: Water For The Americas

General questions

By Aqua Clara International Posted on Tue 25 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

Hi and welcome to the discussion!
I just had a look at your website and am interested to learn more about your project. I appreciate that you have details on each project online but I would like to find out more about the decision making process. How is a community selected? Who do you work with within a community setting to determine which is the correct water system for their needs? Do you source the materials for the project in the USA or in country? What is your follow up procedure and do you have any statistics that show how the systems are cared for in the longer term?
Thanks,
Claire

General questions

By Water For The Americas Posted on Thu 27 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

Here are the answers to your questions in order.

How is the community selected?
The vast majority of our projects have been in partnership with Rotary and funded by the Rotary Foundation with Matching Grants. To obtain a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant, there must be a partnership between a host country Rotary club, like Guatemala, and another Rotary club, like a U. S. Rotary club. For our projects, the host country Rotary club picked the project. For our last four projects, the Rotary Club of Chiquimula, Guatemala picked the projects, managed the money according to Rotary guidelines, and helped with the final report. The club members are actively involved during the project, purchasing materials, helping with project tasks, taking pictures and communicating with all of the partners.
For our two projects in El Salvador, the projects have been in partnership with the Colorado State University, CSU, Engineers Without Borders, EWB, Chapter and the chapter picked the projects that were originally submitted by a Peace Corps Volunteer working in the two adjacent villages. One of our organizations was made a CSU Adjunct Professor so he could officially travel with the students and help with the technical aspects. Funding for these projects was also mostly from Rotary.

Who do you work with in the communities?
In all of the small rural communities that we have worked in there has been some sort of organization like a water board or community development council. In some Central American communities these organizations are called COCODE’s (Los consejos comunitarios de desarrollo). Before we will accept a project with a community, they must agree to do two things. They must supply all non-technical and non-skilled labor for the project. They must also have all residents pay for both the cost of running the system and to build a maintenance fund.

Do you source the materials locally?
Yes, all materials are purchased locally, usually from or through a local ferreteria.

What is the follow-up?
We are very interested and concerned with sustainability and are trying to improve this with each project.
For our completed projects in El Salvador, we rely on two avenues for follow-up. The first is the EWB Chapter and the second is through one of our BOD members who communicates frequently with the water board members in the two communities and has visited the adjacent communities several times since the projects were completed.
For our projects in Guatemala, two completed, one in the final stages and one just started, we have a planned follow-up and sustainability plan. The funding for one of the projects built a water testing facility (around $15,000 US worth of equipment) in the local branch of San Carlos University, called CUNORI (El Centro Universitario de Oriente). In the first three projects a Peace Corps Volunteer did a health survey or some residents at the start of the projects. We are just now starting to plan to resurvey the original families as we start to test their water to make sure that the treatment system is working correctly. This will be done by CUNORI students.
In the project just starting, with a new Rotary Global Grant, the original assessment was done by CUNORI students and staff and Chiquimula Rotarians using the World Bank Assessment Model. The project proposal listed the assessments and measurements that will be done in 3, 5 & 7 years. In all of the four Guatemala communities where we have worked, we have trained the local leadership group using the World Bank COCODE Training Document. This training will aid in follow-up and sustainability.
Probably the best assurance of long term sustainability is the commitment by the local Rotary club and our team to continue to carry out water and other humanitarian projects in that area as long as we can find funding. There are enough needs in the small rural communities to last many years. Continued presence and planned follow-up are the best way to insure sustainability.

Do you have any statistics.
No, not yet.

I hope these answers are not too brief.
Alan

Follow up and empowerment

By Rotary District 5450 Posted on Fri 28 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

Congratulations on the good work you've been able to accomplish in Central America. Your answers to Claire and Monica were very informative. I aso have done numerous Rotary water projects in Africa.

I wondered if the problems I encounter in Africa are ones you have already resolved in Central America. For example, Rotary Clubs accepting projects a considerable distance from their club tended to place follow-ups on the back burner if the projects were in remote areas. New projects and business priorities demanded their attention. They also placed a lower priority on projects that were generated by 'visitors' rather than their own club members.

Where I work in Africa, communities are always wiling to form water committees and help with the project development. After time, however, community members sometimes find more pressing needs than paying their monthly fees for operation and maintenance of the system. When the project breaks down, the repair funds are no longer available. how would you handle that situation if it occurs on projects you have constructed?

Follow up and empowerment

By Water For The Americas Posted on Fri 28 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

Don,

I have attended your District 5450 Water Task Force meetings with Joe Mazzola of the Broomfield Rotary Club. Broomfield Rotary has supported our water projects for 6 years. A member of our BOD is the technical advisor for the two Dominican Republic water projects that Broomfield Rotary is now sponsoring. Joe leaves to visit the site next Tuesday.

