Mennonite
Central
Committee

MCC promotes cisterns to help catch the rain

Marla Pierson Lester
October 30, 2006

TETICIC — When Juan N. Reyes Deramona first heard a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker talk about building a cistern, he and others in this southern Mexican village were skeptical.

"It seemed impossible. Where would we get the materials for it?" he wondered. Even if they could get material, would it work?

Now, more than five years later, "there are tanks everywhere and also in other villages," said Deramona, who now encourages communities to build cisterns and join other MCC projects.

The area is semi-arid, receiving less than an inch of rainfall from November to May. During this time, water is scarce for people, animals and plants, and families must haul enough water from springs to wash, to drink, to cook and to sustain their animals and land.

Cisterns store water from the rainy season for use in the dry season.

Deramona and his wife Emilia recall how, before they had a cistern, they used to rise early, sometimes before daybreak, to walk to springs to collect water for the day. They remember how their daughter, now grown, would rush home from school to collect more water.

While the cistern doesn't provide enough water for the entire year, it has greatly reduced the burden of searching for water.

MCC has helped to build more than 110 cisterns, as well as stoves and latrines in Teticic and other villages in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero.

Read more about Teticic and Deramona's family in the November/December issue of MCC's free magazine, a Common Place. The cover story features his wife Emilia Navarrete Sevilla, their children and the tough decisions they face about whether to eke out a living in Mexico or attempt to come to the United States, as many in this village have done.