4th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Montecillo de Nieto Water Project

Record of Event pg 1 of 2
4th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Montecillo de Nieto Water Project

Where: El Cortijo & Montecillo de Nieto Primary School
When: 16 December 2009 11.20-12.10, & 12.30 – 2pm
Who: pre planning meeting –Elena & Laura (Rotary), Chela Cedesa.
Assembly, Elena, Laura & Chela, Hector & Leon (2 professors), 25 women, 4 men, 1 youth about 17yrs & many children.

Purpose: Pre planning session at El Cortijo & then Community Assembly at MdN Primary School – continuing planning of the project, including designation of training days & sessions.

Summary of proceedings
It was a cold day so we held the meeting inside the classroom, in traditional classroom format. Chela led the discussions, from the front of the room. As an observation, there seems to be less participation with this format, v the sitting in a circle, which encourages more participation & eye contact.

When we arrived Hector (one of the teachers) greeted us & asked how long our session was going to take since they had another meeting planned after ours. We optimistically said we thought it should only take half an hour or so! Famous last words!

First was creation of the agenda
1. a quick review reiterating the objective of construction of the cisterns, with a Q& A session.
2. Planning of construction of the first cistern, where, when, who
3. Invitation to a traspatio (back yard) design workshop being held in neighbouring Los Torres on the 13th Jan.
4. Brief explanation of SODIS, solar disinfection purification method
For speed, Chela was the co-ordinator & the teachers were taking notes, as well as calling the roll.

Item 1. Review of objectives of cistern/water collection project.
Q&A re water quality, scarcity, pollutants etc.

Item 2. Training days/Demonstration build
The primary teachers proposed the primary school (as an aside interesting that the teachers at the primary school were keen to have the 1st cistern built at the school, despite the fact they have the ecology department model there) & others suggested the Kindergarten.

It was put to a vote & majority decided the kinder should be the first site.
a. lots of the community benefit (as will future generations)
b. they don’t currently have safe drinking water
c. the kinder teacher is very keen.

Chela confirmed the number of families on the list is still 24, (although we have a budget for 26, so this means enough to build the cistern at the kinder, & 1 spare for any late comer).

One family – Lorena asked to be removed from the list as she is moving from MdN, & another family asked to take their place Leonore Ramirez, so the list stays at 24.

More items decided/informed:

• They have already decided on 4 work groups at the previous assembly.
• The training/demonstration build takes place over a 4 day period.
• The attendees voted to start at 9 & finish at 5 each day (after much debate!)
• As many people as possible from each group need to attend as many days as possible - to ensure a full skill set.
• A minimum of 2 people per group should attend each day.
• Chela described each of the days’ processes involved, & that the first 2 days tasks are ideal for women as they involve essentially “hooking together” 2 layers of wire using a metal hook.
• There was some discussion about each cistern taking 4 days, but it was explained that while it takes 4 days to make a cistern, more than 1 cistern can be constructed in 4 days, they could do as many as 7 or 8 cisterns per 4 days per group of 8.
• There are 22 kids currently at the kinder.
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• Secondino Jimenez is an abanile (experienced builder) & has volunteered to help train during the demonstration build, they think they don’t need much help from the Los Torres crew (seemed to be some good hearted neighbourly rivalry).
• Many people have tools they can bring “ganchos” (hooks) & wire cutters.


The days for demonstration build are 18th, 19th, 20th & 21st January.
Each of the people in each group then committed to attending which ever days they could, a list was made. (Teachers & Chela have the list) This took quite some time!!

One woman raised a point
“if there are people that have kids at the kinder that haven’t volunteered to participate in the families cistern project then what?”

Solution was decided – Eva & Erendina will talk to the Maestra & ask her to co-ordinate the participation of those parents that have kids at the kinder but are not involved in the big project.

We asked where the materials should be delivered, ie a secure spot, & it was decided that into the kinder grounds was best.

Eva & Erendina will be responsible. Erendina’s cellphone number is 415 10 60 318.

Item 3. invitation to traspatio workshop.
Chela described briefly what a backyard garden was, & discussed what could be grown in it, answers were yelled out, carrots, onions, chilli, cilantro, beans, trees, fruit trees, cactus, magueys, tunas (a type of cactus fruit), herbs, chickens, etc,

The workshop is about producing your own food, first for the family & then excess to trade or sell. Money is hard to come by, so the more food you can grow yourself the better, also it is more healthy, no pesticides & not junk food.

Anyone interested in learning more about this was invited to be waiting at 11.45 on the 13th Jan when we would be driving by on our way to Los Torres. We will give them a ride.

Item 4, Sodis Solar Disinfection purification method
Laura & Elena briefly described firstly bacteria, & how they can occur & how kill them using the solar purification method. See www.sodis.ch for more info.

Actually, I think most had discounted this, since they figure the water they get from their roofs will be many times better than the water they have been drinking for years from who knows where (truck deliveries).

We concluded the assembly at 2pm. (so much for ½ an hour!)

NB Next assembly date was not decided upon, we will need to decide that at the demonstration build days on the 18th-21st..

(note from me – I noticed there were more men at this meeting, could be they had nothing better to do & it was a cold day, or hopefully, they wanted to know more & are keen to get it going, they certainly seemed to think they would not need much help from the demonstration team. Hmmmm....)