There are currently teams working in Chiapas with the indigenous Zapatista communities, who are helping to resource, design, construct, and maintain gravity-flow potable water systems, with the goal of improving basic health standards in the communities.  Alongside the building of water systems, there are a number of workshops running, dealing with the use of traditional medicinal plant practices, effective water sanitation, and waste management.

Easily preventable gastro-intestinal illnesses, and water-borne diseases, cause serious health problems, and claim lives daily.  The infant mortality rate in Chiapas is 51.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with 34.8 for the country of Mexico overall.  Similarly, life expectancy in the indigenous communities in Chiapas is 44 years, compared to a national average of 70 years. 

Clean water is a basic prerequisite for life:  without it, the goals of autonomy and self-reliance which the Zapatistas are striving for cannot be realised.

The construction of a water system delivering clean water in a community dramatically improves health conditions, and has a particularly positive impact on the lives of the women, who usually collect water, often from a considerable distance from the community. 

2 events have been organised, which are taking place in Bristol and Newcastle, on May 25th and May 10th respectively, with the aim of raising funds for the water projects, as well as raising awareness of the Zapatista struggle in Chiapas.  The money raised is then to be taken, in person, out to Chiapas, where it will go towards equipment with which to build water systems in communities who currently have no clean water.