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.

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.

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.

PHILOMATH, Ore. — The city of Philomath has issued a drinking water warning because it could be contaminated with potentially harmful bacteria.
Public works officials said there was a loss of water pressure in the distribution system Wednesday morning, and that could mean there is bacteria in the water supply.
They said the bacteria could make you sick and is especially concerning for people with weak immune systems.
These are the instructions listed on the city website: "DO NOT DRINK THE WATER WITHOUT BOILING IT FIRST.
Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for one full minute, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water.
"Potentially harmful bacteria include Fecal coliforms and E. coli which are bacteria whose presence indicates that the water may be contaminated with human or animal wastes.
Microbes in these wastes can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms.
They may pose a special health risk for infants, young children, and people with severely compromised immune systems."
They said they anticipate resolving the problem by the end of the work day on Thursday.
They will let the public know when tests show no bacteria in the water.

The public schools in Flint, Michigan, may now have safe drinking water, but the faucets have been turned off in Detroit since the beginning of the school year.
The water fountains in all 106 schools run by the Detroit Public Schools Community District have been dry since classes began in August.
The superintendent ordered them shut off as a pre-emptive measure, after testing revealed elevated levels of copper and lead in drinking water at some schools.
It’s a pretty frightening scenario for many residents of Detroit — a city just 60 miles southeast of Flint, where residents kept getting sick in 2016, even though officials insisted that the drinking water was just fine.
Now, look at the water here.
They should have known it was going to be a problem with this old infrastructure.” And yet Detroit is far from the only school district to have problems with water quality.
At the beginning of this school year, several Maryland school districts also found lead in their drinking water and turned off their water fountains.
The Detroit Press gives this rundown on school districts around the country dealing with water issues: The nation’s 14th largest school district, Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools, is being forced to replace hundreds of fixtures after finding elevated levels of lead earlier this year.
Elevated levels of lead were found in 61 percent of the schools.
As a public school teacher, I’m ashamed that I didn’t know this before — but here’s what really wrong: “No federal law requires testing of drinking water for lead in schools that receive water from public water systems, although these systems are regulated by the EPA,” the Government Accountability Office reported in a 2017 survey.

It’s been just under a year since a ‘do not drink advisory’ was issued for the Town of Milton by Halton Region’s associate medical officer of health.
This advisory was issued following a significant watermain break in the town.
Water across the region is safe to drink.
According to a recent press release, the 2018 Management Review and external systems audit of Halton Region’s Drinking Water Quality Management System revealed that the Halton Region is continuing to meet the Ontario Drinking Water Quality Management Standard (the Standard) and requirements under the province’s Safe Drinking Water Act, 2002.
Halton’s Drinking Water Quality Management System consists of quality assurance processes for monitoring, testing, auditing and treating drinking water.
This system is part of the Halton Region’s ongoing commitment to deliver clean and safe drinking water to residents and businesses.
"We are continuously upgrading and expanding our water management systems to meet the needs of our growing population so we can continue to provide reliable access to clean, safe drinking water for all to enjoy."
The annual Management Review, internal audits and the external third party audit looks at and ensures the continuing suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of drinking water delivery.
The audit found that the Region’s Drinking Water Quality Management System follows the standard and strengths of Halton’s system.
Some of these strengths include management commitment, continual improvement culture, staff competency, management review process, internal audit process, and risk methodology.

A Casper resident in Centennial Hills was concerned when a private test of her home’s water came back positive for total coliform — but city officials say there is no reason to be alarmed.
City crews immediately responded to the citizen’s complaint and took samples from the house and the surrounding area, according to Public Services Director Andrew Beamer.
The trouble with coliform is that it sometimes indicates the presence of harmful fecal matter, but none of the samples tested positive for fecal bacteria, he said.
“We firmly believe that the drinking water that we are providing is safe to consume,” he said.
Though no problems were initially found, Beamer said Thursday morning that the city had sent additional samples to an independent lab to double-check.
“We want everyone to feel good about the water, so we switched to a different pressure zone and flushed the hydrants (in the area),” she said.
Wednesday night on Facebook, a woman posted a message she said was copied from an unnamed resident of Boots Drive in Centennial Hills, a neighborhood east of Wyoming Boulevard.
"We alerted the city, who after independent testing, has corroborated the results of our home test.
It is our understanding that the integrity of the line in our neighborhood has been compromised, and is thus contaminated.
If you or your family have had vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping, etc.