Celebration Salitrillo 10 December 2016

Today the Community of Salitrillo celebrated the completion of its cistern project.

Started in September, Salitrillo built eight cisterns with the pilot cistern being built at the home of Señora Cecilia Luna Rosas.  The project team was comprised of seven women and two men.  

Salitrillo is located west of San Miguel de Allende a short distance from the old road to Guanajuato.

The project begun with the project team attending a three-day training program which consisted of learning about the importance of the project and clean water, how to build a cistern and how to properly maintain the system in the future to ensure continued pure water.  The training program was conducted by a team from CEDESA.  The format of the three-day training program is a recent addition to the project.

The community then went on to jointly construct their cisterns.

Today's program consisted of comments on the project by each of the project team members, Lee Carter (project manager for the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende Mid-Day Club) & by Chela Martinez (of CEDESA, the founding partner of these ongoing water projects - CEDESA is a non-profit organization which conducts the training and provides technical support for the project).  

Members of the project team each received a Certificate of Completion from CEDESA and Lee.  Following a beautiful song by those in attendance, the ribbon cutting ceremony was conducted by Chela, Lee and Fred Collins, (President-elect, Rotary Club SMA Mid-day).

Following the official ceremony, a great meal of mole chicken and rice.  Cake was enjoyed by all especially the children.

The communities of Alonso Yanez, Presa Allende, Begoña de Progreso and Boca de la Cañada, were represented, many members of COCIRA joined in for the festivities, along with Mayra & Hilda, CEDESA promotors from Coralejos, 7 San Miguel Midday Rotarians, 2 visitors to SMA & a member of the Rotary Club of Somerville Tennessee.

Submitted by John Wallace (Rotary Club of Somerville Tennessee)

A Day at CEDESA

May 19, 2016

Yesterday, after going to Nombre de Dios with Chela and Abel, we returned to CEDESA for additional planning of our new global grant (GG1524911) for 319 more water harvesting cisterns in San Miguel, Dolores Hidalgo, San Diego de la Union & San Luis de la Paz. 

Present were Chela, Abel, Meche, Benigno, and Ceci.

We reviewed first the progress on the new education program & the principal objectives of that program. Meche has been working hard with Wendy Coulson to develop the program & didactic materials to go with that. We all agreed that in a nutshell our goals are to have people fully understand

1.       the reason for cisterns is lack of an improved water source or having water that is terribly contaminated with fluoride and arsenic.

2.      the cistern water is free from those poisons & they should never drink water from wells.

3.        they can improve their water & health even more by integrating disinfection steps to improve the cistern water & avoid any potential biological contamination &

4.       have people learn how to self-construct their water harvesting system & maintain it to get maximum benefit from it.

Those are our primary objectives for this project &grant. However we also will be using this opportunity to continue to develop the communities' capacity to work together to analyze their problems & seek solutions (resources). 

We'd like to build on this opportunity so that they can take advantage of other opportunities such as backyard gardens, natural medicine, beekeeping, & other eco-technologies such as gray water filtering & the eco-cina stoves. We'd like the cistern projects to continue to be the first step in the long process of community empowerment.

The education program is ready now to “beta test” in the first communities. We are going to start in Boca de la Cañada (San Miguel) in two weeks & then in Las Claveles (Dolores) after that. 

We will present the didactic materials in the “final draft” format & then make adjustments before going to press & printing enough materials to carry us through the project.

Everyone in the communities are enthusiastic & champing at the bit to get started. They all want to work through the summer rainy season in order to be able to harvest at least a little rain before the dry weather returns in the fall. 

CEDESA is going to work up a draft schedule next week so we can plan out each mini-project. They are talking about doing as many as four different communities per month. Yikes, that is going to be a lot of work for all of us!

As we worked through potential pitfalls & bottlenecks in this ambitious program, we realized that we would need another technician in addition to Benigno & Abel to be able to do the site visits in each community during the construction process. 

A great solution was devised that will also allow us to continue to develop our youth program in the process. We will select a young person in each community where we are working to become an expert in construction & maintenance of the systems. This person will do the project monitoring throughout the construction process & will be report & consult with Abel &/or Benigno as the mini-project proceeds. Instead of having a once a week visit from the technician, we will have someone there overseeing the construction on a daily basis as each group builds cisterns at each home. 

Once the project is complete we will be leaving behind “a community expert” who can continue to monitor cisterns & even assist in repairs as needed. We already have a budget for an albanil for the pilot week. Since each group is now obligated to provide an albanil throughout the mini-project including the pilot cistern week, those funds can be used as a stipend for developing our new community expert. CEDESA will be responsible for handling the payment process.

We also reviewed the financial resources available in the grant so that we could come up with a simplified billing plan. When we combine our organization budget with our education teaching budget, we have 2,400 pesos for Pre-Pilot expenses. For the Pilot stage of the project we have $4,750 in funds available. And for post-project monitoring & evaluation we have 900 pesos available. 

We budgeted for 11 mini-projects as we were developing the project but as the number of cisterns grew the number of mini-projects is likely to be 15 to 18 … thank heavens for our contingency budget!

CEDESA is to be responsible for tracking certain costs/expenses each month & reporting them to Rotary for reimbursement. They need to record all KM driven in CEDESA vehicles in executing the projects to be reimbursed @ 3.5 pesos / KM. They also need to keep all tickets from using public transportation so that can be reimbursed as well up to a total of $9000 for the project. We will also be providing an $800 peso phone allowance per month to be split up between the various promotors & technicians.

Equipment: We need to get the new vehicle as soon as possible. Rotary has $5,000 dollars to contribute to that. CEDESA has 30,000 pesos set aside as well. We are going to purchase one “very good” vehicle that will last many years into the future for project monitoring. We are going to invest about 10,000 pesos of that money in upgrading an existing vehicle. Even with two new vehicles in play, transportation will still be a headache for CEDESA. 

