Santo Tomás, El SalvadorFor months, Jenny Marilyn Sánchez was stuck inside her home, perched at the top of a hill in an urban neighborhood of Santo Tomás, a municipality about 20 minutes south of the capital city of San Salvador.

The country’s president had been encouraging citizens in press conferences and speeches to stay inside and wash their hands during the pandemic. Sánchez wanted to follow this advice but the faucets in her kitchen and bathroom were running dry, a common occurrence for about half of the Salvadorans who have indoor plumbing.

The last time she had running water, Sánchez made sure to fill her plastic buckets, a ritual all too familiar to many Salvadoran women. “The women are the people who worry the most