More than 30 solar panels power the pumping plant in the village of El Mozote, in eastern El Salvador, providing water to around 360 families. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
EL MOZOTE, El Salvador , Jun 6 2025 (IPS)

The worst massacre of civilians in Latin America occurred in the Salvadoran village of El Mozote, where environmental projects are beginning to emerge, slowly fostering awareness about protecting the natural resources of this deeply symbolic site, embedded in the country’s historical memory.

Since early 2024, a small photovoltaic plant has been operating in El Mozote, in the district of Meanguera, eastern El Salvador, powering a municipal water system designed to supply around 360 families in the village and nearby areas.“We used to wash clothes in those communal wells, which were built after the war, in ’94.” — Otilia Chicas

“The project’s goal was to minimize environmental impacts in the area by seeking cleaner energy sources, and with that in mind, the solar panel system was implemented,” Rosendo Ramos, the Morazán representative of the Salvadoran Health Promotion Association (ASPS), the NGO behind the project, explained to IPS.

The Spanish organization Solidaridad Internacional Andalucía also participated in launching the initiative.

El Mozote is located in the department of Morazán, a mountainous region in eastern El Salvador. During the civil war (1980-1992), the area was the scene of brutal clashes between leftist guerrillas and the army.

In December 1981, over several days, military units massacred around 1,000 peasants in the village and neighboring communities—including pregnant women and children—accusing them of being a support base for the rebels.

The conflict is estimated to have left more than 75,000 dead and 8,000 disappeared.

The photovoltaic system installed in El Mozote, eastern El Salvador, operates alongside the national distribution grid, so on cloudy days with low solar generation, the conventional power grid is activated. Credit: Courtesy of ASPS

Sunlight to Distribute Water

The solar project consists of 32 panels capable of generating a total of 15 kilowatts—enough to power the equipment, primarily the 60-horsepower pump that pushes water up to the tank installed atop La Cruz mountain. From there, water flows down to households by gravity.

The photovoltaic system operates alongside the national power grid, so on cloudy days with low solar output, the conventional grid kicks in—though the goal is obviously to reduce reliance on it.

The project, costing US$28,000, was funded by the European Union as part of a larger environmental initiative that also included two nearby municipalities, Arambala and Jocoaitique, focusing on protecting the La Joya Pueblo micro-watershed.

Key aspects of the broader program include reducing the use of agrochemicals, plastic, and other disposable materials; and promoting rainwater harvesting.

The overall program reached 1,317 people (706 women and 611 men) across three municipalities and six communities, involving NGOs, schools, and local governments.

“The aim is to consume less energy from the national grid, thereby lowering pumping costs,” explained Ramos.

However, this cost reduction doesn’t necessarily translate into lower water bills for families in El Mozote and surrounding areas. That’s because the water system is municipally managed, and tariffs are set by local ordinances, making adjustments difficult—unlike community-run projects where residents and leaders can more easily agree on changes.

One benefit of the new system is that lower energy costs for the municipality free up funds to expand and improve other basic services—not just in Meanguera but also in places like El Mozote, Dennis Morel, the district director, told IPS.

The plaza of El Mozote, the iconic village in eastern El Salvador, was renovated, but local residents complain that the government-led construction work was not agreed upon with the community. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Water in the postwar era

Otilia Chicas, a native of El Mozote, recalled what life was like in the village when there was no piped water service—back in the days following the end of the civil war in 1992, when people began returning to the area.

“We used to wash clothes in those communal wells. They were built after the war, in ’94,” said Chicas, pointing toward one of those now-empty wells, about 20 meters away from where she stood, inside a kiosk selling handicrafts, books, and T-shirts in El Mozote’s central plaza.

Next to the plaza is the mural bearing the names of the hundreds of people killed by the army—specifically, by units of the Atlacatl Battalion, trained in counterinsurgency by the United States.

“We used to fetch water from there and bathe there, but since these wells weren’t enough, we’d go to a spring, to ‘El Zanjo,’ as we called it,” she recounted.

She added that the drinking water project arrived between 2005 and 2006, finally bringing the resource directly into people’s homes.

“The community had to pitch in, and the hours people worked were counted as payment, as their contribution,” she noted while weaving colorful thread bracelets.

