the state-run Lempa River Hydroelectric Commission (CEL) that manages four dams.

In the rainy season the water releases by one of the dams, known as the 15 de Septiembre dam, which are sometimes carried out without providing ample warning to downstream farming communities, cause loss of crops and even lives, she said.

"Affected communities are having to leave because of this flooding," Vigil told IPS. "So we are now actively organising against the hydroelectric companies."

Vigil is also leading the fight by local communities against the sugar cane industry's use of toxic herbicides and fertilisers that are causing illness, including kidney failure.

"There is more and more illness in this area," she said, complaining about "aerial spraying of these chemicals that then get into our food and water, and even wash downinto the mangroves on the coast." Dolores Esperanza Maravilla, who works with La Coordinadora, is organising local resistance against CEL, which she blames for the flooding of crops and local communities.

Standing at the edge of a levy breached by flooding last summer, Maravilla told IPS, "The hydroelectric companies are responsible for this, and there are other breaches in the levy like this one."

She was one of the first on the scene when the levy broke, and used photos of the disaster she took with her cell phone to pressure the Ministry of Agriculture to come and take measurements and begin preparing an adequate response effort.

Besides their involvement in grassroots community organising efforts, many women in El Salvador have taken it upon themselves to further their education in a