The electrode in the fluoride testing laboratory has failed & we are looking into replacing that. Initial quotations that Meche got are expensive … about US$1,500. We had not counted on needing this within the time frame of this grant. We will probably reduce our “tools” budget to get this back on-line &I will try to see if we can find outside resources to help cover this unexpected expense.

We are working to be able to get the communities on the edges of San Diego de la Union & San Luis de la Paz involved in this grant. To do so, the two “subgroups” will have to work under UCCANG. 

UCCANG is responsible for carrying out several functions … community selection, receiving solicitudes & for providing monitoring and evaluation for six months after the construction phase. Integrating them into UCCANG does not seem to be a problem. The two subgroups are SECOPA (Servicios Comunitarios de Pozos Ademada – San Diego Union) and CUVA (Comunidades Unidas Para La Vida y Agua – San Jose Iturbide).

Recently a well in the San Jose Iturbide area, in the community of La Cantera, was discovered to have radioactivity in the water. There has been a high rate of documented child leukemia in that town as well. Dr. Ortega of UNAM is studying the problem to determine if this is an isolated instance of industrial contamination or if it is going to be as a result of the ever-challenging problems we are facing in the aquifer. There are 120 affected families & the government is, of course, denying that there is a problem.

Submitted by: Lee Carter

Juan Gonzalez - Inauguration January 24, 2015

Alejandro Guerra, David Hartman and I traveled to the wonderful community of Juan Gonzalez today to celebrate the completion of another successful water harvesting project. Sixteen cisterns were constructed by three workgroups and 4 water harvesting systems were installed using pre-fabricated plastic cisterns at homes where the owners did not have enough roof to collect water for a 12,000 liter cistern.

This is the second phase of water harvesting in Juan Gonzalez. About one-half of the community’s families now have safe potable water. This is one of the most organized communities that I have observed. The process of working together to accomplish a better life for all is becoming a part of their daily vocabulary. In addition to two cistern projects through Rotary, they have also worked together on developing backyard gardens, dry toilets and testing and adopting water filtration disinfection through CATIS.

We began by having an assembly where many of the people spoke passionately about what has been accomplished and what could be in the future. Saul Jaurez of CEDESA spoke about the success and the hard work that these people put in through COCIRA to become eligible for project funding. After this we all took a walk through the community to see the new built cisterns and also we had a chance to note that the cisterns from the first project of a few years ago are being very well maintained. Many of the new cisterns have been “decorated” with interesting statues at the top of the cone … everything from cats to Cristo Rey and in between.

After a ribbon cutting ceremony at the pilot cistern, we all returned to the elementary school for a diverse and delicious meal cooked by the members of the community. I look forward to more work in this community in the future.

Submitted by: Lee Carter, Rotary San Miguel Midday

1st Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Palencia

Record of Event pg 1 of 3
1st Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Palencia

Where: Community House in Palencia – 1hr north of Dolores Hidalgo,
When: 14.1.10 12 midday meeting began (left SMA at 10am)
Who: Elena & Laura from San Miguel Midday Rotary, Georgina Sautto (President Elect for San Miguel Rotary), Chela – Cedesa & 13 women, 1 man & 4 kids from the Palencia Community

Purpose:
Look at possibility of a joint project with SMA rotary, to assist the community to solve Palencia’s contaminated water issue.

Background.
Chela & Cedesa have been working with this community for 22 years. When they began here there were no services (electricity, water) no registered land ownership, & no solidarity. The community was run by Machismo & Caciques (self appointed bosses/oppressive men).

Little by little this community has come together to achieve many things (as detailed below), the current issue they are struggling to solve, is their contaminated water. They share a govt. drilled well with 3 other communities, unfortunately the water from this well has been tested to contain extremely high levels of both fluoride & arsenic. More than 5mg/l of Fluoride for example. (maximum safe level by World Health Org. is 1.5mg/l)

Chela has previously bought us a petition for help from the community with the signatures of more than 20 families on it.

The issue is, although this community has a higher need, ie higher level of contamination, than any of the communities in SMA municipality, it is outside our Municipality, & the community service committee of SMA Midday RC, have previously discussed, we should first work to resolve water issues in our own municipality before going outside our region.

This is a dilemma, there is an obvious high need here, Elena (as District Chair) has spoken with SMA RC & is trying to enlist interest from clubs within this neighbouring municipality to come together in the hope we can co-operatively solve this.

Today´s visit is to gather information & a preliminary needs analysis.

Item 1 – introductions
Everyone introduced themselves this was the common introduction “ I work in the community & participate in community projects”

Some brief facts about the community were raised
• Approx 80 families /500 people
• Cedesa have been working with this community for 22 years
• Palencia is approx 1 hr from Cedesa in Dolores Hidalgo
• The community well was drilled 18 years ago,
* they have been drinking contaminated water for 18years
• There are smaller family wells that fill up when it rains, but they do not last the dry season
• There was a cacique (self appointed boss) when cedesa began work here, he is still apart from the community
• They have worked on many community projects together, including fighting for land rights, building a community centre (with funding for materials from local govt.), obtaining electricity

We explained a little about the joint project in Los Torres & what the community now has there.


pg 2 of 3
Item 2 History described
The members of the community articulated the following:
The community has been working for 22 years to improve their community for their children. With collaboration & resources we can help transform conditions, with the work of your hands & minds you can achieve change.

We do not encourage dependence, but encourage people to take their future into their own hands, assume responsibility for yourselves as subjects, not objects & work co-operatively to achieve improvements like backyard gardens & resolve issues.

Elena & Georgina were invited to speak, & reiterated the beauty of working on things together, & that it takes planting the seed first, then tending that plant for it to bear fruit, good things take time, & they were commended on their achievements, like the construction of the Salon de Asamblea we were currently meeting in.

Chela explained the relationship Rotary Midday & Cedesa have built while working together in the last year in Los Torres.

