The work is a project of Water Engineers for the Americas (WEFTA), a nonprofit founded in Santa Fe to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to countries in Latin America.
Robertson, 46, and Harrington, 58, both Albuquerque residents and both fluent in Spanish, are volunteers with Water Engineers for the Americas (WEFTA), a nonprofit founded in 2002 by a group of engineers and professionals at Souder, Miller and Associates (SMA), an engineering firm with headquarters in Santa Fe.
“In developing countries, water can mean the difference between life and death,” said Peter Fant of Santa Fe, CEO of SMA, a founder of WEFTA and president of the WEFTA board.
“Forty percent of hospitals in developing countries lack access to water and sanitation.
But WEFTA volunteers don’t just come from SMA.
They come from everywhere there are people who have the heart to help others.
” Now, more than 50 volunteers work on WEFTA projects in Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru.
⋄ Scott Rogers, 61, of Bountiful, Utah, WEFTA board vice president and president of a Utah civil engineering firm, who has worked with WEFTA projects in Bolivia and Peru.
“There are many organizations that do what we do – Engineers Without Borders, Water for People – but they are so big,” he said.
Robertson talks about a column of 100 people with shovels, spaced 30 feet apart, digging trenches for pipelines in Honduras.

“It’s just constantly watching the water — knowing how many seconds or minutes you can turn it on in the morning for breakfast and have enough left to last you for a bath at night,” said Adkins, a resident of Branchland.
“It’s constant math, constant thinking, but I guess we’re used to it now.” Adkins has lived in his hollow off Harless Fork Road for most of his life.
His father built the house Adkins lives in now, his sister is right next door, his brother lives up the road, and Adkins owns another house a bit further back in the hills.
In his decades in the area, Adkins has drilled three wells on his current property, and several at other houses.
His habit of counting developed years ago, after his first well began to run dry and he started to pick up on the signs.
His current well has performed the best out of the three, only drying up temporarily a handful of times in the six or so years he’s had it.
Well water, when treated correctly and maintained, can produce perfectly drinkable water, but Allen Adkins does not trust his wells.
They were told the district ran out of money before the project reached their neighborhood.
A staff memo issued by the PSC after complaints filed by the Adkinses indicates that’s true — cost estimates from the project engineer showed there wasn’t enough money.
+2 So, without public water, Allen Adkins continues to count.

Her dad managed water service in Glover, an old coal town along the Guyandotte River in Wyoming County.
Bailey now works as a family doctor in two southern West Virginia counties.
She’s in the early stages of a research project to examine if water concerns drive people to buy sugary drinks that can lead to health problems.
+4 Apart from her work at Tug River Health Association, Dr. Joanna Bailey is involved in a crusade to get decent drinking water for her family and neighbors, and if successful, those efforts could lend credence to concerns that water can make people sick.
Bailey and her husband, David, and their neighbor, Sherman Taylor, sued their city water provider, Pineville Municipal Water, in June.
People who drink water with such levels “over many years” may have “an increased risk of getting cancer,” according to the letter.
The practice was outlawed years ago, but many straight pipes still exist in communities not connected to central sewage systems.
In McConnell and Stollings, two unincorporated areas along the Guyandotte near the city of Logan, a series of straight pipes pump sewage into the river.
Stanley said the pipe system leading to the river backs up regularly, leaving her neighborhood reeking of sewage from the murky water that pools along the road and railroad tracks.
Walt Ivey, director of the West Virginia Office of Environmental Health Services, said raw sewage pooling in neighborhoods like this is a concern to the state Bureau of Public Health — especially after a Hepatitis A outbreak that infected more than 1,700 individuals in the state since March.

