a capacity of 60,000 liters per day, the tank holds four times what the community needs, providing enough clean water for drinking and basic sanitation. Now with regular access to water, community members have strengthened skills related to sustainable water practices and public participation in governance.
The Pantanal’s complex and interconnected nature is what makes it so rich with biodiversity and natural resources, but it’s also what makes it so challenging to conserve and develop sustainably. More than 1,200 rivers and streams converge to form the Pantanal, including the free-flowing Paraguay River so the impacts that occur in one area have a cascading impact across the entire region.
WWF partners with farmers and ranchers, the private sector, communities and local and national governments in Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay to ensure development is sustainably planned and the ecosystem services that fuel economic growth and natural vitality are protected.
Margarita Island is a strong example of how human-made impacts upstream affect communities and livelihoods downstream. People and wildlife across the entire landscape benefit when economic needs are met with sustainable solutions at the local level.
“This [water treatment facility] has given the families here a quality of life they didn’t have before,” says Gayoso. “It’s something that will help our community grow. People will choose to stay here now. Clean water is everything.”