A $300,000 grant will allow the Texas A&M Health Science Center to provide water safety education to residents of Trinidad and Tobago, officials say.
The islands' residents collect rainfall from their roofs into containers and store it in barrels because of fear the government may not be able to provide enough.
"You find creative ways to make it available when it can't be delivered by the water authority," said Jennie Ward-Robinson, executive director of the Institute for Public Health and Water Research, who just returned to College Station from a trip to the islands.
But the water isn't always safe, with contaminants from the roof and mosquitoes plopping eggs in the containers, along with other threats to storage practices.
Texas A&M and partners are hoping to alleviate that problem with the grant. The A&M Health Science Center, which houses the institute, and others will use it to provide education about safe water management practices.
Officials are still working on details about how to implement the grant, Ward-Robinson said, but Texas A&M will have a person there to help collect data on the community's health and water practices.
The aim, she said, is to "better understand the role that water plays in relation to health on a wholesale domestic level."
Industrial pollution, landfill drainage, oil production and deforestation are among the most serious factors affecting water quality, according to the islands' Environmental Management Authority.
The focus of these efforts -- funded by a grant from the Royal Bank of Canada -- will be on actions individuals can take to keep their water safe. The initiative aims to train selected local residents who will then spread the education, Ward-Robinson said.
"It is a sustainable model," she said. "Once you train and help the community to build the system, as long as the water falls from the sky, they will have water available to them."
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