Item 3 – appoint co-ordinator & secretary & raise agenda for today´s meeting.
The community had done this many times before & quickly voted for Victoria & Lola.
The agenda was written up
a. how the community had changed over 22 years.
b. Organization of the community
c. Projects in common
d. Future projects

The members of the community were invited to speak of how their community had changed over the last 22 years. Each & every member was very keen to speak, & in turn articulately described the struggles, & challenges they had faced & how they had overcome adversity.

As an aside - in other communities we have been working in, the participants are often reluctant to speak, in this case it was the opposite, each wanted to speak, & had a lot to say, they were very happy, & proud to share their history.

a. how the community had changed over 22 years.

22 yrs ago they had no services or land rights & were dominated by a cacique (self appointed community bully) & machismo. They originally had to meet under the trees on the edge of the community. They were very afraid to participate. They are very proud to list their achievements,

• They now have electricity
• They demanded their freedom from Caciques
• Individual land ownership (a result of protests in 1992)
• Raised enough money to build two community “salons” meeting places.
• They now have their own school
• Each generation carries on the learning & meetings & work & many of the women here today were little kids when Chela first began work here.
• 20% of the men are in the United States (ie 1 in 5 are single mums)
• It was very hard to talk to the women originally, for them to understand the future was in their own hands.
• They fought for equal respect & equal rights for the women
•

b. Organization of the community
• The community well is approx 200 mtrs deep & reducing at a rate of 5 mtrs per year
• Organization has been carried out by assembly
• Issues are raised at the assembly for resolution
• They organize into groups & mini commissions to achieve results
• Every 2 months they meet with 3 other communities who have joint water services, re main of pumps, payments for electricity.
• There are approx 230 families in the 4 communities


pg 3 of 3

C Projects in common

They have many projects in progress – Bees, Health, Backyard production, parcel production.

D. Future projects

The Community are working on a resolution to the issue of no safe drinking water in their community. They would like each family to have their own cistern to be responsible for their own collection, & conservation of water. They have currently made a “solicitude” request for assistance to the local Govt. in San Diego de la Union, but have had no response so far.

The community is also asking if there is any help Rotary could provide.
They are already organized so would only need funding for materials & training & are fully prepared to carry out the rest themselves.

They are also working on Dry toilets as they would like to prevent more contamination of the water table.

We explained the Rotary funding process, & timeframe, it is a long timeframe for response.
Georgina & Elena undertook to bring it to their clubs as a potential joint project.

San Miguel Midday RC has already stated they would prefer to continue to work inside the municipality of San Miguel, which is why we have bought Georgina from the other San Miguel club to see if it is something her club would be prepared to work with other clubs to solve.

There is a list of 21 families that has been presented as a petition to SMA midday RC as a request for assistance.

The money needed to fund the materials for the construction of 21 cisterns (with just 4 days training & 4 days follow up/trouble shooting, is approx US$11,000.

Conclusion
This community has done the hard yards & is organized, now they just need financial assistance with materials only. & a simple solution can be put in place to resolve the drinking water for these people for ever (as long as it continues to rain annually).

We need to work to find a solution for this community, Elena is working at a District Level, & Laura is seeking other possibilities.


The meeting finished at 2.30.
There is no date for a next meeting as the respective clubs need to work with their committees on this.

12th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Record of Meeting pg 1 of 2

12th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Where: CEDESA Dolores (approx 1 hr from SMA)

When: Friday 7th November 8am – 4pm

Who: Laura (Rotary), Judy & Bill (Patronato Pro Ninos) Maria Jesus, Maria de la Concepcion, Maria Leova (& son), Cecilia (& son), Hilaria, (Community leaders Los Torres), Chela & Tere Martinez, Holly Yasui, Benigno & partner, & 1 other woman (from CEDESA).

Project Purpose - SMA Rotary has tasked Bob & Laura with defining the “needs” & determining the best proposal, for a major water Project involving the writing of a competitive grant for approx. US$100K.

Rationale: As part of the process of defining the “need” we will meet with as many people as possible that are directly involved in the provision of, or are aware of the need for the provision of, safe drinking water solutions to marginal communities.

Visit Purpose:

For the women of Los Torres to be introduced to the people of CEDESA, what they do & what they can offer. Ultimately for the people of Los Torres to decide if they need assistance to “mobilise” the community & run the water project.

Summary of Visit

The Fishers & I each drove out to Los Torres (Holly waited at the highway for us), & collected the women & children, to drive them to CEDESA in Dolores (a nearby town).

We arrived at CEDESA & met with the CEDESA team, introductions all round. We sat in a semi circle & watched another DVD, this one on the topic of water & conservation.
The discussion was then about what CEDESA does & has done by way of assisting communities to take their own issues & solutions in their own hands. Chela impressed upon the women that they have the skills & ability to be responsible for their own wellbeing & that they need not be reliant on govt. & outside organisations but better work with them towards solving issues & improving the prospects of the community.
There was a lot of discussion (all in Spanish – with Holly translating for me if I missed something). The focus was water & what the women believed the issues were: Scarcity, contamination of fluoride (see important points below), Sapasma & proposed well, river that dries part way through the dry season, cost to buy water, sporadic delivery by municipal trucks.
We had a bite to eat & a cup of tea.

Chela then organised discussion on solutions, she said that each person/family needs to be responsible for their own health, access to water etc. That they need to discuss problems & solutions & work together to solve it, & that the answers were in their hands.

The problem of water can help organise the community!



Record of Meeting pg 2 of 2

12th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

The women said they knew the issues but were unsure how to solve them & asked for help with this.
They decided an assembly was necessary & agreed that on 22nd November CEDESA would travel to Los Torres & help facilitate an assembly with the major discussion being on water issues & solutions.

We were given a tour of CEDESA viewing all of the sustainable technologies they have implemented & provide training on - dry toilets, grey water recycling, backyard gardens, water collection tanks, with discussion about the beehives & fields for crop production.

The women of Los Torres indicated they would be very interested in learning more about natural health methods, & backyard gardens (with the aim to improve the family economy) & also beekeeping.

