Down to the Last Drop

One of the hardest parts of being really poor, Chris Treter of Higher Grounds Trading Company said, is not having access to water.

In some of the impoverished communities in the Mexican state of Chiapas, women walk two hours a day just to gather enough water to keep their families going, according to Treter, and this scarce access to water is associated with health problems.

Now a coalition of Northern Michigan groups-Grobbel Environmental & Planning Associates, Higher Grounds Trading Company, St. Michael Catholic Church, Food for Thought, Inland Seas Education Association. and Suttons Bay residents Lee and Gary Cheadle-are collaborating on a project to bring water to Winik Ton, a small community in the highlands of Chiapas.

"Being blessed by living in a region endowed with abundant freshwater, we are compelled to bring the gift of safe drinking water to some in Chiapas that do not have access to it," stated Chris Grobbel.

The Chiapas Water Project is raising money to build a gravity fed water system that will channel water so that it is available in the village. Some members of the group expect to travel to Winik Ton to help build the water system which will serve the 35 families that live there.

The group expects the project to cost around $8,750, or $250 per family. Throughout the holiday season the group had urged area organizations and individuals to sponsor the costs of one family's water with a $250 donation. They have now raised enough money to construct the system in Winik Ton, and they are hoping to be able to build a second water system in another town selected by the area governing council. Though financial support from outside is key to the project, it is important for the system to be built primarily by the people who will use it, Treter said, this way residents will understand how to maintain it.

Though the indigenous people of Chiapas are for the most part neglected by the Mexican government, the projects that have been carried out have been done without consulting them. As a result, when things break, they often break for good, since the government is not committed to maintaining them, and the locals do not have the necessary skills.

The water system in Winik Ton will be implemented with the assistance of ITA (Appropriate Technology Exchange) a group that has been working with the Zapatistas since 1996 on finding sustainable ways of meeting community needs.

Treter and his wife, Jody founded the Higher Grounds coffee company to support disadvantaged Chiapan communities after a graduate school practicum in Chiapas taught them the best way to help the struggling indigenous communities of Chiapas was to harness the economic power of U.S. consumers. The Higher Ground Trading Company buys coffee at higher than market prices in an effort to support the economy of a region in which coffee is one of the few exports.

Chiapas is one of Mexico's poorest states and has a largely indigenous population, mostly Mayan. Much of this population does not speak Spanish, is marginalized within Mexican society.

In 1994 the Zapatista Army for National Liberation staged an uprising in Chiapas. The uprising, which entailed a week of combat (and was fought in part by peasants armed with pieces of wood painted to look like guns) was timed to coincide with the beginning of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Zapatistas said that this "free trade" agreement would be a death sentence for indigenous people.

The military action quickly gave way to a political project in which the Zapatistas called for international support for their creation of autonomous zones-areas that would not recognize the authority of the Mexican government but would instead be governed exclusively by the people who lived there.

According to Treter, the most support came from the Italian group, Ya Basta!, people from Basque country and other parts of Europe. Americans have also played a role, with solidarity educational tours and economic support through trade with coffee cooperatives.

The human costs of NAFTA soon became evident. The Mexican market was
flooded with agricultural products so cheap, it was no longer sustainable to grow things-the 2001 price of coffee was 60 percent below the cost of production, according to Treter-and as the agricultural sector fell apart, immigration to the United States surged. Eleven years post-NAFTA, Chiapas remains poor. The five zones which are controlled by the Zapatistas, cover about a quarter of the state.

In these areas participatory democracy is practiced-decisions are made on a local level and brought up for representatives to implement. Leadership positions are rotated, so no one individual or community within the zone has disproportionate political power.

"We live in a state that has a lot of migration from Southern Mexico," Treter commented, "so daily we come in contact with the effects of our foreign policy."

"If you boil the water issue down it is about community autonomy," Treter said, and as people in Northern Michgian consider how to respond to development that threatens the water and culture of our area, there are lessons to be learned from those who are struggling to maintain their health and dignity in the water scarce zones of Zapatistaland.

Written By Eartha Melzer

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