Besides my role with Water for the Americas, I am the current President of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins.

I cannot answer your question about what to do if communities do not continue to support their systems because each situation is different. We have had similar experiences where we did just one project in an area. What I can say is that for us the important part is to have strong supporters locally. We are lucky to have picked an outstanding Rotary Club in Guatemala to work with and they have been very careful in picking communities that will be successful. It also helps to make a commitment to continue to work in both the community and area in the future versus do one project and then go elsewhere. If you look at the PowerPoint presentation about El Carrizal, we show the signed agreement of the community members to both do the physical work for the project but also to pay the maintenance fees. That written commitment helps keep community members committed. Also you will see in the Agua Zarca PowerPoint that the Mayor of San Jacinto and the Governor of the Department of Chiquimula were at the celebration of the completion of the project. That support is also important. Even that said, people get burned out, supporting government officers change, and organizations fail. I do not have a magic pill for that situation.

We picked Central America to work in because it would be fairly easy to visit routinely. Members of Water for the America visit the area a couple of times a year and members of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins have visited the area each of the last four years. The more you can visit the area you are working in the more you show your commitment.

Alan

Please provide some more detail of your work in Guatemala

By Agua Para La Salud (APLS) Posted on Fri 28 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

I have not encountered you since you work primarily in coastal plain communities and we work in the central highlands.

Could you please provide some more details for the work in these projects:
1. San Jacinto water project in Agua Zarca;
2. the school project in Sabana Grande;
3. the project not yet funded.

I would like to learn about your designs and construction techniques and their practicality for rural Guatemala.

The water testing lab on the surface seems like a good idea except for the fact that only about 10% of the municipalities ( 350) in Guatemala (and probably less in rural villages) have actually started using chlorine to purify water while the Governemnt issued orders to all to do so about five years ago.

So the question is what do they do with the water test information and has the installation of the lab resulted in any municipalities or villages installing water treatment facilities. This is the real test of the labs utility. Other question are who funds the salaries of the lab;what is the cost to a community for the water test; how many tests are done each month; who funds the installation of water purification systems if a community wishes to act on the lab results?

Regards,
Lynn

Re: Please provide some more detail of your work in Guatemala

By Peer Water Exchange Posted on Fri 28 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

Lynn,

Thank you for your insight and request. This is what makes the peer review process so great - all the expertise in people working in the field can be tapped.

Alan and Gary,

After you become members, i would be happy to work with you on putting all your projects on PWX so that your portfolio can be visible and your experience better shared with the water community.

Regards,
Rajesh

Please provide some more detail of your work in Guatemala

By Water For The Americas Posted on Fri 28 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

Lynn,

I have uploaded to this site two PowerPoint presentations of completed water projects near Chiquimula. One is El Carrizal and the other is Agua Zarca Phase I. This should answer your questions about what we did and the approach that we took.

The school in Sabana Grande is in the recently approved Rotary Global Grant and is just starting. I will copy the information from the Water for the Americas project information form.

Project Title: Sabana Grande school potable water project

Project Background:
The Escuela Nacional Regional – Raúl Mejía González School is located in the Aldea of Sabana Grande, department of Chiquimula, Guatemala. The primary school has more than 400 students and is the site of a recent Rotary Computer Lab Project (69068). While the educational resources of the school are improving, the school still lacks a source of sufficient potable water for the children. The site was visited in April 2009 by members of the Cheyenne and Chiquimula de la Sierra Rotary clubs and Water for the Americas member Keith Thompson. There is no surface water on the school property, but there are springs and a stream nearby which suggest the presence of readily accessible ground water.

Project Description:
The goal of this project is to provide the children of the Sabana Grande School with a readily available source of safe drinking water. The main elements of the project will be a shallow well, a simple disinfection system and a storage tank.
The scope of the project shall include:
• Installing an elevated 1100-liter water storage tank on an existing school structure
• Digging and encasing a hand-dug well 15-20 meters deep
• Installing a submersible pump and 1” PVC transmission pipe and control wiring from the well head for 250 meters to the elevated storage tank located at the school.
• Installing a low-maintenance chlorine disinfection system
• Connecting the new water supply to the school’s existing water system, which is currently supplied by water brought to the site by tanker truck.

Co-Sponsor(s):
Rotary Club of Fort Collins
Rotary Club of Chiquimula de la Sierra
Rotary Club of Cheyenne
Rotary Donor Advised Fund, DAF
Water for the Americas

I cannot answer all of your questions about the water testing lab because it was just installed, part of the latest Matching Grant that is not yet completed. The university has told us that they would not charge us for testing water samples from our projects for the first couple of years. We have not gotten any farther than that.