We then drove them home to Los Torres.
Important points

In previous visits to Los Torres, we (Rotary) had been reluctant to raise the topic of fluoride contamination. The people in the community – although most were showing an obvious symptom of fluorosis – bad teeth – did not have an awareness of the issue. We were unsure how to “break the news”, considering we had no cure or solution to offer.

In the last 2 wks a dental health van- provided by Patronato Pro Ninos, in conjunction with the dept of health - has visited Los Torres & treated the children. During this time the subject of fluoride contamination has been raised & the community now has an awareness of this issue.

They are currently at a loss as to how to solve this, especially since the only source of water they can rely on, comes from contaminated wells.

Action

The Los Torres women will organise an assembly to be held at the school in Los Torres on 22nd Nov at 12midday. They will first publicise it at the forthcoming Health Fair (PPN & Health dept), on the 15th Nov & then will go door to door to explain the purpose & illicit support.
It was suggested they write the pertinent points on a piece of paper & use that as a reference when they talk to each household, in order to cover all points.

Thank you

11th exploratory meeting for water project

This report is in the form of an email from Judy Fisher who made the initial introduction to the Los Torres community for us, for which we are very grateful - who knew then, how it would develop!!

Hi Holly,

As I mentioned on our conversation by cell phone, the visit with Los Torres went very well today. The attendees at the meeting were the Delegado and 3 of the Group Leaders. We introduced the discussion with the topic of water because that is the theme that has been prevalent in our last meetings. They discussed what they perceive as their water issues and brought up the following:
1) No water well in the upper village; need to walk 2 hours 3 times a week for water
2) Wells in lower village sometime are dry in very dry season; and, these wells they understand are causing the dark teeth that the women have. The Patronato Dental Van has been at the village for the last week and the Dentist has been informing them of the problems of fluoride for the teeth.
3) 2 Tinacos from Patronato and large "botes" for the families in the upper community, but insufficient water trucks from the city to keep them filled
4) Contamination of private "botes"
5) Can't keep the level of cleanliness they wish to have in the home because of scarce water.

Next, we read to them the invitation from CEDESA and asked their opinion about going to a meeting to discuss water issues with other community leaders who have or have had water issues. They were in agreement that it would be beneficial to understand more since they are in the process of discussions with SAPASMA (drilling a well) and the Rotary Club (installing water catchments systems.)

Then, we showed them the DVD. At the conclusion, the Delegado said she was very interested in meeting with CEDSESA as she felt she could get help on other issues, not the least of which is cooperation from the Community for a variety of projects. We left the DVD and the Booklet for them to review again before next Friday and asked them to go over both to be prepared for the meeting.

I am attaching 2 files, one the census of Los Torres by family and the second a list of the contacts that I have for Los Torres--people in the community and contacts who are involved with helping the community.

For the meeting on Friday, November 4, we can expect 6 from Los Torres (the Delegado, the 4 Group Leaders and one 4 year old boy), from the Rotary 1 (Laura Stewart) and from PPN 2 (Bill and Judy Fisher). The community leaders did request that the meeting be limited to 10 am to 2 pm as it will take another hour to return to the community.

Laura and I discussed that she would send to you her outline of all of the facts on water in the Community so that CEDESA would have a though understanding before the meeting on Friday, Nov 7.

Should there be any further changes as to attendees, Laura and I will communicate to you very early next week.

Saludos,
Judy Fisher

10th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project

Record of Meeting pg 1 of 2

10th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Where: CEDESA - Dolores

When: Thursday 23rd October 9am – 2pm

Who: Gary, Bob & Laura (Rotary), Holly Yasui, Chela Martinez, Tere Martinez (CEDESA)
Project Purpose - SMA Rotary has tasked Bob & Laura with defining the “needs” & determining the best proposal, for a major water Project involving the writing of a competitive grant for approx. US$100K.

Rationale: As part of the process of defining the “need” we will meet with as many people as possible that are directly involved in the provision of, or are aware of the need for the provision of, safe drinking water solutions to marginal communities.

Visit Purpose: For the project to have it’s greatest chance of success, the project team has determined we need to invest a significant amount of time in “mobilising” the community. i.e. getting them fully engaged & acting as driving partners of the project.

Rotary SMA Midday, is primarily an English speaking club & although we have the skills, expertise & experience (Bob Leonard is a world expert on Development) to implement this project, the difference in culture & language present difficulties.
CEDESA is a grass roots organisation that has been established & active for 40 years. They have a history of working with 120 rural (camposino) communities in the northern area of the State that SMA is in (Guanuajato). They have extensive training facilities & their primary focus is environmentally sustainable technologies & to assist people to thrive on the Land, & not be forced to move off the land, to the USA or subsist in urban communities.
This trip was to meet with the organisers of CEDESA & determine their suitability as mobilisation partners in this project.

Summary of Visit

We drove from SMA to CEDESA in Dolores (a nearby town), approx 1hr away. Holly is a volunteer that has been working with CEDESA to raise their profile & an awareness of what they can offer. She is bilingual & assisted with communication. We met with Chela & Tere – 2 sisters that (along with another woman, now passed) established this organisation in 1965 with a Catholic priest named Davalos.

We viewed a dvd which showed that they have been very active over the years, 1stly increasing literacy from 5% of the community to over 80%, & then helping to establish schools, training communities on environmental issues, including water collection & conservation. For 40 years they have been promoting the “art of living in the country”.

We were given a tour of their facilities, which involved grey water recycling, dry/composting toilets, water collection tanks, backyard gardens food production, hives for honey production & fields for large crops production.