For 10 years, some residents in Denmark, South Carolina, have been suspicious of the rust-colored water coming from their taps.
They’ve been collecting samples in jars and using bottled or spring water, even though the local and state government assured them it was safe.
But through a Freedom of Information Act request and a one-year investigation, CNN has found new information that may cast doubts on those assurances.
The state government was adding a substance to one of the city’s four wells, trying to regulate naturally occurring iron bacteria that can leave red stains or rust-like deposits in the water.
The substance, known as HaloSan, was not approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency to disinfect drinking water.
CNN was told by the state that it has been adding HaloSan to the water in Denmark since 2008.
A spokesman for South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control told CNN in an email that it believed HaloSan was EPA-approved for drinking water based on the way the system was "advertised."
An EPA risk assessment from 2007 shows that HaloSan can be a "significant eye and skin irritant."
The EPA told CNN that HaloSan is not a registered pesticide product and has not been reviewed by EPA’s pesticide program.
But Edwards says he couldn’t let go of a nagging feeling that there was something missing, especially after finding red flags, like a 2010 local newspaper story where a city official declared the water had safe lead levels nine days before the testing was conducted.

GRANT, Ala. – The fight for safe drinking water is an uphill battle on Bishop Mountain in Marshall County.
"This is a letter from the health department," Wayne Whitaker shows WZDX News.
For the nearly two dozen families who live there, it was a shock confirming things had to change.
They’re some of the last in the county without access to a public water system and it’s costing them to drill wells.
Neighboring mountains have been developed and gotten city water.
"Yes, if it’ll help us get safe public drinking water," said Wayne Whitaker.
A developer sent a letter to the county commission in support of getting city water and the health department’s environmental supervisor recommended it to North Marshall Utilities, according to documents shown to WZDX News.
"The way it’s explained to me from Congressman Aderholt’s office is there’s grants available for water utilities that serve less than 10,000 customers," said Wayne Whitaker.
The neighbors say they’re also concerned about fires on the mountain.
They say fire departments have to haul water up since there isn’t public water there to put it out.

Minister of Health David Clark says the Ministry of Health has made good progress ensuring New Zealanders can rely on the safety of their drinking water in the 12 months since the final Havelock North Inquiry report.
“A year ago, along with my colleague the Attorney-General David Parker, I released the Havelock North Inquiry Stage 2 report,” said David Clark.
“The Inquiry had 51 recommendations, corresponding to 62 individual actions to ensure safer drinking water.
At the release last year, I talked about the need to focus on both short and long-term work.
Twenty two of 26 actions about immediate improvements to operational management, leadership, and to address technical issues have been implemented.
“A further 18 recommendations are in the process of being implemented, but are dependent on factors such as the passing of the Health (Drinking-Water) Amendment Bill or external advice before they can be considered implemented.
“This means in the past year, 40 of 62 actions are either implemented, or close to being implemented.
This progress demonstrates the commitment I laid out last year to responding swiftly to the Inquiry’s recommendations.
“Additionally, the Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill has had its first reading in early November.
“The bill will make it easier for more work to be done to implement the recommendations of the Havelock North Inquiry and allow the Government and drinking-water sector to be more proactive and future focused.” “On 20 November I also announced changes to the Drinking Water Standards including two which will significantly improve the ability to test and respond quickly to the presence of harmful bacteria such as E.coli.” “On the same day the Minister of Local Government, the Honourable Nanaia Mahuta and I released a Cabinet paper that details proposals for a system wide reform of regulation of drinking water, along with a new risk management regime for sources of drinking-water.” “I thank the Ministry of Health, public health units, local government and drinking water suppliers for the work they have carried out in the past year to make sure tens of thousands more New Zealanders can be confident their drinking water is demonstrably safe,” David Clark said.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S.
Senator Tammy Baldwin is announcing more than $51 million in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development funding to help rebuild and improve water infrastructure in Wisconsin communities.
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Baldwin has supported strong funding for infrastructure projects through USDA’s Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program and is working to reauthorize the program in the 2018 Farm Bill.
“I worked to secure these strong investments to make sure that our rural communities across Wisconsin have access to clean drinking water, and safe and improved water infrastructure.” USDA is providing the funds through the Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program.
The USDA funding was awarded to the following Wisconsin communities: City of Waupun: $27,611,000 in loans and $9,479,000 in grants for water distribution and storm water drainage system improvements, including the addition of a phosphorus removal system making use of new technology.
Village of Reedsville: $1,049,000 in loans and $802,000 in grants for water distribution system improvements; and $1,275,000 in loans and $813,000 in grants for sanitary sewer system improvements.
Village of Tennyson: $1,628,000 in loans and $2,591,000 in grants for water and sanitary sewer system improvements.
Village of Albany: $983,000 in loans and $676,000 in grants for water system improvements.
Village of Blanchardville: $1,876,000 in loans and $1,453,000 in grants for water distribution and sanitary sewer system improvements.
Village of Radisson: $400,000 in loans and $733,000 in grants for a new well and elevated water tower to meet residential and industrial needs after an existing well was shut down due to lead.

