Esperanza Garcia: 3/31/13

Enrique Lomnitz; Through the work of his organization, Isla Urbana, Enrique Lomnitz

aims to solve the water shortage in Mexico City by creating a sustainable system

based on rainwater capture systems.

ENRIQUE LOMNITZ

“Poor people or rich people feel less strongly about water- it is not about wealth, it is about water availability.” Enrique Lomnitz, Director of Isla Urbana, tells our Capstone group during our meeting with him in Mexico. Isla Urbana seeks to catalyze a revolution in rainwater harvesting and works to ensure sustainable water supply for Mexico city for people of all economic levels.[1]

Enrique is an entrepreneur and visionary. He is humble and plays down his successes, though a badge that he takes pride in is being an Ashoka fellow. In addition to becoming a part of a global network of social entrepreneurs, being an Ashoka fellow adds credibility to his work and provides him with financial support to help achieve his goals (for the next 3 years, at least).

Enrique also participated in Initiativa Mexico, a popular Mexican reality TV program in 2011 that is about projects that have positive impact in Mexico. With over 8,000 applications, Isla Urbana was one top 20 NGO’s chosen. The organization has been named one of the top best-practice organizations by UN-Water for Life, they were finalists in the 2010 BBC World Challenge competition, and participate in making commitments at the Clinton Global Initiative.

ISLA URBANA

In Mexico City, millions of Mexicans are without adequate access to water. The Isla Urbana programme of IRRI México is dedicated to resolving the water crisis in Mexico City through the installations of rainwater harvesting systems. Isla Urbana designs, build and install rainwater harvesting collection systems for low income peri-urban communities in Mexico City. They teach rainwater harvesting courses, host and participate in community events, and are dedicated to making Mexico City’s water management policy sustainable. They do all this working household by household--ensuring decentralized water security--in a place known to have serious water scarcity issues.[2]

“We got nothing to teach them we have everything to learn.” Enrique tells our Capstone group, when referring to working in low-income communities. The rain water harvesting, if implemented on a large scale, can meet up to 50% of Mexico City’s needs.[3]

SUCCESSES AND STRENGTHS

Rachel Smith; Showing the work of Isla Urbana and Proyecto Concentrate
with the indigenous tribes in the Sierra Huichol in Jalisco State,
a project called "Ha Ta Tukari." Mexico City, March 2013.

In Mexico, I sat down with Rachel Smith of IRRI-Mexico and Engineers Without Borders UK. She worked on producing a report for Isla Urbana studying the adoption rates of rainwater harvesting in Mexico D.F. last year and continues to work for IRRI-Mexico. “Water scarce communities are knowledgeable of water conservation, Isla Urbana expands on their knowledge to introduce their technology. And the government has all the economic advantage – with our system, they save money” Rachel says when I ask her about Isla Urbana’s strengths.

Isla Urbana addresses an immediate problem and provides an immediate benefit. Since 2009, Isla Urbana have installed 1,151 systems, helped 12,862 people, and harvested 54,400,000 gallons of water.[v] “We are sowing the seeds of a systemic solution,” Enrique says.

CHALLENGES

Amidst their successes, Isla Urbana also faces barriers and challenges. Financing has been their biggest challenge, and what they would like to do is to expand on their international funding. “We are weak in financing, it would be great to open up internationally” Enrique admits. “We have an international setting and an international team but we are not so international in funding, with only over 4-5% percent of their funding coming from abroad” Enrique adds.

"One of the main challenge for Isla Urbana is overcoming the entrenched preconception about water management in general" Rachel stresses. Isla Urbana is developing a sustainable business model, in the context where water is heavily subsidized. The “Pipa’s,” otherwise known as water-trucks, and grid water are subsidized by the government. “It is a challenge to get people to get people to pay for the rainwater harvesting systems if they don’t have the concept that water costs a lot” Rachel adds.

The government, as part of their push to improve water supply, funds groups of households that do not have good grid connection and where water-trucks do not come as often to receive Isla Urbana systems. This improves their water supply resilience. Where there is more water supply, there is less scarcity. The government has also paid for Isla Urbana systems in households, without the households contribution. “Reliance on government could sometimes be detrimental,” Rachel says, “by doing so, it encourages reliance on government funds rather than developing private sector model of business selling product/services. The further out you get (of the urban periphery), people illegally tap into the water line. This only means that the value of water is not reflected in the price that people pay.”

