Year End Update – December 28, 2015

The last part of 2015 has been busy with many activities. 

Since we last posted we have completed the 19 cisterns in Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca and 2 in San Lorenzo. Alejandro and I traveled there many times during the construction phase taking with us the new CEDESA technician; Abel. 

Abel is doing a great job & by going with him we were able to demonstrate many of the details in cistern construction. In the course of this project, we made some good modifications to how we install the hatch. 

Alejandro & I went to the final celebration which was a wonderful event with folkloric dances &, as always, a lot of good food.

As well, we have spent a lot of time in Vivienda in the last 2 months working on 5 cisterns needing repair. This has been a good experience & was needed to get us started on the new Repair & Maintenance booklet that we will produce & hand out to new families in 2016. 

Robert Ash of MAPEI went with us one day & his expertise in cement construction & waterproofing was invaluable. We took Abel with us to learn more about this part of the cistern projects.

We have been doing a lot of cistern inspections to build a database of the cisterns constructed … 751 now! … & to learn more about how cisterns hold up over time. The answer to that question is; very well. 

Did you know that a leaking faucet dripping one drop every second will result in the loss of 50,000 liters of water a year? That is equivalent to more than four full cisterns of precious rainwater! 

Overall, our observation is that families take very good care of their cisterns. They should because they worked very hard to build them.

Since August I have been to 2 COCIRA meetings incl. a “grand encuentro” where we had representatives come down from UCCANG to join us. I have been to 2 UCCANG meetings in Dolores Hidalgo. 

UCCANG are an impressive group of campesinos. This organization was started 35 years ago & our local COCIRA organization was founded using them as there model.

We have had a wonderful year in water harvesting. We have built 108 cisterns in 7 communities. We are nearing the end of our current grant & we have now made an application with the Rotary Foundation for another 314 cisterns! 

There are 10 Rotary Clubs, 8 Rotary Districts & 3 foundations participating in our next grant. Lotus foundation continues to be a major supporter of our work & they have generously donated US$10,000 to the next project. San Miguel Community Foundation has once again stepped up & donated another US$7000 to our next water harvesting project. It is especially rewarding when Rotary Clubs & Rotary Friends continue to come back & involve themselves in multiple projects with us.

Thank you everyone for your support & encouragement. 

Particular thanks to Alejandro & Beatriz, my compadres in the water harvesting team, & thank you Laura Stewart for always being there to help me, advise me, & calm me. It’s not an easy job.

Best wishes for a new year with lots of rain! J

Lee Carter

Rotary San Miguel Midday

Global Grant Project Update August 2015

We have been very busy since our last post in July. 

In early August, there was a meeting of COCIRA in the community of Boca de Canada. It is a stunningly beautiful place in San Miguel. 

COCIRA has really become a strong organization and there is now a council of Directors who are anxious to move the group forward in many areas in addition to water harvesting. There are 12 Directors, a representative from 12 different communities. They are taking on the task of inspecting and evaluating all of the cisterns that have been constructed since 2009 when Laura Stewart began this long and enjoyable journey.

Boca de Canada is a new community with water problems. They have been attending COCIRA and other community meetings for several months now. New communities coming for the first time were Tlaxcalilla (no water whatsoever), Saltrillo (contaminated water and wanting dry toilets) and Begona de Progreso (contaminated water). Now they have the information necessary to go back to their communities and discuss the possibility of joining COCIRA and seeking various resources that come from being part of COCIRA and having a relationship with CEDESA. In addition to Rotary funded water projects, backyard vegetable gardens, health clinics using medicinal plants, apicultura (beekeeping) and dry toilets are among the many things that can be accomplished on a community level when the inhabitants come to gather to work in teams for the betterment of all.

Mago attended this meeting as the CEDESA representative as Chela has been sidelined with a knee problem. Mayra, Carolina and Hilaria came as promoters in sub-regions that have been set up to better serve the San Miguel municipality. Lee attended as Rotary’s representative.

Dates were established during the meeting to do “inspection and evaluation” of the Presa Allende project and to finish up the final inspections at Alonso Yanez and Lindero. The closing ceremony for Presa Allende was set for 22^nd of August.

In August Mago traveled to Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca to finalize the organization and teams for this second phase project. There are 19 families participating and we are also supplying two 1,100 liter tinacos to capture rainwater at the houses of two much older persons who are not able to do the work necessary to construct the 12,000 ferro-cement cisterns. Benigno, the master cistern builder from CEDESA, will be the technical representative on this project and Abel is being trained to become the cistern technician for the San Miguel area.

Hierro Comercial delivered the materials for the pilot cistern in Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca for  two cisterns in San Lorenzo on August 22^nd and construction began on August 24^th. Lee delivered the plywood and took the "nipples" back to Eric’s so the heavy wire reinforcing could be welded onto the galvanized parts that penetrate the cistern walls. Alejandro arranged with the department of social development of the municipality to make water truck deliveries each week of the project as there is no water in XHPB to even mix the cement.

