Driving his heavy-duty pick-up truck, wearing a baseball cap and sporting a plump middle, Humberto “Beto” Ruiz Granadino could pass for yet another anti-environmental rancher. But looks can be deceiving. He is indeed a farmer, and proud of it.
But as president of the San Pedro River Micro-Watershed Community Association, he also presides over one of the most important environmental initiatives in northern El Salvador – one that is serving as a model for others in the region.
The San Pedro River starts in the hills that run along El Salvador’s Pacific Coast and flows for 16 kilometers, finally draining into the Sunzacuapa River. Local farmers like Ruiz rely on the San Pedro for irrigation, as do the estimated 18,000 residents from five municipalities for their daily needs.
The micro-watershed committee started by taking stock of the communities, analyzing all three geographic sections – the highlands, midlands and lowlands – and sundry factors: economic, social, natural resources and pollution. “We started a bit informally,” recalled Ruiz. “We wanted to see what the needs were and create a management plan.
“We discovered that there were a whole bunch of problems,” he said. “So we decided to choose one priority in each area. For the environment, it was deforestation; on the economic front, unemployment; and the social issue was illiteracy. We started trying to find projects that could help address these problems.”
But without a legal entity that could formally receive support and sign contracts, even the best projects were unlikely to receive support. The mayor of San Pedro Puxtla, headquarters of the association, liked the idea of registering the group and streamlined the approval process. The micro-watershed committee got its papers in mid-2006. “With a legal entity, you can receive technical assistance from the government. You can make investments. You can manage funds,” noted Ruiz.
Instead of running willy-nilly after projects, the committee first joined forces with other local community and producer associations for a training program to help members improve their management and administrative skills.
Since then the micro-watershed has witnessed a flurry of activity. Protective barriers were built for a handful of homes threatened by landslides. Farmers received training in advanced agricultural techniques; ditto for vegetable producers on water conservation. A greenhouse is being built to prepare seedlings for reforestation. Women are learning how to make jams and jellies from local fruit, and a canning factory is planned.
One interesting project is rainwater harvesting for both fish farming and irrigation. Santiago Amaya is one of a select group of farmers chosen participate. Now 56, Amaya raised most of his six children (only two still live at home) by migrating to take seasonal work as a coffee picker. Relying entirely on nature, he could manage but one crop a year, during the rainy season. Now he can irrigate a second crop through the dry season when scarce supplies push prices skywards. And as it stores water for later irrigation, the tank is stocked with tilapia, a fish native to Northern Africa that is highly adaptable to aquaculture. Amaya sells his output locally, providing residents with fresh fish they would otherwise find hard to get, and further boosting his income. “Now I can stay here without having to migrate,” said Amaya. “I’m very thankful.”
With his own organization in shape, Ruiz began helping neighboring groups register their own legal entities and improve their organizational skills. “Beto is really smart about these things,” said Francisco Caranza, president of the Los 3 Hermanos Micro-Watershed Committee. “We’re learning.”
All six committees in the area now have registered legal entities. The next step is to organize a formal network, according to Ruiz. “The will give us a regional presence that we can use, for example, to find solutions to issues like water conflicts,” he said.
Written by Bill Hinchberger