Guatemala and U.S. Plan to Supply Drinking Water to Remote Communities.
The Guatemalan Army and the Seabees join forces to deliver better services to the most remote communities.
The Guatemalan Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S.
The course was part of a training program for infrastructure projects that the engineering corps will carry out in August to provide drinking water to remote communities in Guatemala.
This is bigger equipment with greater capacity, and it’s more complex than the percussion drilling equipment that we have in our service organization,” said Second Lieutenant Alfonso José Jiménez Dubon, an engineering officer and commander of the Guatemalan Army Corps of Engineers’ Water Squad, who attended the training.
During the course, service members shared information and experiences about the features of the area where the infrastructure projects in their respective countries will be implemented.
For example, the Colombian Army will be working in a strategic desert area, the Honduran Army will be drilling wells in a mountainous area, and Guatemalan service members will be in a region that is close to the sea.
In this assignment, both of the Guatemalan service members who took part in the drilling course will assist the U.S. experts in the infrastructure projects in Puerto Barrios.
“A couple of wells will provide potable water to outlying communities on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala and to the military unit [Marine Brigade] in Puerto Barrios.
In 1999, officers from U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) documented the general situation with water resources in Guatemala, so they could provide accurate information to U.S. military researchers, plan various joint engineering exercises intended to provide humanitarian assistance to the civilian population, and help ensure that the Guatemalan government could maximize its use of water resources.