With Sacyrian accent

Lucía Cecilia Mercado

When you tell people that you’re going to Mauritania—“Where is that?”—to volunteer in a cooperation project, you get all kinds of reactions: disbelief, admiration, confusion. You take all these reactions, mix them with your own feelings, and create your own cocktail of emotions.

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And so, I find myself wondering: What drove me to take part in this project that made the collaboration between the Sacyr Foundation, HumanCoop, and UPlanet in Mauritania possible?

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In the photo, from left to right: Lucía, Matías, Natalia, Rodrigo and Iván. 

It’s a mix of many things, and here, I’ll try to explain the most important ones for me.

Curiosity. Everything I do in my daily life is guided by a desire to discover what lies beyond my own experiences, knowledge, and immediate surroundings. Exploring different ways of life, other countries, and new cultures has always motivated me to step outside my comfort zone, study philosophies far from the Western perspective, and try to understand other approaches to life.

Empathy for those in need. I try to put myself in the shoes of people who lack the things we take for granted—running water at home, hot water from the tap, a variety of food, a mobile connection, a bed to sleep in. So many things—never mind going to the movies, having a beer, or dining out—that we take for granted about until we travel to places where they are not guaranteed.

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A desire to help create a better world. Life feels empty if we don’t contribute, even in small ways, to improving the lives of others. Taking part in projects like this by HumanCoop and UPlanet gives me purpose, fulfillment, and the chance to become a better person.

Love. Love for others, love for myself by honoring the values that drive my actions, love for different cultures, love for other landscapes like the desert that captivate me.

Admiration.

For people who make projects like HumanCoop a reality. From the first moment I heard Ignacio speak, I admired him. We have so much to learn from people like him, who dedicate their time to helping others—it would take a lifetime to put their lessons into practice. Ignacio’s commitment to the Sahrawi people is contagious to everyone around him. The same goes for his collaborators: Gema, Esteban, and Oscar, whom I deeply respect and admire.
 

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The same admiration extends to José Matías, a former Sacyr colleague through whom I first learned about this project and the NGO he founded, UPlanet. His drive, hard work, and determination to support social and humanitarian causes inspire everyone lucky enough to work alongside him.

And admiration for my engineer colleagues who shared this experience with me, as well as for the healthcare workers of the mission. Their dedication, working late into the night until their lanterns could no longer pierce the darkness, was truly inspiring. I deeply respect the healthcare workers who spent long hours performing surgeries and providing medical care, asking for nothing in return but the satisfaction of helping others. Seeing their exhaustion at the end of the day filled me with respect and admiration. Standing beside them, sharing this experience, is what makes you grow as a person.
 

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Experiences like this don’t just inspire—you become hooked. They make you a better person, help you appreciate what you have, and allow you to contribute, even in a small way, to a humanitarian cause.

When I think of Bir Mogrein, the village in northern Mauritania where five Sacyr volunteers (Rodrigo, Matías, Iván, Natalia, and I, along with my dear Eli from UPlanet) , I feel a constant pull to return. Despite the two days it takes to get there, cold-water showers, sleeping on the floor, in the end it's very minor

To keep working with incredible people like Belali, Fátima, Abba, M. Salem, the supervisors of the desalination plant, the community garden, the health center, the cooks, the drivers, the women of the village, the children…

I want to give a special mention to Belali, who paid really close attention to all our needs while we were working, no matter what. Thank you for being so attentive! 

Lardi, Belali, Lucía, Rodrigo, Iván, Matías y Natalia.

I think of them, and my heart fills with admiration, love, and respect.

I want to see them again.

ISABEL RUBIO ARROYO | Tungsteno

What if nature could save us? What if we rethought how we spend money, consume energy or design greener cities? These are some of the questions posed by the American architect and artist Maya Lin in What is Missing?, a project that highlights the extinction of species and the environmental crisis. We explore Lin's work and how her dedication to nature seeks to foster a greener planet and halt the extinction of species.

