Property of Water

Public access to clean water and sanitation in El Salvador is low. This leads to negative impacts on productivity and health, in particular, the health of the poor. Water resources are heavily polluted, and the great majority of wastewater is discharged without any treatment into the environment. It is estimated that 90 percent of surface water is contaminated, and nearly 98 percent of municipal wastewater and 90 percent of industrial wastewater is discharged directly into rivers, creeks, and the ocean without any treatment. In addition, the country suffers from water scarcity during the dry season. Over the past 20 years, water yields from springs have declined by 30 percent due to deforestation. This has reduced water availability for the rural population, in some cases obliging them to rely on more expensive well-pumping from aquifers whose water table has declined by as much as one meter per year in some localities. Low quality drinking water is available for sale in San Salvador in small plastic bags, provided by a controversial public institution which sets both policy and is the main service provider. This project mapped locations around the city of Salvador, where drinking water is collected from wells and bagged for sale to the public. In addition to a point source water quality analysis, routes from collection points to the point of sale of water were documented by recording conversations with people’s relationship to water—from the people who lived near the wells, to those who collected it, those who transported it, those who bagged it, and those who bought it.