COCIRA Community Meeting
Presa de Allende
September 25, 2014
Meeting was called to order at 10:50 am
Agenda was set for the day
The following communities were in attendance:
Community
Name
|
# adults in
attendance
|
# children
attending
|
Correlejo
|
7
|
6
|
Tierra Blanca
|
1
|
|
Juan Gonzalez
|
10
|
|
La Banda
|
6
|
3
|
Alonso Yanez
|
4
|
|
Lindero
|
3
|
|
Montecillo de Nieto
|
2
|
1
|
San Lorenzo
|
3
|
1
|
Cienega Juan Ruiz
|
1
|
|
La Palmita II
|
2
|
|
Vivienda de Abajo
|
11
|
3
|
Nuevo Rancho Villa de
Guadalupe
|
1
|
|
Ex Hacienda de Pena Blanca
|
3
|
1
|
Presa Allenda
|
25
|
A bunch
|
Non-COCIRA Vistors
|
||
San Marco Begona
|
1
|
|
Puente de Carmen
|
1
|
Total Attendance: 81 adults and about 25
children.
At the previous COCIRA meeting held in San
Lorenzo about one month ago, it was decided that a “commission” would be set up
to visit communities where there had been previous water harvesting, dry toilet
and other projects. The commission is to consist of representatives to COCIRA,
CEDESA and Rotary San Miguel Midday. The purpose of the commission is to see
how these projects have held up over time.
The Rotary water harvesting program began
in late 2008 so Rotary is pleased to have a chance to go back and learn how the
beneficiaries have fared over time. Specifically Rotary is interested in seeing
whether the cisterns are being maintained as recommended, whether the families
are taking any additional sanitation precautions with the harvested water and
whether there are any changes in our design that could improve the cistern.
Rotary is also interested in seeing how many persons in various communities have
the Eco-Cina stoves and to see how the dry toilet projects (mostly done by the
municipality) are progressing. This is also an opportunity for us to continue
to update our community assessments to see what other needs the people in the
communities have identified as necessary for their continued community development.
The commission is to consist of two teams who
will visit the communities on the dates listed below:
Team One: Leonilla, Chela, Mayra and David
|
|
La Tinaja
|
October 3
|
Villa Guadalupe and San Lorenzo
|
October 17
|
Cinco Senores
|
October 24
|
Correlejo
|
October 31
|
Vivienda de Ariba
|
November 7
|
Cienega Juan Ruiz
|
November 14
|
La Palmita II
|
November 21
|
Team Two: Araceli, Saul, Lee, and Isabel
|
|
Vivienda de Abajo
|
September 30
|
Capadrillo
|
October 7
|
Guerro
|
October 7
|
Presita Santa Rosa
|
October 14
|
Cruz del Palmar
|
October 28
|
Los Torres
|
November 4
|
Las Magueyes
|
October 21
|
Tierra Blanca Abajo
|
November 11
|
Montecillo de Nieto
|
October 21
|
Next the program for new Water Harvesting
Projects was discussed. This is the revised list of communities and families
that are on the waiting list:
La Palmita Ii – 14 families
Montecillo de Nieto – 8 families
La Banda – 10 families
Rancho Nuevo Villa de Guadalupe – 6
families
Juan Gonzalez – 18 families (16 cisterns +
2 rotoplasts)
Vivienda de Abajo - 12 families
Presa Allende – 36 families
Alonso Yanez – 23 families
Lindero – 23 families
Alejandro Guerra reported the results of the testing of wells in
those communities undertaken last week. The testing was graciously done at no
cost by CATIS. Juan Gonzalez was not tested because CATIS did extensive testing
there in November of 2013 and the results were all above 2.0 mg/liter which
automatically qualifies them as in need of a project of this nature. Tests are
in mg/liter of water.
Presa Allende 1.27; Artisano de Banda
(serving La Banda) 1.84; Vivienda de Abajo 1.87; Alonso Yanez (also serving
Lindero) 4.95; Montecillo de Nieto 1.40; Don Francisco (serving Palmita II)
0.53.
