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El Salvador

WEFTA began working in El Salvador in May of 2014 but had made several visits before that. We formed a partnership with Homes from the Heart, a Salvadoran-based home building nonprofit with roots in Kansas City.

To see water and sanitation facts, please visit: washfunders.org

El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. It is also one of the poorest countries in the region, with approximately 40% of Salvadorans living below the official poverty level, and its water and sanitation systems are inadequate and dangerous, especially among the poor. Although urban coverage is high in the country, many different bodies for water management exist due to the lack of proper water and sanitation policies. This affects mainly small towns and rural areas. Improvement of the current systems and the capacity building for these providers will increase access to sustainable clean water and basic sanitation. But, small towns and peri-urban areas need rehabilitation or expansion of systems to cover the most deprived areas. Their providers’ managers need skills to coordinate related activities, and the providers needs mechanisms to access the funds to cover the costs for these improvements. (Source: UN Habitat Water and Sanitation in Latin America)

Ongoing Efforts

In 2014, Our team did an assessment at a community of 60 homes on the outskirts of San Salvador that had running water which was not potable and an inadequate sanitation system. See WEFTA findings and recommendations below (2014 El Salvador Site Visit), which will be implemented by Homes from the Heart as funds become available. WEFTA has committed to volunteer with with Homes from the Heart to monitor and design water systems not only for this community, but also for a planned trade school nearby, and future housing communities–and even individual homes–to be built in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.

Trip Reports

Every time one we send a crew on a trip to either help or assess a community, we ask our volunteers to write a trip report that details the trip through their eyes. These documents will give you both a look into what it is like being a volunteer and a different perspective on our efforts to help communities. The photo-based reports redirect you to our Google+ photo albums. For projects more than five years old check out our Archives page.

2014 San Luis Talpa, El Salvador, and Surrounding Area Trip Report by Marvin Martinez and Ewan Young – PDF

2014 El Salvador Site Visit by John Lincoln and Scott McKitrick – PDF

Click here to see a photo essay of our volunteers’ trip to El Salvador in May 2014.

Click here to see a full gallery of unedited (and un-captioned) photos from the 2014 trip to El Salvador.

Click here for a statistical summary (PDF) of our projects in all countries as of 2013.