Michael Sagastegui is the president of the water committee in Pampas de San Isidro in the Cascas district, Peru.
As chairman of the committee, he oversees maintenance and repair of the water system.
"Our job is to improve the well-being of the population and provide them with high-quality water," Michael said.
No one else in their community had wanted to lead the committee, and they were about to hand over their water system to the Government when Michael volunteered to be chairman. He insisted that the community should take care of its own system. When Michael took on this role two years ago, he made immediate improvements to the water system that helped improve water quality and reliability.
A year ago, when Peru was devastated by floods, all that hard work was destroyed.
"At first it started raining slowly, and then it started to pick up in force," Michael said. The rain didn't stop for a month.
"Everything was gone," he said. "The rain left nothing. Nothing could be done."
The flood destroyed 450 meters of Pampas de San Isidro's water system, leaving the community without water for months. They had to get water for drinking, cooking and bathing in the river, the same river used to wash clothes and cars upstream, Michael says.
Because the flood had destroyed roads and cut off his community from the rest of the country, it took a month to get new pipes and supplies. When the supplies finally arrived, Michael and his committee wasted no time in making repairs.
With the support of Water For People and the district water and sanitation office, and many hours of hard work by community members, Pampas de San Isidro rebuilt its water system in two months. Michael said they rebuilt it stronger than ever and took care to protect the water source from future disasters.
Michael is determined to keep his community's water system resilient to whatever happens in the future.
