Water visionary Francisca Rosas Valencia, Quest4 part 1

The visionary in this quest4 report, Francisca Rosas Valencia, worked to inspire sustainable changes to overcome the ongoing drought and water crisis in the Tehuacan Valley and in Mexico. For more information, see:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/j-carl-ganter/divining-destiny-mexico...

and

http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/tehuacan-divining-destiny/

(Tehuacán Valley, Mexico Remains Resilient as Nation Faces Worst Water Crisis in Decades)

(In November, the United Nation's World Climate Change summit will be held, and attention will turn to the water crisis in Mexico. Andrew Maddocks, Circle of Blue reporter, covers the realities of life in Tehuacan, related issues including poultry monoculture and grey waste, and outlines issues to consider for the future.)

and

http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/

Francisca Rosas Valencia lived in a mud-brick home in drought-plagued San Marcos Tlacoyalco, Mexico. Her son had left the Tehuacan Valley, hoping to cross safely and find work in the fertile fields of Los Angeles, CA. The Tehuacan Valley used to be fertile, verdant, with abundant supplies of fresh water.

Industrial and agricultural depradations and pollution have depleted water supplies, and left those remaining poisoned, cancerous. Soils have been baked to hard, dusty, barren expanses.

But Francisca believed in the power of people, working together, to create gardens out of depleted soils, dried-up aquifers, out of their poverty, out of their strength.

Francisca worked to put together a plan to grow the ancient grain amaranth (which I have planted in my gardens as I traveled in North America, Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa--it is hardy, drought-resistant, attractive to birds and pollinators, nutritious--although if you don't need to eat it it also makes a beautiful dried flower for the winter months, with seeds thus preserved for the next season--when you might need the grain.).

Slowly, Francisca helped transform her community.

A Mexico-based non-profit, Alternativas, is continuing her work--helping communities find solutions combining modern technologies, entrepreneurship and ancestral wisdom. By collecting rainfall in graded channels, processing grey waters/sewage, and growing hardy grains like amaranth instead of pest- and drought-vulnerable crops like corn, Alternativas is helping the Tehuacan Valley, and Mexico, face its ongoing water crisis with greater flexibility, and with a greater chance for success, for re-establishing food and water security, individual and community sustainability.

Unfortunately, the courageous Francisca died of cancer, which her friends believe was caused by the toxins in the water and dust from area industrial pollution. But her vision, her work, her dreams for a brighter future live on.

further useful link postings:

http://www.agua.org.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1881:alternativas-y-procesos-de-participacion-social-ac-tehuacan-pue-mexico&catid=311&Itemid=152
and then for Dr. Raul Hernandez Garciadiego:
raulhernandez@alternativas.org.mx_ and http://www.alternativas.org.mx/

and
Grupo Cooperativo Quali www.quali.com.mx/