Indigenous Resilience Solution

WaterNow, Aluna Alliance

Indigenous Resilience Solution

An integrated resilience system co-designed with the Indigenous Siekopai to secure sustainable community access to water, energy, and food.

Miami, FL, USA

USA

Nonprofit

Access to clean water, renewable energy, and local food production remains a daily challenge for nearly all Indigenous communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon bioregion, affecting some 10,000 people daily. Pollution from oil drilling, deforestation, and climate change contaminates rivers and disrupts traditional livelihoods. A 2022 UN report found that nearly 40% of Indigenous communities in Latin America lack safely managed drinking water, with widespread contamination from heavy metals and hydrocarbons causing illness and displacement. In the Siekopai community of circa 800 villagers, clean energy access is nearly non-existent. Like most communities, they rely on costly, polluting diesel generators with limiting accessibility for well water pumps, schools, and clinics. Food insecurity compounds their survival crisis—staple crops like tomatoes, garlic, and onions are sourced commercially from distant markets, straining accessibility and deepening dependence on non-Indigenous capital. Fishing, once a primary protein source, has drastically declined due to widespread river pollution, affecting both water quality and fish population. Our integrated solution addresses these threats across water, energy, and food systems through Indigenous-led infrastructure engineering: rainwater harvesting, solar power with battery storage, and regenerative farming. These holistic systems restore access to essential resources and support cultural sovereignty, resilience, and self-determination.

The Water-Energy-Food Resilience Solution model is a scalable solar-powered system that provides clean drinking water, renewable energy, and sustainable food production—all integrated into a single, community-led solution for equitable survival. It includes a solar-powered water filtration tower that uses a hybrid of reverse osmosis and biofiltration to purify rain or river water, distributing it via gravity or low-voltage pumps. A smart solar microgrid powers the system along with homes, refrigeration and appliances using modular batteries, real-time sensors, and blockchain-optimized performance tracking. Surrounding this energy model is a permaculture-based regenerative food garden with native fruit trees, aquaponics, and timed irrigation directly fed from the water system. A shaded education and training pod provides solar-powered lighting, digital media, and maintenance guides. The entire model is digitally interconnected through a decentralized IoT (Internet of Things) control system that tracks water levels, energy storage, soil conditions, and garden health. A touchscreen dashboard and local mesh network allow real-time diagnostics, even offline. Blockchain technology enables transparent resource tracking and token-based incentives for community participation. This smart, self-regulating infrastructure turns essential services into an integrated ecosystem for climate resilience and critical self-sufficiency.

Our Indigenous Resilience Solution model directly serves Indigenous communities such as the Siekopai in the Ecuadorian Amazon—an ancestral nation of roughly 800 people whose way of life is under imminent threat from water contamination, deforestation, and climate instability. Despite their deep ecological knowledge, the Siekopai remain excluded from national infrastructure plans and global climate investments. Our solution meets this gap with a decentralized, scalable Water-Energy-Food Resilience model—co-designed in sync with the community. It includes solar-powered water filtration, community-scale clean energy, and permaculture gardens that support food sovereignty using native seeds and regenerative techniques. These systems eliminate exposure to bacteria, pathogens, heavy metals, and petroleum-based toxins while reducing the daily labor of water collection—especially for women and children. Reliable electricity powers homes, schools, and health stations. Gardens provide nutrient-rich, locally grown food year-round. By training youth and elders to operate and maintain the systems, we foster leadership, technical capacity, and long-term resilience. This is a partnership rooted in respect—supporting the Siekopai to meet their long-term needs in a sustainable dignified manner.