Amazon people turn to water tanks after environmental disaster

Scheme provides clean water and helps foster trust between indigenous groups

Romelia Mendia was handing out plantain drinks served in aluminium bowls. Guests were seated in a hammock and on the bare wooden floor. Beyond the window was the lush vegetation of Ecuador's north-eastern Amazon.

Chocula, as the drink is called, is made by mashing plantains into water, and is a common refreshment in the Amazon. But the water in Mendia's chocula was no ordinary water. It came through a tap in her kitchen connected to two tanks outside collecting and filtering rainfall.