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Fighting the development paradox

Crew+ Champions Journal: Grisel Medina

By IW:LEARN

January 23^rd, 2024

If I talk about Cancun, the first image that typically comes to everyone's mind is paradisiacal beaches on idyllic vacation (in mine too). However, the true riches of the area lie in its people and their culture. Paradoxically, those who sustain all the infrastructure and services are mostly the inhabitants of the region, who live on the margins of development despite being just a few kilometers away.

In the municipality of Benito Juárez, where Cancun is the capital and an international tourist destination, 11.9% of the population speaks an indigenous language.

The language spoken by most of the population is Mayan, as in the entire state of Quintana Roo, the land of this ancient culture.

The municipality of Benito Juárez is located in an area with a low population of the Mayan ethnic group, which is concentrated in the rural municipalities of the interior and south of the state. However, the demand for jobs in the tourism sector attracts many residents from these rural areas to the City of Quintana Roo.

Can you believe that we are bringing water and sanitation services to rural towns in Quintana Roo that do not have them when they are so close to the overwhelming splendor of the Riviera Maya?

Well, yes.

Seeing this area, full of culture and life, the faces of the girls and boys who safely receive the WASH service is a great satisfaction and a great privilege. I continually ask myself how to preserve the essence of these lands without contaminating them and, quite the opposite: honoring them.

"I love my country and my ancestors who left us the land we live on."

With the GEF Crew+ project, we are addressing water quality issues through the evaluation of the conditions of the main existing wastewater treatment plants in the area; integrated and innovative low-tech water and sanitation solutions at rural and community levels; and financing options to make the investments made through the project sustainable.

Working on the issue of water is my passion and any support to reduce the backlog adds to the cause. GEF CReW+'s efforts add up to the challenge in a country where communities isolated by cost-efficiency criteria have been marginalized.

Let's join forces and keep working!

"With my work, I contribute to the greatness of my community and that's how I take care of my family."

"Yéetel in meyaje' kin líik'esik u nojchil in kaajal beyo' kin kaláantik in láak'tsilil."

Translation to Maya by: Jose Manuel Tec Tum, Mayan language teacher and anthropologist, and Manuel Rubio, anthropologist and advisor of the State Union of Community Museums of Yucatan.

By: Grisel Medina, Project Management and Evaluation with Foreign Credit Submanager, National Water Commission Mexico.

About the project

The GEF CReW+ Project "An integrated approach to water and wastewater management using innovative solutions and promoting financing mechanisms in the Wider Caribbean Region" is a partnership project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that is being co-implemented by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 18 countries of the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR).

This project builds upon its previous successful phase “The Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management (CReW)” project (2011-2017). GEF CReW+ is being executed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the Organisation of the American States (OAS), and the Secretariat of the Cartagena Convention (CAR/RCU) on behalf of the IDB and UNEP respectively.