2nd Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Montecillo de Nieto Water Project

Record of Event pg 1 of 2
2nd Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Montecillo de Nieto Water Project

Where: El Cortijo & Montecillo de Nieto Primary School
When: 21 October 2009 11.20-12.10, & 12.30 – 2.45
Who: pre planning meeting – Bob, Elena & Laura (Rotary), Chela & Holly Cedesa.
Assembly, Bob, Elena, Laura & Chela, Hector & Leon (2 professors), + 32 Adults (including 1 man, Luis from Taboada), & 6 kids, with about a million kids playing outside in the school grounds.

Purpose: Pre planning session at El Cortijo & then Community Assembly at MdN Primary School – first public notification of possible project & call for interest in involvement in this project.

We arrived to the school & were welcomed by a bunch of happy & curious school kids, we entered the class room & the Teachers had already written up an agenda for the day, including the first item, which was a visit by a Govt. Official inviting parents to become involved in a program on parenting & health. The mums sat there pretty passively, looked at the handout books & were advised to attend the kinder if they were interested.

Next it was our turn, more people came in, a total of about 32, + the 2 professors who were very helpful, & co-operative, preparing printouts for people to sign their attendance & chalk for blackboards etc.

One of the teachers speaks English well, & was able to help with translation on a few points.

1stly Chela introduced us all, & spoke a little about Rotary, & Cedesa & what we were there for.
• The theme of the meeting was noted as water, & they were asked for their input on what they knew about water in the area. Some of the responses follow
• We have contaminated fluoride
• Contaminated by rubbish & drains
• & high fluoride
Chela asked what they knew about fluoride contamination, they were aware that it damages teeth, & she added that it also damages bones & major organs.

Chela asked them if they thought this was a problem or not, there was a resounding yes...

Chela talked about the watershed in general & the fact that the aquifer is reducing at a rapid rate & asked me to explain more, I talked about the slow recharge rate, that the water moves 1 mtr per year, so for example the rain we receive today will not enter the aquifer for 60 years if the water table is 60 metres deep in this area, in many areas the wells are deeper than 180 metres!

There was talk of pipes being layed to pipe the water from the Sapasma drilled well in Los Torres to MdN, but there has been no further action by govt on this. There has also been a rumour they might drill another well in MdN, but apparently this would go against current policy, re proximity of wells in regions.

Next we talked about a solution.
Only 2 people were aware of the Los Torres cisterns, but all were aware of the govt. Project to catch water at the school The tank is made of polypropelene (?) & is essentially supported in a structure with a loose fitting lid. There are mosquitos in the water. They have pumps & filters.

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The most crucial point is that although there is a capacity of 30,000 litres it is estimated to be only 1/3rd full at the end of the rainy season. This is because only a small part of the available roof was piped to the cistern, it seems no followup has been done to check the efficiency of
the project, or they would have added the additional piping required to fill the tank. Pipes are cheap!

It was discussed that the community are not able to replicate this model (incidentally the same model as the project Rotary did at San Miguel Viejo, prior to our new development approach & revised model).

The maestro also mentioned that this project was very expensive, 1million pesos for just 9 schools.

Chela invited us to describe what Rotary was offering, & also asked why we were doing this.

Elena kindly translated for me, & in many cases guessed what I was going to say next & said it for me!!
We explained what Rotary was, & that there are members globally that care about the rest of the world & want to assist in making the world a better place.

We described the process of the project completed in Los Torres, including census, working in groups & positive outcomes. We handed around the instruction booklet which describes the process.

We also pointed out that there were many more families involved at the beginning, then some dropped out, & then some came back on board & that this was normal in the process.

We asked if they would like to be involved & all agreed.

We explained the next step was to form a mini committee.
5 people volunteered
Margarita (MdN)
Carmen (MdN)
Luis Cisneros (Taboada)
Irene Jimenez (MdN)
Emilia Ramirez (MdN)

These people will go house to house & explain the project, & ask who wants to be involved. They will record
Families, no. of people, roof material, size of roof
& they will invite them to attend the next meeting.

The committee will report back to the next meeting. (they agreed to do the census by Monday)

Next Meeting Wednesday 18th November 12.30 at the MdN School

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