“Even children can drink tap water now”

Mariana Castro is shy, and barely speaks. She stays quiet as the cold wind moves her hair. She recalls the summers, when it rained very little. Water was scarce in San Pablo del Lago, a tourist town in Otavalo, at the foot of the Imbabura volcano. “Before, we did not have any water, when we did, it was dirty.” 

Today we have drinking water with good pressure, thanks to the projects under the Environmental Sanitation Program for Community Development (Promadec). The initiative follows the National Development Plan’s approach to closing gaps in basic utilities coverage and encompasses not only surrounding towns such as Abatag, Cusinpamba, Gualabi, but other remote areas farther from San Pablo del Lago. 

There are 208 municipalities in Ecuador and about 3.5 million beneficiaries of the Promadec initiative. Today they receive a high-quality, safe drinking water service, rainwater and waste sewerage, and solid waste collection and disposal, which greatly improve health conditions of all residents. There are more than 450 projects improving the lives of Ecuadorians. 

Under Promadec, for example, works included revamping of the San Pablo del Lago water treatment plant and expanding the drinking water distribution network. 

This project and others for the rest of municipalities in Ecuador were funded by CAF—development bank of Latin America—in coordination with Banco del Estado (BdE). In the case of San Pablo del Lago, drinking water coverage has reached 99%. “Water is much better now; it is safe and clean,” said Mariana while hanging clothes to dry in the shade of the Imbabura.

Luis Arango is a resident of San Pablo del Lago. He wears a red down jacket, similar to Marty McFly’s in Back to the Future. He talks about how people got sick “when the water was dark and cloudy.” The situation is different now, “even children can drink water straight from the tap.”