The Don Francisco well has tested to be low in fluoride over several
years and it was noted that they are very fortunate to have safe drinking water
in their community that is not degrading as precipitously as has been noted in
other communities in this area. As such,
it was determined that they would not qualify for a cistern project at this
time.
Following Alejandro’s report, priorities and “start dates” for the
projects were determined. Priority is based upon the degree of contamination
and the previous participation by the community in COCIRA. The following plan
has been set to convene the first planning meetings for these projects:
Juan Gonzalez – October 7, 4 pm
La Banda and Montecillo de Nieto – October
28, 4 pm
Vivienda de Abajo – November 18 – 4 pm
Some notes about the other communities:
Villa de Guadalupe had a well dug there by SAPASMA in December 2013 and
SAPASMA has installed the delivery pipes within the last 30 days. It is
expected that they will have water available from this well in the near future.
At this time, the new well is not connected (lacking electricity and a pump).
We have not been able to test the water in this well although SAPASMA has
indicated that the quality is “good”. Rotary will have the water tested as soon
as the new well is connected and if it is deemed unsafe, we will provide
resources to do cisterns there. We would prefer to do this at the same time as
Juan Gonzalez but they do not want to wait any longer. IF Villa’s water is
unsatisfactory, the community of Juan Gonzalez will provide the training and
assistance to help these six families build cisterns. Otherwise there are not
enough families to amortize the training and supervision costs over a small
number of cisterns.
The level of fluoride measured in the Alonso Yanez well is the
highest that we have ever encountered in the San Miguel area. (Note that as the
mg/liter measurement increases that the potential health risks increase
exponentially and not lineally.) There are currently 23 families in Alonso
Yanez and 23 families in Lindero that want to participate in the cistern
project. No one in either community knew before today that their fluoride levels
were so elevated. This project will not begin until late 2014 because these
communities are late comers to COCIRA . It was decided that we will hold to
“educational assemblies” in October to inform the people more about the dangers
of fluoride and arsenic in their community. We will also provide information
about water quality and sanitation in general at these meetings. Perhaps other
families will want to join in the project when they have scientific
knowledge of the water situation in their community. The meeting in Alonso
Yanez will be October 3rd at 10 am and the meeting in Lindero will be October
14th at 10 am. Start dates for these two projects will be determined
later in the year.
Presa Allende. At 1.27, Presa Allende is on the cusp of having a
problem, but it may not be critical at this time. We want to study the
situation more over the next several months before making a determination of
whether to include Presa Allende in the water harvesting program for 2014/15.
Additional testing will be done by CATIS over the next several months. Dr.
Ortega from UNAM will be consulted to discuss the rate of degradation of the
water to be expected in the near future. We will try to find results of testing
done at this well over the last 10 years so we can plot the decline if any.
Since the Mexican standard and WHO standard of 1.5 mg/liter were set some 15
years ago, we want to review the more recent scientific studies to see when the
health problems begin to manifest in relation to fluoride contamination.
There has been much discussion within WHO in the last several years about
whether to lower the NORM. This decision as to whether a cistern project is to
be done at Presa Allende will be postponed until we have all the information
necessary to make an informed and
responsible decision.
The next item on the agenda of the day was to see the various
products being produced in various communities in the San Miguel area which was
combined with a communal lunch brought by the COCIRA participants. Eric and
Deyenira Ramirez from the Eco-Cina stove factory provided a demonstration of
the Eco-Cina Stove (a prior Rotary project) which reduces smoke by 60%, uses
substantially less firewood and reduces the illnesses associated with cooking
on open fires. These stoves all but eliminate the dangers of children falling
into open fires. We were all pleased to receive
fresh quesadillas from Deyenira and the many other delights brought by the
participants.
Submitted by:
Lee Carter
Rotary San Miguel Midday
September 25, 2014
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