As planned above, on August 22nd we had our closing celebration in Presa Allende with more than 80 persons in attendance. Ivar, Alejandro and Lee went from Rotary. Chela’s knee is improving and she attended with Meche and another CEDESA visitor. 

On Aug 25^th Alejandro and Lee went back to San Lorenzo and XHPB to deliver the reinforced "nipples" for the pilot cistern. This was a great opportunity to talk at length with Benigno about the construction process and the techniques and decisions the technical rep. needs to make in regards to how and where cisterns are located.

On Aug 27, Holly and Lee went to CEDESA HQ in Dolores Hidalgo to review with Chela the new education program that will be added to our next grant. Welcome back Holly! The eight modules were reviewed and we had time to talk about how this can be implemented by having promoter and then later COCIRA and UCCANG workshops to build enthusiasm for the program. Holly will be working hard with Rotary to develop the modules and copious auxiliary materials to distribute in the communities where we will be working.

On Aug 28th all of the new Presa Allende cisterns were inspected by a team of COCIRA representatives, Alejandro, Beatriz and Lee of Rotary and Meche of Cedesa . The new inspection program appears to be a very valuable activity as it gives us an opportunity to meet individually with every new cistern owner to reinforce the importance of maintenance activities and disinfection of the collected water. We are finding new ways to improve the projects overall and where to avoid problems.

  

On Aug 31, Alejandro, Beatriz and Lee went to see the progress in San Lorenzo where we were served a delicious breakfast of atole and gorditas. Abel from CEDESA went along with us and I was impressed that he is very thoughtful and dedicated to the success of the two current cistern projects. From San Lorenzo we went on to XHPB to check on the completed pilot cistern and to see where the next cisterns would be located. Because this community has so few construction workers (too far from San Miguel) we also needed to purchase some basic tools to lend to the project.

On Sept 1, Lee traveled back to XHPB to deliver the remainder of the tools needed and also the reinforced "nipples" needed for that week’s construction. This is the first project that we have undertaken since Saul left CEDESA (to develop his personal business). It has really been a little difficult because Saul used to take care of so many little details (taking and returning "nipples", for instance). He also had the "luxury" of having a CEDESA truck to be able to accomplish the many errands. CEDESA does not have a truck that can be used by Abel at this time. It has fallen on Rotary’s shoulders to do all of this detail work. Whereas I am happy to have a chance to work on and learn about every little detail, it is not practical that we do this for all future projects. Lee has been discussing with Chela (CEDESA) and our project partners for the next project of obtaining some additional grant money so that a truck can be available to the CEDESA workers in the San Miguel region. Saul used to be the promoter, coordinator, technician and all-around boy Friday for these projects. Moving forth and having different persons filling the different roles is requiring that we establish clear communication systems and cooperation to be able to operate efficiently. This mini-project is proceeding reasonably well - we are on a steep learning curve.

It was a busy month and I have not even reported it all!

Submitted by Lee Carter, Rotary San Miguel Midday, September 7, 2015.

Closing Ceremony Vivienda de Abajo

Yesterday we celebrated the completion of 10 cisterns in Vivienda de Abajo. Nine cisterns were in family homes and one was at the secondary school. This is the last cistern that we plan to build in a public space until we have a program in place to ensure maintenance and proper use. The development process for building a “public” cistern that must be maintained by a group or committee is very different than the process of building privately owned cisterns.

Attending were 15 families from Vivienda that are still participating in COCIRA. These persons are involved in other CEDESA promoted projects such as backyard gardening, health clinics & home health training, and bee keeping. Overall there were about 40 persons in attendance and a wonderful lunch (especially wonderful green mole) was served. 

New members to COCIRA seeking Rotary resources were in attendance from Nombre de Dios, San Lorenzo, Boca de Canada and Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca.

Chela, Mayra, Saul and Mago were representing CEDESA. Lee Carter was there from Rotary San Miguel Midday. As this was Saul’s last official day as a CEDESA promotor, he cut the inaugural ribbon.

It is interesting to see how some projects go better than others, but I still am not sure how to predict a project’s outcome. This project is one of the best we have had during this grant. All of the cisterns are well constructed, connected and in good service. On the other hand, we still need to go back and do remedial work on about one-half of the cisterns in Banda. I will be talking with CEDESA about sending a technical representative to Banda in the next several weeks to finish up that project so that we finish there with 100% of the collection systems functional and collecting the summer rains. We have determined that having a good and responsible albanil (experienced construction worker) as a part of the work group is very important.

Submitted by Lee Carter, Rotary San Miguel Midday