I recently visited a small beach town in Guatemala, and was struck by the challenges the community faces in accessing clean water. With no municipal water supply, every family and business must dig their own well, but many of these wells produce salty and/or unsafe water. All local well water requires significant filtration to be safe. Most residents simply can't afford these expensive filtration systems for their homes or businesses.

As a result, residents, businesses, and tourists rely on water trucked in once per week from Guatemala City, which is a three-hour drive away. The water arrives in 5-gallon plastic bottles that sit in the hot sun for hours during transport, and many of these bottles are made from questionable plastic that may leach chemicals. It is also quite expensive and many local residents can't afford it.

As an initial step in our research for this project, we had the bottled water from 2 suppliers used in this small town tested for contaminants. The bottles were delivered to the testing laboratory in sealed 5-gallon jugs. The results just came back and provided disturbing, yet enlightening, results. We tested two microbiological parameters - "Total Coliforms" and "Total Aerobic Bacteria".

The Maximum Reference Safety Limit for the two tests are:

• Total Coliforms < 1.1 NMP / 100 mL

• Total Aerobic Bacteria < 200 CFU / mL

Findings were as follows:

Company #1:

• Total Coliforms < 1.1 NMP / 100 mL

• Total Aerobic Bacteria = 790 CFU / mL

Company #2:

• Total Coliforms > 23.0 NMP / 100 mL

• Total Aerobic Bacteria > 58,000 CFU / mL

As you can see both bottled water suppliers exceed the maximum safety limit for Total Aerobic Bacteria. Company #1 by almost 400% and company #2 by a whopping 29,000%.

And more alarming is the Total Coliforms > 23 NMP / mL from Company #2. Coliforms are used as an indicator of possible fecal contamination or poor hygiene in the bottling system.

So, as you can see, even the bottled water being consumed in the town is not as pure as would be optimal.

Many people also buy smaller plastic single-uses bottles daily, leading to a large amount of plastic waste that ends up in landfills or is burned in trash heaps.

Our goal is to raise funds to help develop the infrastructure needed to bring clean drinking water to this isolated beach town. To accomplish this, we will build a small, local water filtration facility that uses well water and incorporates a Reverse Osmosis system to ensure the purest drinking water possible. We will bottle the water only in reusable, BPA-free bottles, store them safely out of the sun and offer delivery to residents and local businesses. We will also allow residents to come directly to the facility to fill their own reusable containers. We will never bottle in single-use plastic bottles.

This will allow us to provide fresher, safer, and more affordable water for everyone in town, while also reducing plastic waste.

Once established, the system will operate under a sustainable model, where water is sold at affordable prices to ensure long-term maintenance, local job creation, and continuity — so the project doesn’t depend on ongoing donations.

We’ve seen too many projects fail when donations stop. This model ensures the impact lasts.

The goal is simple: Use philanthropy to unlock access — and sustainability to keep it running.

Your donation will go directly towards:

• Laboratory testing for contaminants such as coliform, total bacterial load, BPA-related compounds, antimony, and microplastics in current bottled water consumed. (testing for these other contaminants is ongoing)

• Laboratory analysis of raw well water to identify health risks and help direct specifications for the proper filtration system.

• Purchase of the large-scale filtration system and safe 5-gallon drinking water jugs.

• Construction of the water depot building.

• Construction of new wells.

• Installation of the filtration system.

• Testing the system and training of local staff on the system as well as hygienic bottling practices.

• 3 months of working capital to support local employee salaries, marketing and community outreach efforts.

We will keep all donors updated as we meet each of these milestones.

Our goal is to test this model in this small town first to assess if it can be a self-sustaining venture. If so, there are many villages in Guatemala that could benefit greatly from an affordable, local source of pure, fresh drinking water. We will look to replicate this model in those other communities in need.

How You Can Help

If this project speaks to you, here are a few ways you can help:

• Make a donation of any size.

• Share this campaign with others who care about clean water and global health.

• Follow along as we report findings and improvements.

Clean water changes lives. With your help, we can take meaningful steps toward safer drinking water for this and other communities in Guatemala.

Blessings to you for being part of this effort.