Bioconservancy
Introduction
Colombia ranks third in the world as the country with most water. Yet, Colombia faces a shortage of potable water due to the contamination, deforestation and the expansion of agricultural land. Since the main water source for Colombians originate in the Andes mountains, it is important to mitigate and prevent the contamination of rivers and streams and the deforestation of watersheds to prevent the risk of them drying up.
History
As most small villages in the Andes mountains, La Mesenia is composed of dispersed homes along the San Juan Antioquia river. Since they were built, houses lack adequate waste water and sewer management systems. All houses allow the waste water to flow freely into waterways which in turn contaminate the San Juan Antioquia river and its tributaries
Project Importance
BIOCONSERVANCY began in 2018 a project to install modern septic tank sewer systems to treat waste water to avoid contamination of waterways in 25 households of La Mesenia village. An inventory of homes and the number of people inhabiting each house has been done in order to determine the septic tank size to be installed. At the school and church, a larger capacity system was installed. Once installed, each household receives training on the maintenance and clean-up of the system in order to have an adequate management of waste water.
Impact on Conservation
BIOCONSERVANCY is committed to protecting watersheds by conserving Andean rainforests and avoiding contamination of the waterways by communities. We are looking for donors to support and expand this health impacting environmental project.