| |
Oxfam in Bolivia - Oxfam helps thirsty llamas
Andapata is one of eight isolated rural communities in the district
of Choquecota, in the southern Altiplano. There are few inhabitants
here. The landscape is stunningly beautiful, but stark -- mile after
mile of flat, windswept, scrubland and pasture. Temperatures can
soar above 40° C by day and plummet below freezing at night. There
is no electricity supply or piped water, and the nearest hospital
is 180 km away -- six hours by car, if you had one. An unforeseen
change in the weather can spell disaster. The isolated communities
survive by breeding llamas and sheep, and by growing potatoes. Lack
of pasture and fresh water is a major disaster, because people rely
on healthy animals for food and for income.
Oxfam, through a local organisation called Gamma, has
been helping communities in the area to deal with the chronic water
shortage: supplying materials for the community to build their own
wells, which are filled from underground springs, and paying for
the machinery to dig out large reservoirs which trap any available
rainwater. Oxfam has also provided horticultural training, helping
families to grow a variety of vegetables, and has set up a veterinary
store in the village and provided training for the whole community
on how to treat the common parasites and diseases that affect their
animals.
Epifania Coria de Valeriano (right) explains why the mechanical
diggers, used to dig reservoirs, are so important:
"Being able to hire the digger was a godsend. We used to try
to dig holes by hand, and we had to dig about five or six a day.
But they were so shallow that when the animals came to drink they
would kick loose soil into the hole. It used to take me an hour
to dig a small hole, two hours to dig a decent-sized hole. Some
days I was digging all day, so that there was enough water for all
the animals to drink. My family and my neighbour’s family share
this reservoir. It has saved us all a lot of hard work."
Photos: Julio Etchart/Oxfam
|
