I was studying on YouTube and
I was in the library and establishing
a page from a local newspaper and the
news was that some babies had
died from dehydration and in the note
it was accepted that this was not something that
it had only happened once in
reality was something that happened every
because in that colony and in some other
from Ciudad Juarez there was no water from
the library where I was and you
I looked out the window and I could see the other
side of the border
those colonies without pavement without water
where children are who then
they were victims of not having drinking water
that easily your food the water
contaminated by dust by
hygiene conditions and from that
moment began to question good and
what can be done
is studying a master’s degree in
environmental engineering and for me there is
a very important challenge for all life
I realized that this is a
international problem of all
sides is the same if there is no drinking water
there is a possibility that
contaminate the water that children get
sickness causes diarrhea
that generates dehydration and dies
particularly those under five
years are the most vulnerable
but good also many other
diseases are detached
this lack of drinking water and if it’s a
problem in the whole world
Well, that’s how they assumed me or
engineers we must solve it
What is the situation in Mexico?
look at mexico, we are going very
advanced because with the objectives of
millennium that they pretend precisely
eradicate poverty eradicate
places where there is no drinking water and
sanitation for people
we go very well because it turns out that
Mexico has already met the objectives set
they marked the year 2000
we have 92 percent coverage of
drinking water
that would be very good is not like when in
the school we get a 9.2 hear us
I do not know what else is vanity like
they say and yet 15 that that 8 by
hundred of Mexicans who do not have access
to drinking water equals 9 million
people
that’s when the thing changes sometimes
the percentages hide realities and
then when we stay in the
numbers we do not realize that
they are not numbers are people 9 million
of people do not have access to water what
which means that they have problems and
vulnerability risks such as those
they had children who appeared the
newspaper note and that they can die
for a matter of a disease one
especially places like dehydration
these where the heats are the ones
we receive like every summer temperatures
high that make us more vulnerable
because throughout my career I started
to see and what can be done to treat
to solve that
look at anything else I found the
map on the right e tells us which ones
are in red you can observe the
most marginalized places in the country where
are the poverty indices
this more acute and then if you look at
this map
this is the map where are the
places that do not have water in mexico
and curiously you can see that
many and many red spots of that
side correspond to the red spots
on this side and if we approach
our state to chihuahua to you
can see the spot that is red
here red and to the north of the
Map
Well, that ‘s the Tarahumara sierra
effectively that’s where there are more
problems of lack of water coverage
and the reasons for it to a certain extent
normal from the perspective of the
engineers
When everything is flat, it is more
easy to carry pipes and keys and
bombs and everything help and when people
it is together because it is more or less easy
bring drinking water and makes it
extract from a well that they bring a
river of a dam or whatever but the
saw how people live between ravines
on the slopes or on the beds of
streams and very long distances
separated by surprise and do not work
those traditional solutions of
engineering
when I started seeing this I said good
to see I have lived with
specialists maybe the most
important
not in fact the most important
engineers who are engaged in water in
Mexico
very recognized people even at the level
international and once they asked
these doctors told him doctor how
let’s solve the problem of people
that does not have water to people in the middle
rural in the mountains etc. and told me
do not look for that, we will solve it when
they come to live in the cities
because in the possible cities we can
give water and drainage all that says that in
some measure was right because every
there are fewer rural communities every
the cities grow and
effectively increases the percentage
people who have water coverage but
the people who will not come to the
cities and the people that will continue in
the communities and in the sierra because
that is your place
that’s where I start to see what
we can identify an injustice
I just started doing another
investigation and I said good to see if
we project the conditions
Current policies budgets
what the government does what it is all about
world to abate the water deficit
how long it would take us to
we really could have or for that
these people these nine million
people who do not have water today
I found that in the best of
the cases would take 10 years or up to 25
years in having water became very simple
because we all have water but
I tried for example to last one or two
days without water in your house does not
worry is not so serious because in those
communities can last for months without water
and of course they will not die of thirst they have
to go look where there is a
watering a well or digging to treat
