The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality defines colonias as “residential subdivisions, usually in unincorporated areas of a county, lacking all or some of the basic services, such as water and sewer.” TexasLawHelp.org explains that colonias were developed largely along the U.S.-Mexico border starting in the 1950s when “developers created unincorporated subdivisions … [where] [t]hey divided the land into small lots, put in little or no infrastructure, then sold them to low-income individuals seeking affordable housing.”
In a 2022 report by the Texas Water Research Institute (TWRI), Dr. Amber Wutich, director of the Center for Global Health at Arizona State University, points out that the emergence of colonias was “driven by a need for low-cost labor,” particularly in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. This labor was supplied mainly by people of Mexican descent who “had to create a standard of living out of very low salaries, salaries that are not probably appropriate to the cost of living in the United States.” Dr. Wendy Jepson, director for the Environment and Sustainability Initiative and Environmental Programs at Texas A&M University, describes colonias as the “canary in the coal mine” of water insecurity in the United States. She contends that any approach to overcoming water insecurity has to start in places like colonias.
The TWRI report cited above titled “Colonias: The Canary in the Water Security Coal Mine” goes on to describe how residents must “rely on expensive hauled water from private providers” or may become “injured in the process of hauling and loading massive tanks of water.” There is also the risk of “waterborne illnesses from contaminated water.” These water-access issues are particularly widespread in Texas, which has more colonias than any other state in the country. In our region, El Paso County has one of the highest concentrations of colonias in the state.
When it comes to water access, there is a “hard path” and a “soft path,” according to Dr. Bill Hargrove, former director of the Center for Environmental Resource Management at the University of Texas at El Paso. The former is “the typical system of providing water, where you have a centralized source, centralized treatment and then delivery by piping to homes,” while the latter involves “mainly decentralized sources, decentralized treatment and use on-site.” In a centralized system, “the utility takes care of everything. If the pipes break, they fix it; the water is already treated; you don’t have to worry about it.” But in the case of decentralized systems, “the onus is on the user to both pay for and maintain everything,” says Hargrove. Given the economic hardship of most colonia residents — a circumstance that gave rise to colonias in the first place — the costs and effort of meeting daily water needs can seem insurmountable.
Enter Texas Water Trade (TWT), an organization “focused on scalable, market-based solutions backed by science and data to address the state’s water needs.” Its Vida Water program was “established in 2022 to serve Texas communities who could benefit from tailored bridge solutions to address clean water access,” according to TWT CEO Scott Moorhead. With the launch of its first pilot project in August 2024 in Hueco Tanks in El Paso County, Vida Water is providing “customized water access solutions with comprehensive testing, community education, and sustainable practices that empower users, conserve water, and reduce plastic waste,” says Moorhead.
Marcio Botto is vice president of operations for Vida Water. Originally from Brazil, Botto has over 20 years of experience improving water and sanitation services all over the world. He previously spent five years at the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology in Canada, following more than a decade as an engineer with Brazil’s National Health Foundation. In an interview with Our Water Matters, Botto described his team at Vida Water as “technology agnostics,” open to all systems and potential solutions because “it’s not one size fits all.” Vida Water conducts a needs assessment to identify the problem, looks at the context, and tests the water of each resident to find a “tailored solution.”
According to Botto, although there are “many products and technologies out there,” the problem is often a “lack of maintenance and monitoring.” Vida Water provides maintenance at a low cost of about $20 per month thanks to funding from TWT. This enables Vida Water to be an “impact-driven rather than a profit-driven organization,” says Botto.
Vida Water also works to identify potential sources of contamination. Botto stated that many of the users he serves are “communities with hauled water.” After performing an analysis, his team found that the tanks where residents store their water can pose a health hazard. Although “the water is potable-grade municipal water,” says Botto, the tanks were not being cleaned properly and could “recontaminate the water.” As a result, one of Vida Water’s roles is to “educate people about how to clean their tanks, disinfect their tanks, add chlorine every 6 to 12 months to kill biofilm,” and to generally “raise awareness” around water safety.
In summarizing the many services his organization provides, Botto emphasized that “Vida Water doesn’t just provide tech, it also provides knowledge, engages with communities and empowers people to understand the risks and advocate for their rights.” Although the focus is currently on finding intermediate-term solutions for each individual client, the “ultimate goal is to get municipal water to their premises.”
Visit vidawater.org to learn more.
Trey Gerfers serves as general manager of the Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District. A San Antonio native, he has lived in Marfa since 2013 and can be reached at tgerfers@pcuwcd.org.