VHC Medical Brigade Inaugurates Safe Water Supply System in Rural Honduras
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (July 14, 2022) – VHC Medical Brigade is proud to announce the recent inauguration of its newest water supply system in Honduras, which will establish sustainable access to safe water and sanitation in the rural, mountain villages of Veracruz and El Tablón. The project is the culmination of years of collaboration between VHC Medical Brigade, Mayor Carlos Miranda of Comayagua, the Rotary Club of La Paz, and members of the communities. Having begun work in 2019, the project has withstood not only the COVID pandemic but also back-to-back major hurricanes in 2020 that affected roughly 7.2 million people in Central America – rivaling Hurricane Mitch, the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record that prompted VHC Medical Brigade’s first trip to the region in 1999.
Speaking at the official inauguration event in Veracruz, VHC Medical Brigade Operations Manager Nelson Martinez said, “VHC Medical Brigade developed this project with funds from Rotary International through the Rotary Club of La Paz. We developed the project, applied for funding, and once approved, we were in charge of the project implementation. Without the mayor's support and the community collaboration, it would not have been possible to do a top-quality project like this.”
“We are very happy to be here in this community today of Veracruz,” said Mayor Miranda, “to be able to share with the community and the partners and technical specialists. We're happy because we've achieved something really great with this clean water project.”
To reach the villages, the water must travel from a dam built high on the mountain, through seven kilometers of piping, which feed into a chlorinator mounted atop a 20,000-gallon concrete tank, before finally flowing to the homes of families and the community health clinic in Veracruz – which was also built by VHC Medical Brigade. With training by VHC Medical Brigade, the community water boards have taken full ownership of maintaining and properly treating their water, and the communities will work together to ensure the water source remains sustainable.
To date, VHC Medical Brigade has built clean water systems in twelve communities – working steadily towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all – one community at a time.