Record of Meeting pg 2 of 2

10th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Currently they are hosting a diploma in water studies run by Dr Ortega of UNAM (Mexico’s largest university). It is held ever 2nd Saturday for 8 months. Included in
the course is a section on water testing & water filtration. They currently have a satellite laboratory set up to test water samples for Fluoride, arsenic, magnesium & will later test bacteria. This is of great benefit, as there is currently no access to water testing for the small communities.
The people running CEDESA are a very warm & caring group of people. They have the knack of being able to work with all strata of communities, from the indigenous people to the high level government. They thrive on empowering the people to take full control of their own issues & solutions.
Points of interest

They have “promoters” & “technicians” that visit the communities & assist with both social & technical aspects of the issues being resolved.
They have been active mostly north of Dolores but are interested in spreading their work south of Dolores in the SMA region
They are developing a new focus on the “family economy” enabling families to produce more than they need & have the balance for trade or sale.
From a Development perspective Bob believes they are “text book” examples of how to do it right.

Action:

We need to invite the women leaders of Los Torres to CEDESA to determine if Los Torres would like CEDESA’s help with this project. CEDESA (via Holly) will work on a suitable date & Laura & Judy (from Patronato Pro Ninos) will deliver the invitation.

8th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project

Record of Meeting pg 1 of 3

8th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Where: Los Torres (via Salida Dolores)

When: Thurs Sept 11th 2008, 9.15-12.30

Who: Bill & Judy Fisher, Kitty (?) Patronato Pro Ninos, Maria de Jesus (Los Torres delegada), Laura Stewart (Rotary),

Purpose - SMA Rotary has tasked Bob, Enrique & Laura with defining the “needs” & determining the best proposal, for a major water Project involving the writing of a competitive grant for approx. US$100K.

Rationale: As part of the process of defining the “need” we will meet with as many people as possible that are directly involved in the provision of, or are aware of the need for the provision of, safe drinking water solutions to marginal communities.

Patronato Pro Ninos: are a local non profit organisation. They work closely with the department of health to provide medical & dental services to the communities in need. They have a relationship with the people of Los Torres, they have been providing them with vitamin supplements to add to their tortillas. An interesting point they made is in future they would do more work before providing the supplements, to educate & inform. The take-up time would be faster then. There had been some resistance from the people that were unaware of the benefits, but the word is now spreading & the mothers are now keen to keep adding the supplements.
We met at the Aurora & drove out the road to Dolores. We turned at the turnoff for Casa de Aves continued towards Casa de Aves & then took the right fork (with Casa de Aves to the left). We carried on a dirt road for some time with a few muddy patches to negotiate. (drive is approx 45mins from Aurora).
Meeting with the delegada.

I was very lucky to be taken to the community with Bill, Judy & Kitty as they already had a relationship with the community delegada (community organiser) Maria de Jesus.
I immediately noted that Maria’s teeth were badly fluoride damaged & she was self conscious of them (covering them with her hand when she laughed). The other women we saw also all had damaged teeth.

These are the points I discovered with discussion & Q&A with Maria (luckily Judy & Kitty were fluent Spanish speakers).

Points of interest

A percentage of the men are in the United States

Most of the other men work in SMA Mon-fri & only return for weekends

There are 2 distinct geographical regions of Los Torres – the upper (ariba) & the lower (abajo).






Record of Meeting pg 2 of 3

8th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

The upper region – approx ½ of the community (& general community facts)

the closest community well is 1 hour walk away
they have a 5000 ltr tinaco supplied by Patronato pro nino
the municipality sends a truck to supply water every 8 days (this water is free)
the truck fills the tinaco & the people’s water containers (huge buckets with lids)
when the water runs out they have to walk to their well (1 hr each way) carting the water back with them, either by burro, wheel barrow or if they are lucky private truck.
If carting without a truck the maximum they can carry is 4 x 20ltr garrafons.
They estimated they make the trek to the well 2 to 3 times a week.(ie the tinaco water doesn’t last very long)
I don’t know the quality of the water from their well.
The tinaco has 2 big blue filters on it (not sure of their contents,) & they have colloidal silver tablet inside the tank. Patronato Pro Nino provided these & it is in their “charter” to maintain these (Judy said this was done 6mthly)
There are approx 3 dry toilets (Maria thought) in the upper region. Apart from those there are no other toilets, people just go on the ground.
There is no Comite de Agua in this community.
There are 3 mother’s groups that meet every Friday from 3-5pm, they meet to discuss topics on a set of cards provided by the Health Department, we met the woman that organises the groups (Ilaria), she estimated about 15 attend each meeting. Mostly the young mothers.
The majority of the households cook with wood stoves, most do not have flues or chimneys
They grow in their gardens, mostly maize,corn, beans, squash (& squash flowers)
There was a previous program (some time in the past) by DIF who provided them with seeds of other plants, they have run out & would like to have more. Onions would be good.
We were sitting beside a house made partly of adobe, it looked to be deteriorating on the outside (had been coated but the coating & parts of the bricks had washed away), this structure was 14yrs old.

Lower region (approx ½ of the community)

This part of the community has their own family wells.
The water has been tested & was very high in fluoride (2.4mg/l per the testing data from Ecologia).
They have only about 4 dry toilets, & otherwise go to the toilet anywhere.








Record of Meeting pg 2 of 3

8th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

We visited the school

It has a brand new toilet block with 6 flush toilets! They are not using them at the moment as there is a leak & they can’t fix it as the cisterns are in the wall (no access) I therefore couldn’t see what litre the cistern for each toilet was.
Flush toilets are a huge novelty to these children, the majority of them have no toilet at all at home, & just go on the ground wherever…
They had a bank of 3 hand basins, the water had been turned off by the teachers as the kids had blocked the pipes up when they first got it (a week ago). Water on tap is a novelty for these kids, they obviously thought it was fun to play with it.
Right beside the toilet block were 2 1500 ltr tinacos. These had taps at the bottom (although the tanks were slightly raised) the kids were drinking directly out of the spout from these tanks, the water shot straight out horizontally at force & they kids would put their mouths in the stream & try to suck up the water as it rushed past, I would say about 20% was drunk the rest was in a large puddle that they were tiptoe-ing in to take their drinks!
There is a cistern of approx 2.5x2.5x2.5 (approx 15,000 ltrs) & a pump which pumps the water to the tinaco on the roof to feed the toilets.
The waste is piped to 2 septic tanks with a grey water recycling system
It is supposed to be piped to water the nopal orchard but the teacher mentioned they are missing a tap at the moment so it’s not working.
The school has 80 children
They have 3 dry toilets
They have small nopal orchard
A large percentage of the children had obvious fluoride damage to their teeth
There is a DIF kitchen at the school, the food is supplied by them & the mothers (a team of 4 at a time) provide breakfast & lunch to the children
the school was central, large & well resourced (they have computers & overhead projectors in the classroom – ideal for training sessions)

Other observations –

it is a small community with not many houses “dotted” around
they have electricity
the usual pepsi signs were on the tienda (they have pepsi)
there is also a kinder (preschool)
there is no secondaria – the nearest telesecondaria (satellite secondary school) is approx 40mins walk (cross country) away.

