A man and his daughter in El Salvador carrying water back to their home.
Credit: Juan Carlos/The Guardian

Just after 6am, Victor Funez fills a three-gallon plastic pitcher with water from a tap in the cemetery, balances it on his head and trudges home, where his wife waits to soak maize kernels so she can make tortillas for breakfast.

Funez, 38, stops briefly to help his daughter with some homework before heading back to the cemetery with the pink urn. This load fills large plastic milk and juice bottles used for drinking throughout the day.

The tap is the family’s only source of water, so Funez makes the journey along the dusty dirt road 15 to 20 times each day.

“My husband’s job is to fetch the water so I can do the housework. It’s like this every day, all day,” said Bianca Lopez, 46. “We can live without electricity – we have candles and lamps – but water, that’s essential.”

La Estación is a makeshift community of 59 households along disused railway tracks that […]