The Peoples Consultants
(a.k.a. Agua del Pueblo – USA)

Make a Lasting Difference

Since our founding in 1972, we have focused on water and sanitation in Guatemala, and in 2022, we added human rights to our mission. We are the U.S. sister organization to the Guatemalan NGO Agua del Pueblo, which implements our work there.

Join Our Next Summit in Guatemala!

From January 26 to February 2. The trip will offer learning opportunities on rural potable water, sanitation, and economic development. We will explore community organization and engineering design issues.

Who We Are

We are the oldest non-governmental organization focused on
water and sanitation in the world!

How we help

Potable Water

As our name implies, we have dedicated much of our engineering expertise to developing water infrastructure. In our early days, most of our projects were spring-captured gravity systems, considered the 'low hanging fruit.' These projects are notable for their incredibly low cost of operation and maintenance. However, all our systems include a community "tax," meaning every beneficiary family pays a monthly fee for operation and maintenance.

Sanitation

We've focused on sanitation due to WHO data showing that sanitation is more cost-effective than water for health. However, our beneficiaries consider many other factors in addition to health that water provides. At a minimum, all beneficiaries install ventilated improved pit latrines. Recently, we have added hand washing stations. We are also experimenting with more comprehensive systems that incorporate laundry washing (pilas). These systems connect several homes to a grease trap, biodigester, and wetland treatment.

Community Development

Water and sanitation are means, not an end. We have developed and refined our methodology over the past 50 years. The core of this methodology is community control. In every AdP project, the community must lead all decisions, from our first visit to the operation and maintenance of the system. Researchers have found that community leadership fosters both community and economic development (Chipman, Strait, and Clemens, 2014; Sauer, Smith, and Clemens, 2012; Clemens and Douglas, 2012).