Our biggest unfunded project is the rejuvenation of the Taco River Watershed that provides Chiquimula with the majority of it water. This is at least a $500,000 project. In late 2008 and early 2009 we prepared a Rotary 3-H Grant proposal with the Rotary Club of Fort Collins for $330,000 to work on the watershed. The proposal was accepted, only to have 3-H Grants suspended for the rest of 2009. Now the Rotary Club of Fort Collins is in the Rotary Future Vision "Pilot" program and cannot apply for 3-H Grants. The Chiquimula branch of San Carlos U., CUNORI, has done an extensive study of the watershed and has outlined 18 separate projects for its rejuvenation. This was the basis of the 3-H Grant. This project is listed at www.matchinggrants.org and at the WASRAG (now Startwithwater) web site. I could easily send copies of the 3-H Proposal. The current Rotary Global Grant # 25015, just started, is an attempt to do parts of this watershed project.

Alan

Education and acceptabilty

By Pure Water for the World Posted on Fri 28 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

Hello to all,

A key element in developing a sustainable water project is education and having the community accept the project. Can you please share with us the method by which you gain community acceptance and what educational tools you use to encourage people to change habits - such as hand washing and clean water storeage.

As a Rotarian who have been involved with Rotary Water project primarily in Honduras, I have learned that the level of investment by local Rotarians wanes. How do you keep local Rotarians, who usually have other professions, engaged with the project?

Thank you.

Education and acceptabilty

By Water For The Americas Posted on Fri 28 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

Carolyn,

Water for the Americas is a small non-profit that does not have any paid personnel and no members in Guatemala. We rely on the local Rotary Clubs to gain community acceptance. As I stated in an previous reply, we use the World Bank COCODE Training Program to educate the community leaders. We rely on a local non-profit, PROTEC, to do that training and to provide some sanitation training along with the community management training. That training is part of our grants. I do not think that one time training changes too many habits, I think the training needs to be done many times before it is accepted. We hope to do that by non-water related projects that improve the lives of the community members.
Besides the five water projects completed or started in Guatemala, our Rotary Club in partnership with many other clubs have completed over 20 projects, most others in education and health.
We currently have a Global Grant for $89,000 to help with the Dengue Fever outbreak in this area of Guatemala. Since there is no cure or immunization for Dengue yet, the biggest effort is education and habit changing. We know from five previous Dengue projects in this area of Guatemala that these habits are hard to change and this project will be repeating education that was done previously in some areas.

As far as Rotary participation is concerned, we have not seen any lack of interest in the clubs we work with. That could be because they are all fairly new clubs. We work with the Gualan Rotary which started in 2001. The Gualan club then got the Chiquimula Rotary club started in 2004 and the Los Amates club started in 2009. Both the Gualan and Chiquimula Rotary Clubs generally have their limit of five projects going at the same time and both clubs have only about 20 members. From the pictures that they send us about the project during implementation, it is apparent that they are involved throughout the project. They are amazing.
We did have problems with the water projects we did in El Salvador with Rotary participation. We think that is because EWB picked the projects and not the Rotary Clubs and we had to ask for them to participate so we could get a Matching Grant. That is why we want the Rotary Clubs to pick the projects.

Alan

Education and acceptabilty

By Bank-On-Rain Posted on Mon 31 Jan 2011, about 13 years ago

Alan and Carolyn,

Interesting comment abount EWB. As a disappointed former member of EWB, I think they have some structual problems and are lacking in post-project follow-up. Education and local acceptance/ownership of the projects are vital to their success, but often overlooked.

Mike

Education and acceptabilty

By Water For The Americas Posted on Mon 07 Feb 2011, about 13 years ago

Mike,

I am also disappointed in the follow-up process of EWB. My experience is that the leadership of the EWB projects at the University level is mainly with seniors and that when they graduate, there are fewer chapter members who are willing to carry on with the project. Some of the projects are done for Senior Engineering Projects and once the project is done and a report is given there is little incentive to continue. We have been lucky that the leader of two of our projects has stayed in contact with the two community leaders and has visited them after graduation.

What I really like about the EWB projects is the reaction to almost all chapter members who visit the communities, stay in community members homes and develop a good working relationship, at least short term, with community members. It usually changes the students lives for the better, to the point that they may get involved with humanitarian efforts after graduation. More than one of the students that we worked with have become Peace Corps Volunteers, mainly because of their experience with an EWB project.

We have been trying, without much success, to get the local EWB student chapter involved with our Guatemala Water projects where we can do the follow-up processes. We have been unsuccessful in this. I think that the problem is that the National EWB organization has an excess of projects and will not allow chapters to start projects on their own. I hope that changes.

We are going to continue to try to work with EWB and help with the sustainability aspect.