By CARLOS GONZALEZ, Guatemala

Rocky ground slows down the digging, and nearby houses make dynamiting dangerous

“It’s going slowly,” explained Hernando Delgado, member of the Microregional Representative Entity, which organized the project. The problem is the rocks: “When they are too hard or heavy to get out with pick and shovel, we have to use dynamite,” he said. Just meters from the homes, the blasting must be done very carefully and with very small charges.

The work is hard, the days are long, and the pay nonexistent. Nevertheless, the men wielding the picks and shovels are enthusiastic, because this is their own project. Like 92 other communities throughout this formerly war-torn country, Nueva Catarina has received funds and technical help through an IDB-financed program called Community Development Program for Peace (DECOPAZ, after its name in Spanish). The program, which is helping the country rebuild infrastructure and repair its social fabric after more than 30 years of civil war, involves communities to an unprecedented degree. Local people create their own village organizations, decide on projects, and then use program money to hire contractors and assemble work crews. Often illiterate and lacking experience in carrying out such responsibilities, they rely heavily on training courses and supervision from a group of organizations working with the program, among them care, the United Nations Office for Project Services, and the Canadian Center for International Studies and Cooperation.

The drainage project was Nueva Catarina’s second. Their first, already completed, brought piped water to the community. “At first some families opposed that project,” said resident Gaspar Cardona. “But we now have water connections in every house, and the doubters have joined in to work on the new drainage system.”

Leaving Nueva Catarina, the vehicle climbed higher into the mountains, where the mists permanently obscure some peaks. Here the people make the traditional fabric designs for which Guatemala is famous. They speak ancient Mayan languages such as Jacalteco, Q’anjobal and Mam. The distances between communities may be short, but the poor state of the roads can make the journey long.

The village of Mangalitos is less than a kilometer from the main road, but it can only be reached on foot. Until just two months before, eight of the community’s families lived in houses made of sticks and palm thatch. Now these structures have been relegated to the status of kitchens, and their former residents have moved into new dwellings with concrete walls and metal roofs. Another 12 families are preparing to follow suit.

Solving water problems. Higher still, at 3,500 meters, the people of the village of Tuisoch cannot grow corn and beans because of the cold and lack of rain. Instead, these traditional crops are replaced by potatoes and sheep and other livestock.

The people of Tuisoch decided that lack of water was their most persistent problem. Their nearest stream lies nearly 2 km from the village, says Javier Pablo, member of the village’s Microregional Representative Entity. Family members had to make two to four trips a day to haul in fresh supplies.

The village decided on a simple but effective solution to help them get through the annual dry period: building individual water containers on the roof of the houses of each of the 70 participating families to collect rainfall. After passing through filters, the water comes out of the faucets.

Better water supplies were only the most visible project benefit, according to Pablo. “Just as important was learning how to join together to benefit the whole community,” he said. “We manage the budget, hire the firms to do the work, and supply labor. We are very proud of ourselves.”

Such intangible benefits are in many respects the most significant results of the program. Rallying around community projects is helping the people to overcome deep-seated suspicions and hostilities from the years of civil war. Even though the program is just getting underway, rivalries among former paramilitaries, guerrillas, refugees and displaced persons are showing signs of easing. Similarly, the former lack of trust toward government agencies, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations is being replaced by a more collaborative relationship.

One community leader put it best: “We are really glad someone is helping us to help ourselves. Working together we will improve our lives.”