Visiting priest details water pumps, sustainable farming projects and postwar challenges in El Salvador

Father Chencho Alas, a priest representing the Institute for Technology, the Environment and Self-Sufficiency, described projects he said aim to bolster sustainable agriculture, water access and community self-sufficiency in El Salvador during a public conversation in Missoula.

"One of the main goals of the institute that I am representing is to do a research about the digital technologies, so how we can innovate new things and transfer them to the people or peasants of women, and thinking about economic sustainability," Father Chencho Alas said, summarizing the organization’s goals.

Alas described a low-tech water device his team has promoted, which he called a "rock pump," and said his organization built six of those pumps and brought them to villages. He said the pumps are simple to operate and can provide water even for children; he added that water purification is needed because some…