A Small Village, a Big Reason to Start Here
Baja California Sur, Mexico — on the shores of the Sea of Cortés.
Life on the Sea of Cortés
San Evaristo is a small, remote fishing community in northwestern Mexico, tucked along the Baja California Sur coastline of the Sea of Cortés. It is the kind of place most maps barely register — a handful of homes, a working waterfront, and a community whose livelihood depends almost entirely on what the sea provides.
Its economy runs on small-scale fisheries that serve regional markets, connecting San Evaristo’s fishers to the broader seafood supply chain that organizations like Comepesca work to strengthen across Mexico.
Two resources the village can’t reliably get
San Evaristo faces two intertwined shortages that shape daily life: a lack of affordable, reliable ice, and a lack of good-quality drinking water. Neither is unique to San Evaristo — both are common across hundreds of coastal villages in Mexico — but that’s exactly why Comepesca and the U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce see this village as the right place to prove a solvable, replicable model.
The cost of doing without
Higher Production Costs
Every trip to La Paz for ice adds fuel, time, and wear on vehicles — costs that come straight out of a small-scale fisher’s margin.
Reduced Seafood Quality
Ice that has traveled 100+ miles, and often sits in short supply, means the catch doesn’t stay as fresh as it should — and buyers notice.
Limited Market Access
Without consistent cold-chain capacity, San Evaristo’s fishers can’t reliably reach the higher-value regional markets their catch deserves.
Water-Related Health Problems
Despite existing local water facilities, good-quality drinking water remains scarce — a driver of preventable health issues for residents, especially children.
Dependence on Fossil Fuel
Diesel and gasoline power nearly every part of the current workaround — from ice transport to backup generators — with real environmental cost.
A Pattern Repeated Nationwide
What San Evaristo faces is common to hundreds of coastal villages in Mexico — which is exactly why a working, replicable solution here matters far beyond one village.
See the solution being built for San Evaristo
A single solar-powered unit, designed to produce both ice and safe drinking water — with no fossil fuel required to run it.