and from there onwards the walking is only marginally better. There is no public transportation. Families work small plots of maize and beans, and graze a few sheep for their wool, but they rely mostly on the income of their young men, who move out of the mountains for at least three months of the year to work on the coastal sugar-cane plantations. The women earn some income from spinning wool and weaving lengths of cloth, but there is relatively little time for light duties. Work begins at daybreak and ends soon after the sun goes down. There is no electricity to prolong the day, and candles are a luxury. About 60 per cent of Guatemala's nine million people inhabit remote pueblos like Rancho Viejo, and more than 80 per cent of them live in extreme poverty. Average life expectancy is just 43 years, and the (MR of 65 deaths per 1,000 live births is one of the highest in the developing world. Very few rural communities have safe drinking water or sanitation facilities, and it is widely believed that the IMR in places like Rancho Viego is closer to one in 10. The main cause of infant deaths is diarrhoea, followed by ARI and immunizable diseases. In Rancho Viejo last year, however, there was a good deal to celebrate. The 330 inhabitants had a visit from Jorge Mario Hernandez Lopez, officer-in-charge of an Environmental Sanitation Project for the district of Huehuetenango, who offered to help build a gravity-fed water system if the people would provide the labour. For the women, who had to walk several kilometres four and five times a day to carry the water home, this was an offer too good to refuse. A fresh-water spring was identified some four kilometres above the tine
**Analysis**
The text discusses the daily life and struggles of a remote community in Guatemala, highlighting their reliance on agriculture, lack of access to basic amenities, and high infant mortality rates. The focus on the community's water crisis and the offer to build a gravity-fed water system suggests that the text is primarily concerned with the community's basic needs and well-being.

**Category**
Health, Humanitarian aid and relief