Rainwater Harvesting with the Robin Hood of Education Last week we installed a rainwater harvesting system in a school in the municipality of Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area, home of the largest megaslum in the world with one of the highest crime rates in Mexico City due to the numerous Cholo gangs formed there in the 90s. The megaslum of Neza-Chalco-Iztapalapa has the population of 4 million habitants and like many low income communities with high density populations there is a lack basic education. Last week I met a revolutionary leader working in these zones by building public schools with an informal model. Through the help of working with low income families and local community leaders, students sign up to go to school before there is even a school built and find teachers that are willing to volunteer to teach for a certain time period. Once there are hundreds of students signed up that have no other public school options, the community and the “Robin Hood of Education” invade and steal an abandoned property and build a school through the practice of auto-construction in a period of two weeks. When the authorities come to try to attain the property, the community with the kids and the parents of the students stand strong for their right to education protest that they will not give the property back. After years of negotiation these informal schools get formalized and the government provides certain necessities for the school such as teacher salaries. BUT, they do not provide the school with water. The high school I visited last week has over 1800 students and is located next to the largest landfill in the world and a jail. Water is provided through water trucks that can cost up to $1200 pesos ($100 US dollars). The director took the 1800 students and their parents to the local governmental authorities asking them to provide the school a water connection for the public school and to this date the school has not been provided with a solution by the government. The students had another idea, build a rainwater harvesting system at the school and they found Isla Urbana in through google and they contacted us. In one week, Isla Urbana installed a rainwater harvesting system with over 440 square meters of rooftop that will provide the school with over 400,000 liters of water per year. Thanks to a donation by Briggs Equipment in the AGUA VIDA fundraiser in Dallas Texas, this high school will be living solely with rainwater for 6 months of the year. In the presentation of the project with all the students of the school, the school principle reminded the students of the school trip they took asking the government for water at the school and then told them … “Today, thanks to Isla Urbana this high school now has water.”
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 19:20:50 +0000