Action

Laura to get in contact with Mary Caruth (on the board of PPN) she has a lot of stats & research on this community.
Laura to contact FAI/PEASMA to see what information they can provide about this community.

7th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project

Record of Meeting pg 1 of 2

7th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Where: Sylvia’s house (From FAI)

When: Mon Aug 25th 2008, 6-7.20

Who: Bob Leonard, Laura Stewart (Rotary), Sylvia FAI

Purpose - SMA Rotary has tasked Bob, Enrique & Laura with defining the “needs” & determining the best proposal, for a major water Project involving the writing of a competitive grant for approx. US$100K.

Rationale: As part of the process of defining the “need” we will meet with as many people as possible that are directly involved in the provision of, or are aware of the need for the provision of, safe drinking water solutions to marginal communities.

FAI have been working in the area of conservation, environmental & ecological awareness for nearly 20 years. They have worked closely with marginal communities to improve their environs & living conditions. The world bank funds FAI in the areas of water, energy, food, health, education, crafts & nutrition.

Meeting discussion

We surmised with Sylvia the situation we had found in our visits to Tierra Blanca & the communities near Jalpa. All of the have access to household water, Sapasma has supplied wells (with the financial contribution of the community in many instances), & mostly pipes the water to a central holding tank & then to each of the households. The communities mostly buy their water in garrafons or boil water &/or add chlorine drops.

The problem is not (that we’ve discovered so far at least) lack of water. The possibilities for improvements to be made in the lives of the people of these communities is

To provide safe drinking water (& so they don’t have to buy or boil it, as it is expensive).
To provide an infrastructure to distribute “dam” water for food production
To provide the materials to build dry toilets (so as not to contaminate the ground or well water with faecal matter)

Safe drinking water can be provided by:

Purifying the water
Collecting rainwater

Both of these present challenges, to collect enough rainwater to really make a difference to a whole community requires a huge cistern & system of management & distribution.
Purifying the water can be complex because of the number of potential contaminants, bacterial, fluoride etc. There are issues involved in ensuring the project is sustainable, ie that the filters are able to be replaced when need be.
Sylvia suggested a community Juan Gonzalez. (This community was also identified by Ecologia as not having a well).

It has popn of approx 294 with a close neighbouring community of Los Ortega (12 people).
Record of Meeting pg 2 of 2

7th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

FAI have been working with this community (demonstrates co-operation), they already have 40 dry toilets, just need about 30 more to be completely sanitary.
They have shallow artesian wells for individual families but no main community well
Currently a lot of the families have to cart water up to where they live (in the higher areas).

Sylvia suggested that Rotary:

Join with Sapasma & provide a community well (the current family wells are shallow so it should not be too expensive – wont have to drill too deep)
Provide a central collection cistern & piping to the houses
Pump the water from the well to the cistern
Look at providing a water collection system as well to provide drinkable water
This way they will have – dry toilets, drinkable water & household water.
Use FAI to provide training re water conservation & the systems & drive/oversee the implementation of the project(s) estimated cost would be 1 person 2days per wk, approx US$450-500 per month, + travel expenses (bus fares) for 10mths ie around US$5000.


Action –

We need to enquire with Sapasma to see whether they have a pozo planned.

If Project is undertaken –

Work with Sapasma to draw up a contract to supply water (re comite de agua) ongoing regulations/management of water supply.
Look at less expensive method to build dry toilet (currently costs US$2000 per toilet to provide the entire structure )

6th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project

Record of Meeting pg 1 of 4

6th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Where: Daytrip – Tierra Blanca

When: Fri Aug 15th 2008, 8.00pm – 3.30pm (including approx .75 hr Comida)

Who: Bob Leonard, Sue Leonard & Laura Stewart Rotary, Norma, Carlos, Luis FAI

Purpose - SMA Rotary has tasked Bob, Enrique & Laura with defining the “needs” & determining the best proposal, for a major water Project involving the writing of a competitive grant for approx. US$100K.

Rationale: As part of the process of defining the “need” we will meet with as many people as possible that are directly involved in the provision of, or are aware of the need for the provision of, safe drinking water solutions to marginal communities.

FAI have been working in the area of conservation, environmental & ecological awareness for nearly 20 years. They have worked closely with marginal communities to improve their environs & living conditions. The world bank funds FAI in the areas of water, energy, food, health, education, crafts & nutrition.

Detail of visit:

We went to the Municipality of Tierra Blanca – in the state of GTO.

We met at the FAI office on Hidalgo, then went to Norma’s house to pick up her car as there were too many of us to go in Carlos’ car. Bob paid $200pesos, Laura paid $100pesos for the gas contribution.

We stopped briefly on the way & met with Carlos’ family that have an Ecology Centre, they have water collection & a sweat lodge there, his family are involved in the teaching of the community in Tierra Blanca, on the subject of conservation, & organic fertilisation & pest control.

