It is 11:00 a.m. An inclement sun causes the temperature to be 32 degrees Celsius over Guamachito, La Guajira. It is estimated that this could rise to 36 degrees. The days are very hot: at 8:00 a.m., thermometers already read 25 degrees - that is a clear forecast.
In the middle of the heat, the 1,003 residents of this community are already thinking of the activities related to the vital liquid to prepare food, bathe and refresh themselves.
To get water, there are several options: wait for the tank car that passes in front of their houses, buy it in bottles or bags at stores, or perhaps find it, without having to pay, in the deep wells, which began to open during the military government of President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, while windmills and jagüeyes or cisterns were installed in La Guajira.
To get to the deep wells, it is necessary to walk several kilometers, in addition to the fact that women had to be willing to carry the weight of the liquid, which will not take long to disappear when they return to their homes, given their needs that include washing clothes, cooking, cleaning their houses, bathe the children... And it was not sufficient.
Then, they have to go back to get more. The situation makes water a precious liquid in every way. And the residents of Guamachito know it well, especially when the well they used for 32 years ran dry.
“When I was a child, my mother, my grandmother, my sisters and I would get up at 3:00 in the morning to get water. It was a three-hour walk, round trip, with a donkey to carry the cans. We would run home to bathe and go to school. But in 2018 the well dried up”. This is how Yesenia Plaza Ipuana remembers her childhood days in the same municipality, where she is now a leader and spokesperson for her indigenous community.
Therefore, in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and after insisting for two years, a new deep well that could supply them with water became a reality, thanks to the support of TGI.
“We already had the study ready that the company conducted with the geologist. It was a struggle of more than two years, but it was accomplished. The permit was processed by the mayor and we thought it was going to be faster, but after a month, nothing happened. That is why we had to call Corpoguajira to help us speed up the process, because the community was experiencing an severe drought and they were having a difficult time. Three days after, we obtained the permit”, adds Yesenia.
A job that they expected to do in 15 days took 45 days because they found many rocks. “The water was close, it was not that deep, only 150 meters deep, but the slabs that were found on the road damaged several pinions of the machinery. Thank God that rock was broken, the aquifer was found, and we can use the water to refresh ourselves and to wash,” affirmed Yesenia, very excited.