Lin rose to fame when still a student

Lin studied at Yale and gained national recognition in her final year when her design won the national competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. Completed in 1982, the memorial consists of two black granite walls engraved with the names of fallen soldiers—a striking and unconventional tribute that initially sparked controversy, with critics calling it a monument to shame and defeat.

Beyond memorials, Lin's art explores the relationship between humans and the landscape, aiming to deepen the awareness of the spaces we inhabit. "I see myself existing between boundaries, a place where opposites meet; science and art, art and architecture, East and West. My work originates from a simple desire to make people aware of their surroundings," she writes in her book Boundaries.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial catapulted Lin to fame. Credit: Maya Lin Studio

A slowly dying forest

Her most recent projects include Mapping Our Place in the World... (2023) at Georgetown University; Ghost Forest (2021) in Madison Square Park, New York; and the renovation of Neilson Library (2021) at Smith College, Massachusetts. However, if there is one defining feature of her work, it is her unwavering commitment to sustainability.

A striking example of this is "Ghost Forest", an installation in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park that highlighted the devastating impact of climate change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a “ghost forest” is a once verdant woodland now ravaged by the effects of sea level rise and saltwater encroachment. Lin's project represents "a majestic forest of cut trees that will slowly turn grayer and more ghostly as the park's grand living trees go through all seasons". After six months of exposure, the 49 Atlantic white cedars were brought down in 2021 and donated to the Bronx-based educational organisation Rocking the Boat, to be used by students to build boats.

The work Ghost Forest consisted of 49 Atlantic white cedars. Credit: Maya Lin Studio

What if the solution lies in nature?

Ghost Forest is part of What is Missing?, a project driven by experts in art, science, conservation, and communication that aims to raise awareness of biodiversity loss and the impact of climate change on ecosystems. "Nature-based solutions can reduce emissions by 45-90%, feed two billion more people, and protect and restore species throughout the world," says Lin, who leads the project.

The experts behind the project say that reforming agriculture and livestock farming could reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 20-40%, while protecting and restoring forests could cut emissions by 15-30%. Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture would contribute a reduction of 5-15%, and protecting resilient coastlines and wetlands would reduce emissions by 2-5%.

Maya Lin explains her relationship with the natural world. Credit: WSJ Style

For Lin and the other key figures involved in the project, transitioning to renewable energy like solar and wind power, fostering more sustainable cities and industries, and expanding protected land and marine areas are essential. As 19 authors stated in a 2019 article in Science Advances: "Complex life has existed on Earth for about 550 million years, and it is now threatened with the sixth mass extinction. If we fail to change course, it will take millions of years for the Earth to recover an equivalent spectrum of biodiversity. Future generations of people will live in a biologically impoverished world."

Tungsten is a journalistic laboratory that explores the essence of innovation.

At the moment, all sludge generated from Sacyr’s wastewater treatment plants in Chile is transported to a sanitary landfill. 

“Sacyr Water in Chile has turned this challenge into a solution that aims to boost the value of this waste 100% by developing a nutritionally and biologically enriched product through the incorporation of phosphate-solubilising microorganisms, struvite, and other mineral sources that serve as fertiliser for agriculture”, explains Ricardo Herrera, Technical Manager of Sacyr Water in Chile and LodoVerde Project Head. 

Laboratory trials are currently underway at the Curauma Biotech Core (Núcleo Biotecnología Curauma, “NBC”), a branch of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, wherein the sludge passes through a laboratory-scale anaerobic digester and a fluidised bed reactor for the production of  struvite. 

“The project will last roughly two years, beginning with an initial phase in the lab, where actual conditions are simulated, and concluding with the implementation of the results obtained. Partner entities will provide support throughout the process, allowing us to take all the sludge generated at our plants to market as agricultural fertiliser. To achieve this, we rely on collaboration from the supplier Abonos San Francisco”, says Etienne Valdés, R&D Analyst for Sacyr Chile’s Innovation Department.  

The idea is to treat as much as 8,000 tonnes of enriched sludge annually and bring it to market by the end of December 2026, which will increase crop productivity by 20% and promote environmental sustainability through more sustainable waste management practices.