7th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba Water Project

Record of Event pg 1 of 3
7th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba Water Project


Where: Vivienda de Arriba (40 mins from SMA)
When: Wed 2nd June 2010 12.10pm
Who: Holly, Chela (Cedesa) Laura (Rotary), 25 adults incl 5 men + Jesus the sand guy from San Isidro Capadero, & 5 people from La Tinaja (community on the Rd to Gto) & 2 people from La Aurora (past Guerrero).

Purpose: Review of progress of construction of individual family cisterns

We arrived to be greeted by people from 3 additional communities other than VdA.

We decided to have the discussion with each of the communities first before we got onto the business for VdA.

La Tinaja
There were 5 people here to represent this community. This community is further out on the GTO road, near Villa Guadalupe & Pena Blanca.

• One of the women has a niece in VdA who told her about the assembly today.
• Approx 49 families in La Tinaja.
• They have a big well, & have not tested the water, but drink it anyway.
• They had no obvious problems with their teeth.
• They don’t believe they need help with water (although they would like us to test their water for confirmation) they are here to see if we can help them with dry toilets, as there is a project going on in Villa Guadalupe providing dry toilets (this is a project we’re aware of, it is costing approx. US$60k to provide 30 dry toilets, funded by Save the Laja, & done by Atajualpa).
• Their well is approx. 300 mtrs deep.
• They share the well with Ejido de Pena Blana (where the well is located).
• They would like us to test their water

We advised them we do not currently do dry toilets, they are almost twice the cost of cisterns to put in, & often are just used for sheds, as people ultimately prefer to toilet in the wild… Our priority is to provide safe drinking water for everyone who needs it first…

We invited them to the next assembly at VdA on 7th July at 12pm, & may have some information for them then on their next course of action.

La Aurora
2 women came from La Aurora to present their request for assistance with water in their community.
La Aurora is the other side of Guerrero 20 mins walk from Guerreo, (which is the other side of Capaderillo), approx. ½ hr walk from Capaderillo, they would have attended Capaderillo’s assembly but did not know the date of it.
La Aurora is a small community, only approx. 10 families.
They have the same situation as Guerrero, ie wells dry in summer, they have to buy water from the pipas (delivery trucks).
Only have wells in the lower area.
Their teeth are all damaged, (Guerrero has highest Fluoride levels in SMA)

La Aurora were invited to attend the assembly in Capaderillo on 9.6.10 at 3pm to continue planning.


Record of Event pg 2 of 3

The visitors left & we began the VdA assembly at 12.45.

VdA
Chela asked the meeting in general what they knew of these other communities…
One woman was aunty, not sure why they came since they didn’t want help with water, but with dry toilets.

There was a discussion about the # of children here, seems fewer than in other communities, they joked that it was because all the men were up north, & then joked that they only come back to make babies…

Chela began a discussion about toilets. She asked who had them, the majority did not. Some have latrines, they say they are smelly, & this is because the urine is not separated, & it takes longer to dry.

They need to separate the urine, & add lime & dirt, & make sure the lid is always shut, to reduce flies.

The majority of the community go out in the countryside “behind the Nopal(cactus)”

They joked about the animals following them when they know they are going to go to the toilet, & how people wish them luck when they see the animals following them.

Chela then described the model of dry toilet they propose, with 2 chambers, 1 in use, while the other is drying. The urine is separated & is very good to use in a dilution of 1:10 to fertilize plants, everyone laughed at the thought of this, as no-one knew it was possible.

The dry toilet needs to be well maintained to work well.

Casa apparently came to VdA & did a dry toilets project of 5 toilets, it was a lottery, 2 of the people with dry toilets from that project were at today’s meeting, when Chela asked them how the toilets were going, they said, they weren’t since they weren’t using them, they preferred to go in the “wild”…

One family described digging an 18mtr pit & lining it with concrete, they didn’t hit water.
Chela said digging a hole can contaminate the water table, so better to do dry toilets (above ground).

Chela said that since they have 2 people there with dry toilets not using them they most likely don’t want them, & said maybe we should do a project in La Tinaja & they could see how they function (I think she was using a bit of reverse psychology!)

Anamaria agreed to write a list of people who would truly like dry toilets & we will re-visit this at a later stage.

Review of Project
Group 1 & 2, have completed the first 4 in each (ie half).
They have still to install the piping.
They don’t remember how & need help with this.
We suggested they invite Juan to come & demonstrate at one house how to do this.
It took them 3 wks & 2 days.
They say their cisterns are the most beautiful, better than Cruz del Palmar, who have some wonky ones.
They are still waiting for the cement for the 2nd lot…

Record of Event pg 3 of 3

Laura explained, the issue is with the suppliers’ supplier, the quantities were so large the suppliers have had problems keeping up & VdA finished sooner than they estimated.
Cement should be here soon.

Apart from the materials any other probs?

There is interest in a 2nd phase for this community.
1. Consuelo (3 people in family)
2. Nicolasa (6 in family)
3. Francisca (12 in family)
4. Jose Guadalupe (4 in family)
5. Gerardo (anamaria’s brother in law)(just 2 – newly married)
6. Rogelio (3 – young family)
7. Gloria (6 people)
8. Kinder (6 kids)
+ Luisa (2 elderly – rotoplas)

Marcelina was mentioned as she spends some time here, but also some time in Cruz (they have land in both places that they work), I said I thought it unfair to give her a cistern in both places when there are families without even 1)

Laura also pointed out that with such a small group a pilot demo day is more difficult , every person would have to attend everyday & it would be very slow with such small numbers, they had double this number at the first pilot, phase I people would have to help out.

The list was passed around (roll called) we had forgotten to do this at the beginning.
The phase II people were added to the roll.

San Isidro Capadero (Jesus – the sand guy)
The guy who delivered the sand to all the project recipients attended today’s meeting, this is his 2nd meeting, he took time off work to attend today’s meeting.

• There are approx. 30 families.
• He has a list of 10 interested at this time, he didn’t want to disrupt today’s meeting by bringing them.
• They have no running water, small personal wells, & they get water from the river, but there is no water in the dry season.
• Jesus understands the situation, it is a process that takes time, firstly to gather the interest, then the information, & then to write & make the application for funding (Rotary, Ecology or Sapasma)…
• He agreed to gather the info. & we will make a time to visit his community at a later date.


Meeting finished at 2pm.
Next meeting will be at Vivienda de Arriba on 7th July at 12 Midday.

We then went for lunch at one of the houses, during which we saw they had decorated their cistern with 3 elephants on the top, apparently they have decorated each one individually! I will take photos next time! (Very cute!!)