EXPECTATIONS

“My expectations are not super specific” Enrique says tells our Capstone group in our interview with him when we asked him of his expectations from our team. “I hope to gain insight or ideas into Isla Urbana from people that come at this from different disciplines from what our team has (2 industrial designers, 2 engineers, 1 anthropologist, 1 urbanist, 1 linguist and 5 plumbers). It would be amazing to get some help developing better ways to measure actual and potential impact, especially on an economic level, as the systems start to scale up” he adds.

“We are working to develop rainwater harvesting towards its fullest potential in Mexico, yet we are not even sure of the real number of houses that could easily be fitted with rainwater systems in the city. We know there are lots, but we have little in terms of numbers” Enrique explores. “It would be amazing to start building a map of the potential, in numbers and general (physical) areas with most potential. If we can start mapping this better, we can start really calculating interesting things like how an investment in rainwater harvesting (RWH) considered here as investment in water infrastructure (this is important because the way the water subsidies work means that the real economic winner when someone saves water through RWH or any other method is the government). If we can start mapping all this, we can start calculating future water stress scenarios and how much relative good would be done if you already had X number of RWH systems deployed and working in the city. This kind of stuff is very, very interesting to me and could be really useful as we argue the value and potential of RWH to people at higher and higher levels.” Enrique adds.

That is where our Capstone group comes in: to help Isla Urbana produce arguments, as it is conceived, and build a tool of persuasion. Especially in helping them make a persuasive case to government officials that Rain Water Harvesting Systems can alleviate water infrastructure issues and deliver a reliable source of potable water. In doing so, our Capstone group first asks ourselves whether or not it was possible to map informal development patterns in Ajusco where Isla Urbana operate. As our research progresses, our goal is to deliver a map that is structured in such a way that information can grow with it. In our first meeting with Enrique in Mexico, we had identified the building blocks of information that could grow with this, such as political boundaries, pollution, and numbers of housed in each types of section.

ISLA URBANA CAPSTONE VISIT IN MEXICO

Pictures from our Isla Urbana Workshop in Mexico

The day after our Capstone group’s arrival in Mexico, Helene Gutierrez of IRRI-Mexico met our Capstone group in our hotel. She assisted us to the Isla Urbana headquarters in Ajusco, an hour drive from where we have stayed in Condessa. Ajusco is a 3,930 m lava dome volcano located just south of Mexico City and it is the highest point in the Mexican Federal District. Our mapping work focuses on the urban area Ajusco that is filled with medium systems Tlalpan rainwater catchment systems. This area, urbanized informally on the slopes of Ajusco, suffers from severe water shortages. The houses often go weeks without water and when they do receive water it is of poor quality, with some areas completely lacking the water service. “The lack of good water supply forces many families to buy water pipes, and the costs associated with these can become very high. These usually have people in a state of unsecured draining water access. The only good thing is that, thanks to the shortage, this area has developed a true culture of caring and valuing water” Rachel explains.

Derrek Clarke, Floren Poliseo, Enrique Lomnitz, Adriana Kliegman

Enrique Lomnitz and Columbia Sustainability Management Capstone Team: "Living on the Edgers"

Isla Urban, IRRI-Mexico, Sistema Biobolsa, and "Living on the Edgers"

L to R: Enrique Lomnitz, Adriana Kliegman, Challey Comer, Floren Poliseo, Melissa Boo, Derrek Clarke, Steven Burke, Joe Persaud

Inside Carmen's Rainwater Harvesting cistern

The group in the Isla Urbana Headquarters

The rooftop of the Isla Urbana office

We visited Ajusco to get a good sense of the community, we visited homes in Ajusco that these rain water harvesting systems were installed in, experienced how Isla Urbana is like in the field, and studied the mechanics of system. Unfortunately, we were unable to install rainwater harvesting systems, however, we were able to meet Carmen. During rainy season many IU systems don’t use grid or trucked water, or “Pipa” as it is known in Mexico. At this time, residents use RWH during rainy season. Thankfully, there is a way that Carmen can maintain self-sufficient and sustainable access to clean water.[5]

Picture of Carmen

Photo Source: Crowdrise

Rain Water Harvesting System with Isla Urbana
Photo Credit: IRRI- Mexico

GOAL

Enrique’s vision for Isla urbana is to “catalyze a process, that can be at it’s best full-bloom in 40 years.” In generating a movement in the city and country with rainwater water harvesting systems, they hope to replicate this idea in other places where needed. In our capstone contribution, we can help their goal by developing a tool that would allow Isla Urbana to plot and predict potential impact that filling up a region that rainwater harvesting systems would have.