There is uncertainty over whether the kiosk in the village plaza will be removed. Several women from the El Mozote Historical Committee sell handicrafts and work as tour guides there. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 Almost No One Was Spared 

Chicas, 45, was born in 1980, a year before the massacre. Now, she helps run the kiosk and works as a tour guide alongside other local women from the El Mozote Historical Committee, explaining to visitors the horrific events that took place in December 1981.

The artisan shared that her family lost several relatives in the 1981 massacre, as did nearly everyone here. The victims’ mural is filled with dozens of people bearing the last names Chicas, Márquez, Claros, and Argueta, among many others.

“My grandmother lost four of her children and 17 grandchildren,” she recalled.

Chicas’ father, in an attempt to save their lives, moved his family out of El Mozote before the massacre and resettled in Lourdes Colón, in the western part of the country. But the military ended up killing him in 1983 after discovering he was originally from Morazán and linking him to rebel groups.

“The National Guard came for him and two uncles—they saw they were from Morazán, a guerrilla zone,” she emphasized. “Before killing them, they forced them to dig their own graves. They were left by the roadside, in a place called El Tigre,” she explained.

The military operation that culminated in the massacre was planned and executed by the Salvadoran Army’s High Command, with support from Honduran soldiers and covered up by United States government officials, revealed Stanford University scholar Terry Karl in April 2021.

Karl testified as an expert witness during a hearing on the case held that April in San Francisco Gotera, the capital of Morazán.

Dormant in El Salvador’s judicial system since 1993, the case was reopened in September 2016. Among the accused are 15 soldiers—seven of them high-ranking Salvadoran officers—,the only surviving defendants from the original list of 33 military personnel.

The trial is currently in the investigative phase, where evidence is being gathered and examined before the judge decides whether to proceed to a full public trial.

A mural on the side of El Mozote’s plaza displays the names of the hundreds of people killed by the Salvadoran army in December 1981, marking the largest massacre of civilians in Latin America. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Times of Uncertainty 

El Mozote’s central plaza has been renovated over the past three years as part of the government’s effort to give it a more orderly and modern appearance—a promise made by President Nayib Bukele when he visited the site in February 2021.

The town is also nearing completion of a Urban Center for Well-being and Opportunities (CUBO)—a government-sponsored community center designed to provide youth with access to reading materials, art, culture, and information and communication technologies.

However, some residents told IPS that these projects are being carried out without prior consultation or agreement with the community, in violation of the 2012 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which called for justice, truth, and reparations for the victims.

The reconstruction work demolished the bandstand, a space highly valued by the community as a gathering place for meetings and collective organizing.

Despite this, Chicas said she supports the plaza’s renovations, as they have made it more inviting for young people to spend time there. Still, she noted that the remodeling affected her personally.

The construction forced her to dismantle her small food stall, made of corrugated metal sheets, where she used to make and sell pupusas—El Salvador’s most iconic dish, made of corn and stuffed with beans, cheese, or pork.

Chicas also mentioned the ongoing uncertainty about whether the kiosk where she and other women craft and sell their handicrafts will be removed.

“We’re left in limbo—we don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.

People use plastic containers to collect drinking water in Havana. Water supply problems have worsened in recent months in Cuba, partly due to power outages that interrupt water pumping through hydraulic networks and, at times, equipment breakdowns. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Dariel Pradas
HAVANA, Feb 28 2025 (IPS)

Problems such as hydraulic network breakdowns, water lost through leaks, power outages, and even fuel shortages are making access to water supply services difficult for the population in Cuba

“Terrible,” is how Mariam Alba, a café employee and resident of Manzanillo, a city 750 kilometers east of Havana in the eastern province of Granma, described the water supply situation to IPS.“In my neighborhood we have water almost every day, but I know places that go months without it. In the early hours, you see people carrying water from a hole filled by a leak. It’s not drinking water:” Mariam Alba.

“In my neighborhood, Reparto Gutierrez, we have water almost every day, but I know places that go months without it. In the early hours, you see people carrying water from a hole filled by a leak. It’s not drinking water. On some blocks, they’ve placed tanks: they fill them in the morning, and by night they’re empty. Then they refill them a month later,” she added.