to get the long
that is the reality of nine million
people on a team and then he says
that the engineering solution is of
the wells and the pipes and curiously
it’s part of the problem because we do not
allows you to think about solutions for
solve the problem to those who do not have
water because the solutions are given
for people who do have water
in easy places you can not
solving where there is money where
there is a cost benefit
then the first idea that I want
raise them we need to question the
solutions that are apparently
solutions because the problems there
they are with us we locate a problem
the first thing to do is and why
the solutions that have been treated
avoid does not work I want to confess them
that in my career I was one of those
engineers
I also got to think like that or
what are they doing there because they are going
to places where there is no water service
because they are in themselves I also what
I thought I ‘m a good engineer too
let’s now think of another idea les
I’m going to talk about the history of
francisca to francisca I met her
little less than a month
she is francisca is at the entrance of
one of the two rooms that your housing
she lives in a community that
It made a big impression on the name because she
he lived in safe here that is made up of
two Rarámuris words that means
the place of sadness this room
of francisco you can see that no
has roof has partially roof
Benaglia the sacks hanging and good
there we were talking francisca and
other people with whom he lived the
another half of her house is where she
be in your room dining room
cook everything and this other room
notice what you have in that room
those are the garrafones he uses
francisca to get water and is the
carrucha that uses to bring the water
if there is no water like at this time in the
Mountain range
she has to walk an hour and a half
to bring the water and and if there is no water and
the water is contaminated and can not be removed
then he has to dig in the river
to have water that followed half of
his house is dedicated to what I
I consider a metaphor of his life the
half of his life is spent or maybe more
to get the water you need to
live for months and french who is a widow
she is 15 years old, her children are no longer widowed
live with her live alone her husband is
died
and that’s what francisca does, that ‘s their
lifetime
this is how walking rarámuris
to do their things and that’s a
manguerita where arrives from aguaje
sometimes my company and board and cazuelitas
good but let’s talk about the
solutions
this is a typical dwelling of those
Tarahumara communities the plates or
the tables determined with stones
there is a solution that are the harvests
of rain and these
basically what they do is that
take advantage of the rainwater is channeled
through its roofs it goes through the
tubes is filtered and a warehouse goes and
there is a family of Tarahumara
who built their house with the support of
a non-governmental organization that
he gave them the pictures and a
pipe and the tambo and then they already have
Water
this is an alternative solution like
there are many solutions
for example the sierra was a Japanese a
Japanese engineer a few years ago and
he began to dig in the sun because he knows
that the beds of the rivers to low
depth of water and and installed some
hand pumps that do not need energy
electrical and then they are still
running the pumps and he went there to
the tarahumara installed tables those bombs
of hand and people can use and
draw water in other communities and
I can talk about energy technology
solar moisture capture in the
ambient
many many alternate ways of how
solve these kinds of problems but they
I quickly tell another story
the story of Juan Carlos de Julio de
marcelo who are the technicians who
help others Rarámuris to
build these water crops
they are rarámuris are bilingual one
is a grandson of the national science prize
and art
eusebio palma don erasmo palm other is
dad of a material for
ultra marathoner who is going to be a
runner in the Olympics and what is the
key of these guys these
technicians that are there are people
committed to your community and are
there is the other important factor to be
There is a boy from Sinaloa who
it was because he wanted to help the
indigenous people and is 10 years old there and goes to
go for a year and there he stayed there
he met his wife today who also
a nurse who came to earth
also do your service and now
has a family
the people are there then those are
the three great ideas and I wanted
share with you and that to me
it seems at least to me they help me
celebrate these 30 years of this first
Question
we all have the ability to help
solve a problem of injustice a
situation of these with a very rule
simple the first one has to question
the solutions that everyone says that
are the solutions because if not
there would be that problem
the second do not think of numbers in
percentages think of people
those people have problems and everything
type and I’m talking about water
there are people who have their
there are people who are sick
there are people are migrants
there are all kinds of problems and all
we all have capabilities to help them
to solve them
but the third condition that
need to solve those problems or
these injustices is being there must
be there
many thanks
[Applause]
”
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