By Chris Allen OPINION: Security of water supply is a global issue.
As populations increase and cities grow, pressure also increases to supply communities with clean and reliable drinking water.
South Africa’s Cape Town almost went completely dry on water in 2017.
The US city of Flint’s water supply is in a shocking state and has been for years.
What happened to Oamaru appears to be a massive downpour in rain caused their water supply to become too turbid for normal consumption.
These cases underline the fragility of water infrastructure and what happens when it’s not taken seriously.
New Zealand needs to develop modern infrastructure to harvest and store this valuable and plentiful resource.
Oamaru is an area of the country that should be well-known to anyone who ever took notice of the news in the ’80s.
In the case of Cape Town officials had asked the public for years to restrict their water use and they were ignored.
Maybe when New Zealanders are faced with water shortages on a more regular basis they will take this issue more seriously.

For 10 years, some residents in Denmark, South Carolina, have been suspicious of the rust-colored water coming from their taps.
They’ve been collecting samples in jars and using bottled or spring water, even though the local and state government assured them it was safe.
But through a Freedom of Information Act request and a one-year investigation, CNN has found new information that may cast doubts on those assurances.
The state government was adding a substance to one of the city’s four wells, trying to regulate naturally occurring iron bacteria that can leave red stains or rust-like deposits in the water.
The substance, known as HaloSan, was not approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency to disinfect drinking water.
CNN was told by the state that it has been adding HaloSan to the water in Denmark since 2008.
A spokesman for South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control told CNN in an email that it believed HaloSan was EPA-approved for drinking water based on the way the system was "advertised."
An EPA risk assessment from 2007 shows that HaloSan can be a "significant eye and skin irritant."
The EPA told CNN that HaloSan is not a registered pesticide product and has not been reviewed by EPA’s pesticide program.
But Edwards says he couldn’t let go of a nagging feeling that there was something missing, especially after finding red flags, like a 2010 local newspaper story where a city official declared the water had safe lead levels nine days before the testing was conducted.

For many families in Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia, the absence of clean, reliable drinking water has become part of daily life.
Based on nearly six months of reporting and dozens of interviews with residents, water district officials and experts, this series has revealed an ongoing crisis in Central Appalachia that has left many families with poor access to clean, reliable drinking water.
▪ Water districts in Central Appalachia struggle to perform routine maintenance, such as repairing leaking service lines, which leads to quality and reliability problems for customers.
▪ Some grant funding awarded to districts cannot be used to address districts’ most pressing issues.
In Kentucky, the Abandoned Mine Lands program has awarded millions to water districts to extend service lines to federal prisons, rather than repairing the myriad of infrastructure problems that disrupt service and quality for customers.
▪ The only real source of revenue for community water systems is by collecting bills from customers.
As more and more people leave West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky — in the last 10 years, West Virginia is one of two states that have lost population nationally — water systems will have less and less revenue.
Some water districts in Kentucky have refused to raise rates even when pressured by the state Public Service Commission.
All but one of those systems have been serious violators with the EPA for the last 12 quarters.
Support investigative journalism Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Will Wright spent months digging through documents and interviewing residents of Eastern Kentucky as he reported "Stirring the Waters" alongside colleagues from the Charleston Gazette-Mail and West Virginia Public Broadcasting.