In this province with 804,000 people, only 76% receive piped water in their homes, and just 38.7% have access to water at least once every three days. Meanwhile, over 66,000 residents depend on water delivered by tanker trucks, as confirmed by Granma’s Hydraulic Resources authorities in an interview with IPS in August 2024.

A month after that interview, the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH) announced that over 30,000 people in the province lacked access to water services, out of a total of more than 600,000 nationwide.

In Havana, where supply issues may not be as prolonged as in Manzanillo, they are more widespread: around 130,000 “customers” were affected last September.

“I’ve gone up to two weeks without water due to a supposed break in the (hydraulic) network. Then the issue gets fixed, but comes up again soon after. In the 40 years I’ve lived here, there hasn’t been a single day when I wasn’t unsure if the water would come or not,” Flora Alvarez, a 43-year-old accountant living in Centro Habana, told IPS.

A worker from Aguas de La Habana supervises the filling of a water tanker truck that supplies drinking water to residents of Havana communities. By early February 2025, over 600,000 people in Cuba were receiving water permanently through tanker trucks. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

An Infrastructure Problem

Cuba lacks large rivers and, being an island, faces the constant risk of saline intrusion into its groundwater. It relies heavily on rainfall, so droughts severely impact water supply, especially in the agricultural sector.

However, 2024 was not as marked by this climate change effect as previous years: accumulated rainfall reached 97% of the national historical average, and reservoirs were at 63% of their total capacity, or 98% of the usual level for early February, when the INRH presented its annual report.

The problem begins with over 40% of pumped water being lost due to leaks in major pipelines, hydraulic network branches – sometimes visible on dozens or hundreds of Havana streets – and even from dripping faucets in homes.

Hydraulic sector officials acknowledge the existence of 2,500 to 3,000 such leaks.

Secondly, pump equipment breakdowns or interruptions due to frequent power outages, characteristic of Cuba’s energy crisis, also degrade service quality, which not everyone has access to.

In this Caribbean island nation of about 10 million inhabitants, only 83.9% are supplied water by public Water and Sanitation companies, 4.5% more than at the end of 2023, according to the annual report.

The INRH acknowledged in its report that this improvement is largely due to a decrease in population.

Meanwhile, investment in creating new connections to hydraulic networks and other sanitation work has slowed, reaching only 45% of the planned target, due to the negative impact of U.S. economic sanctions on Cuba and unpaid debts to creditors.

Additionally, only 61.2% of the population has access to “risk-free” drinking water services, 1.6% more than in 2023.

The “risk-free” definition aligns with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “safely managed” standard, which refers to access to “drinking water from an improved water source that is located on premises, available when needed, and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination.”

By early February, over 600,000 people were receiving water permanently through tanker trucks, and nearly 1.5 million through “easy access” points, where people can fetch water in less than 30 minutes, including travel and waiting time.

However, these figures do not account for the thousands affected by “temporary” pipeline breaks, who must then carry water from easy access points or rely on tanker trucks that arrive as frequently as fuel supplies allow –  another recurring issue in Cuba.

The company Aguas de La Habana lays a high-density polyethylene pipe as part of the installation of new hydraulic networks in the Cuban capital. In 2024, the government installed 241 kilometers of new water supply networks, mains, and connections to alleviate chronic water supply issues. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Slow Progress

“The goals and targets planned for 2024 were met at an acceptable level, considering the adverse scenario,” summarizes the INRH’s annual report.

This optimism is based on the fact that, despite only resolving around 60% of public complaints or reports in several provinces, 241 kilometers of networks, mains, and new water supply connections were installed.

Or an average of 512 liters of water per inhabitant per day, representing 91.8% of the planned amount, though distribution remains uneven, as the figures show.

The INRH also worked on installing 32 water treatment plants, 10 wastewater treatment plants, and 9 desalination plants, as well as replacing pumping equipment and installing nearly 25,000 water meters, useful for promoting water conservation with tariffs based on actual consumption. Without these, many households pay a fixed monthly fee.

However, authorities predict that the core water problems will continue to “flow” through 2025, despite the government’s multimillion-dollar investments to improve the situation.