We met with Luis – that works with FAI. He explained FAI began working with 12 communities in the area for 16 years ago. Their aim was to re-establish the ecosystem in the area. When they arrived there, there was very little growing & a lot of erosion & no soil. They initially worked to establish a collection base for soil, by creating stone terraces on the hillsides. They left after 10 years & have just returned again 6 years on.
FAI are very heartened to see that the communities have carried on their good work in their absence & the improvement to the environment is huge. Where there was nothing but erosion & protruding rock face, there is now a thriving eco-system of small plants & moist areas. It slows the flow of the water enough that it also regenerates the aquifer.

They have also been constructing bordos (dams) & now are faced with the issue of how to manage & distribute the water from the dams to the areas they need to use the water in. IE backyard gardens (more on that later) for food production.
Torrecitas Community

Luis took us to visit a Nopal Orchard. This was a large green house structure that covers an orchard of Nopals (prickly pear cactus) for harvest. He explained the process of producing the nopals, they are reasonably fast growing, a paddle grows in a month, & each plant (once pruned correctly) can be growing multiple paddles each month at each juncture of the plant.

Record of Meeting pg 2 of 4

6th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Some of the facts Luis told us

The govt. (SAGARPA govt ministry for agriculture program) will subsidise these projects 50/50 but offer no training (FAI can provide training)
Sedesol (ministry for social development – Secretary desarollo de social) funds FAI training
The green house cost $200,000 pesos (US$20k) payback period is estimated to be 5 years.
Each plant costs 4-6 pesos (single paddle to plant)
16 plants per m2
Lead time between planting & harvest is 1.5mths before it produces enough to harvest
16 nopalitos per month
The nopalitos are harvested for both “seed” & sale
Market is in Qto (market is much larger than current supply level)
Plants are drip irrigated (fertiliser can be included in the water)
Irrigation costs approx 14,000 pesos (including tinacos – storage tanks)
They use cow dung as mulch (fertiliser & prevents evaporation)
They sell the nopalitos per kilo (approx 5 pesos)
Nopalitos are very high in vitamin c (especially if eaten raw), they are thought to prevent osteoporosis & are curative for diabetes
Nopolitos are “nutria-cetic” health giving plants
FAI is currently working with 450 families
Nopals wont start to grow a “baby” until it knows it has enough to completely grow it, ie if you see a baby growing, you can be sure it will grow to maturity.
Optimum temp for production is 25-33 degrees C (hence there is better rate of growth under a greenhouse than outside, but it can be grown outside – just at a slower rate)
They pump water from the river (at the bottom of the property) to the tinaco’s for storage & distribution by irrigation system
They have 3 months with no water Dec- Feb
They have created a collection pond – diverted from the river – that lasts almost the entire year.

Luis described FAI’s approach to training

Social Capital – to build a social structure, gives responsibilities & structure to the community, they form a “co-operative” working together on all of the identified responsibilities & also for bulk purchases etc.
technical know-how they teach them how to prune, fertilise, control disease etc
economical integration covers aspects such as “the market” how it works, product (definition) , production system, admin, monetary controls etc.
they also teach goals, planning, timelines & deadlines.

Observation
I noted that they had large tinacos that Luis explained they filled with water by pumping from the river. They also had a huge roof on what looked like a warehouse which had no guttering or water collection. I asked why the tinaco was not positioned to catch the water from the roof & so they could use rain water directly.
Record of Meeting pg 3 of 4

6th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

It is not in their thinking to do that, they figure in the rainy season there is plenty of water in the river so they just use that. I pointed out it would save using the river & also save using electricity to pump the water up.
It would be a simple matter to attach some guttering & down piping(spouting) to the huge roof, especially since they already had expensive tinaco storage.

Next we viewed some more rock terraces & an example of a dam they had constructed. It was surrounded by lush greenery. Luis explained it had all been achieved by the community. They have equivalent of “working bees” & then do the same on their own land.

They have also constructed many dry toilets in 3-5 of the communities, to prevent groundwater contamination & create a source of rich fertilizer.

Luis described FAI’s intention to demonstrate/implement back yard gardens, he took us to see 2 families that have begun to implement this garden.

Backyard Garden info

100m2 is enough to produce vegetables to feed a family of 8 for 1 year
By teaching them to grow their own variety of vegetables they are ensuring the family has a healthy diet (not just tortillas & beans), this helps prevent diabetes improves their nutrition generally.
Water required is 1 litre per m2, ie 100m2 requires 100 litres daily
First they plant wheat, then plough it in to provide nitrogen rich fertilizer (this takes 20days) wheat breaks down quickly
When purchasing seed they should check the catalogue numbers to ensure they are not genetically modified seeds
FAI have been training the communities to grow 14 different varieties of veges

Requirements

Many of the communities have dams that have been built in order to collect the water for food production. Currently they have no way to carry the water to the gardens. They would need tinacos at each family for storage, a pump at each dam & pipes to pipe the water to the tinacos. They would also need to make someone responsible for each dam & the distribution of water from it.
Rough costings/estimates of assistance to 70 families wanting to grow backyard gardens.

70 families

Approx 25 dams

Need approx 25 pumps (US$340 per pump) = $8500

70 Tinacos – 1500 ltr = $100 70x100 = $7000

Tubing/installation etc 70 x $50 = $3500

Total = $19,500

Question raised – Gary/David can you answer this?

What is the rotary definition of a building? Is a greenhouse a building or equipment?

Record of Meeting pg 4 of 4

6th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Conclusion

It was very encouraging to see what can be achieved with good guidance & structure (as provided by FAI).
These communities are good examples of what a difference training & involvement of the community in their own decisions & sustainable projects, can make.
The opportunity for assistance for Rotary in this areas are:

contribution to a water distribution infrastructure
contribution to water storage facilities (tinacos, cisterns, storage tanks)
water collection/harvesting units for drinkable water

These communities already have household water provided by Sapasma drilled pozos & reservoirs, they (like the 2 previous communities we have visited) buy their “drinkable” water in garrafons or boil the water & add chlorine drops.

