16-06-2026 | di COOPI

Venezuela. In Sucre the right to water takes shape

For years, many families have had to live with uncertainty. Water available only at certain times of day, quality not always guaranteed, high costs for purchasing water from alternative sources. Today, in the communities of San Antonio de Irapa, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, and El Lirio de Guayacán, something is changing.

The water purification plants provided under the "Agua para la Vida" ("Water for Life") project — implemented by COOPI – Cooperazione Internazionale ETS in partnership with CEDISCU, with the support of the European Union — are now in the final stages of installation and will soon guarantee safe water for more than 20,000 people.

As the infrastructure takes shape, change is already visible within the communities. Not only through the work underway, but through the skills people have acquired along the way.

Among them is Orestes, 43 years old, now a member of one of the Community Committees established to manage water services.

I got involved in the project after an open call to the community. Here I learned many things: how to manage and repair a water system, how to draw up an action plan, and how to handle situations within the community.

Technical training is indeed one of the cornerstones of the initiative. While the plants were being designed and built, dozens of people completed courses on network maintenance, hydraulics, and community management of water systems — an investment designed to ensure that the infrastructure can continue to function in the years ahead.

Once fully operational, the new plants will significantly improve access to drinking water in the three localities. But for those who live these realities every day, the result goes beyond the numbers.

This kind of project matters because it improves the situations we face in our communities and the quality of people's lives. I would love to see it replicated elsewhere. 

says Orestes.

The ultimate goal is not only to provide water treated to quality and safety standards. It is to strengthen community resilience, reduce health vulnerabilities, and build solutions that can be managed directly by the population.

For the families of Sucre, the arrival of safe water means far more than a new piece of infrastructure. It is a concrete step toward more dignified living conditions, better public health, and greater confidence in the future.

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COOPI has been present in Venezuela since 2018, where it has implemented 27 projects reaching more than 400,000 direct beneficiaries. It is committed to addressing gender-based violence, protecting vulnerable groups, and strengthening community resilience through an integrated, multi-sectoral approach.