It’s a wrap

Hi Agua del Pueblo Friends and founders,

I hope this finds you enjoying your summer and that you are none the worse for spells of intense heat and/or haze from wildfires (what a summer it’s been!). 

We just finished our annual visit to Agua del Pueblo (AdP) addressing water supply and sanitation in Guatemala.  We invited Cornell students from the fraternity that spawned AdP - The Cornell chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE).  The students and AdP collected a considerable amount of data.  Bottom line we have one doable project - Tierra Santa - and one potentially mother of all projects - combining four or more towns.  The students wrote some blog posts that may be of interest on <www.peopleswater.org>.  Scroll down to ‘The PC Blog’. We visited the three communities that requested help to fix and improve their water systems as follows. 

1.  Tierra Santa (design population 1,800) needs to improve their spring capture facility.  Some 200 families receive some water periodically.  My guesstimate is the project could cost about $50,000.  In 2005, the Hurricane Stan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Stan) and in 2010 the Hurricane Agatha (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Tropical_Storm_Agatha_in_Guatemala) caused landslides that partially covered the catchment facility.  A significant portion of the spring leaks from the catchment facility.  The photo was a community member measuring the current outflow of the spring.  Most of the residents were relocated to Tierra Santa from Tzalamabaj, AdP’s first project.  

This is a photo of the damage caused by the hurricanes to the water system at San Martin.

2. San Martin (design population 1,800) needs to repair significant portions of their conduction line.  San Martin is a “suburb” of Panimaquip.  The town grew when folks arrived after we inaugurated AdP’s second water system

M in 1973.  Stan and Agatha also caused significant damage to the San Martin project.  The largest problem is a new canyon carved by Stan that the conduction line must pass (see photo).   The repairs include significant re-engineering and construction of suspension pipe passes. The project will be more costly than Tierra Santa, my guesstimate is more than $100,000.

This is a photo of the damaged pipeline in San Martin.

3.  Agua del Pueblo helped Panimaquip (design population 3,750) build their first water project in 1973.  More than 1,300 of the 3,759 migrated to the town after the project was complete.  These 1,300 residents do not have water connection in their homes.   Panimaquip was AdP’s second project.  The key to WASH projects is sustainability, or in other words, operation and maintenance.  The globe is littered with abandoned projects built by well-intentioned donors that did not consider the long term sustainably after the design life expired.  We returned to the Panimaquip project in 1999.  The authors sent me a copy of their report in Spanish.  I’d be happy to send it along.  The results found that the original components were operating, but the community had made major improvements.  The major pipeline of the original project for Panimaquip now provides water to San Martin. Panimaquip has also asked us for help.  However, any even short-term design would be an even larger project than San Martin. My guesstimate is $150,000. 

     The only sustainable solution for Panimaquip is to combine forces with San Martin and potentially two additional towns - section 95 of the Parcelas of Pampojila and Xejuyub.  We’d love to tackle this “mother of all WASH projects, but the price tag will probably exceed $400,000. This is a photo of a water committee member from Panimaquip taking flow measurements 

This is a photo of Panimaquip’s leaky spring catchment.  Patrick Jennings and Cameron Nejat are in the foreground.

This is a picture of the main pipeline into Panimaquip.  Agua del Pueblo helped Panimaquip build this project in 1973 - 50 years old and still going strong.

     The most immediate need is a Rotary required Community Assessment, preliminary engineering design and budget.  We could get this work underway tomorrow if we had the funds.  Rotary has been a generous donor for our recent projects.  

     Operation and maintenance is key to sustainability.  The Tierra Santa project could rely on gravity.  A typical tariff for a gravity project (like Tierra Santa) is $1 per family per month.  Tariffs for a pumping project (like Pampojila and San Martin are $4 to $5 per month. 

     We’ll have more data on both projects soon.  I wanted to write to you at this early stage to keep you up to date.  Remember a $100 donation will provide sustainable water and sanitation to one Guatemalan for the rest of their life! Just click on the donate button at <www.peopleswater.org>. Please stay tuned.

Bruce