5th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project

Record of Meeting pg 1 of 3

5th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Where: Daytrip – La Campana & Sosnavar near Jalpa (via Rd. to Queretaro)

When: Thurs Aug 14th 2008, 9.00pm – 5pm (including 2 approx 1.5 hrs Comida)

Who: Bob Leonard, David Bossman & Laura Stewart & Enrique Hernandez Perez, Julio, Norma & Julian for FAI.

Purpose - SMA Rotary has tasked Bob, Enrique & Laura with defining the “needs” & determining the best proposal, for a major water Project involving the writing of a competitive grant for approx. US$100K.

Rationale: As part of the process of defining the “need” we will meet with as many people as possible that are directly involved in the provision of, or are aware of the need for the provision of, safe drinking water solutions to marginal communities.

FAI have been working in the area of conservation, environmental & ecological awareness for nearly 20 years. They have worked closely with marginal communities to improve their environs & living conditions. The world bank funds FAI in the areas of water, energy, food, health, education, crafts & nutrition.

Detail of visits:

We all met at the FAI office on Hidalgo, where Julian kindly drove us to the first community, La Campana. On the way there Enrique told us that PEASMA had been working with approx 30 schools to build stone water breaks, which helps prevent erosion (more on that later) We arrived in La Campana where we met with the Sub-delegado – Tomas Oviedo Bustamente.

In La Campana

Tomas & his wife invited us to lunch, they provided a lovely lunch of tortillas, beans, guacamole, egg, salsa & sodas. His wife was very shy & did not come out to eat with us. Their house was very basic inside, there was only a bed & a few very sparse furnishings.

Tomas told us:

He estimated the village has approx 250 families, but also thought there were approx 1200 kids, & 3000 people in total - we need to confirm the numbers.
FAI started working with the village approx 3 yrs ago, in that time they have built 8 little dams (bordos) for irrigation purposes
Last year was the first year that the big dam lasted all year
They have been building tranques of stone in order to slow the water flow, & capture silt/earth so that plants grow & the area stays moist.
They have a new well drilled by Sapasma approx 4 yrs ago (the old well ran out of water),
The new well is 350mtrs deep
They pump the water from the well up the hill in 4 inch diameter metal pipes to a holding tank (deposito) high above the village, the water is then gravity fed through 3 inch pipes to ½ inch pipes to each of the houses.
tank capacity is approx 4mx4mx3m (approx 50k litres)
They refill the tank 2x per week, ie are using approx. 100,000 litres per week
The water is for domestic use, not for drinking, although some may boil it or add chlorine & drink it, mostly they buy garafons of water.
Water hasn’t been tested yet
Record of Meeting pg 2 of 3

5th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Delgada’s name is Hermina Orlalde
Families pay $20 pesos per month, this helps pay for the electricity
the guy that maintains the pump gets $100pesos each time he runs the pump.
Not aware of well reducing in level
2 types of land owners in this village, some own just the land their houses are on, others own that plus land for growing food.

Our observations

The village is very lush, green & well kept
The crops are well tended,
They are only growing maize & beans
There is a large tank at the telesecondaria – not connected to rain collection
No-one is catching/collecting rainwater – the water pipes empty off the roof straight into the mud, even if there is a large container nearby.

Definition of needs by Enrique re La Campana

They need:

More education & training re the conservation of water, ie that it is a precious commodity
More dry toilets, currently only 10 in the village (the rest use flush toilets, wastes 5 litres every flush) dry toilets provide fertilizer, prevent groundwater pollution by faecal matter & are simple to build & maintain.
Access to drinking water, the water they have is for domestic use, not drinking
More water for irrigation, cultivation purposes (currently have a restricted growing season.

Action

NB Bob said he would make prints of the photos of Tomas & his wife & give them to

Them

Next Stop

We stopped at a section of land beside the Jalpa road that FAI had been working on – with the people of nearby villages.

They have installed “presas filtrantes” dam filters, these are essentially rock water breaks placed every 100 metres. They serve several purposes

To slow the flow of water
To retain sediment
To allow plants to naturally grow in the sediment/silt
Allows water to sit longer thence having a chance to recharge the aquifer
This is a simple method of regenerating the ecosystem, with the moisture & silt trapped, plants naturally grow, even throughout the dry season, hence providing food for grazing animals as well.

These mini-dams are maintained annually before the rainy season.


Record of Meeting pg 3 of 3

5th Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Next village visited was Soasnavar (according to spelling on side of school)

Here we met with Rogilio Olalde & Primitino Vevetz (sp?) who were happy to discuss the water system in their village.

They told us:

Just 4 months ago (before well was put in) they had no water – previous well had run dry
Sapasma just drilled them a new well, approx 250mtrs deep.
The villagers had to pay $3000 pesos (US$300) per family for the drilling of the well (total approx US$60k)
Approx 200 families in the village
They pump the water from the well to the holding tank
Holding tank estimated !0,000 litres capacity
Water is then gravity fed from the holding tank via pipes to each of the houses
Water is only pumped once a week, Fridays, & people must store the water for use all week.
They have no drinking water, water is for domestic use only
They currently buy garafons of water for drinking (or boil the water in rare cases- if they cant afford to buy the water)
No-one in this village has toilets.
Families pay $50pesos each week for water (from the well)
They pay approx $500 pesos per month to the person that operates the pump – the rest of the money is to go to electricity & chlorine (not sure if it is in liquid or gas form)
There are 2 groups of people in the community, those environmentally aware & those that don’t care, estimated 50/50.
There is a govt. program that tells the people of the communities not to drink water from the wells
They have not had their water tested yet.
NB it is interesting to note that when people say Potable water they more likely mean water for domestic use, not for drinking. Drinking water is likely described as agua para tomar, or purificado.

Comida

We all regrouped for a de-brief at a restaurant in town. Julian couldn’t make it. Eugenia met us there. David Bossman kindly paid.



There was a lot of cross conversations for example - where we should look next, what we can offer, how we can justify projects in villages that already have access to water (albeit that they can’t drink), nothing concrete.

There were no decisions made, at this point.

Next meeting is timetabled for

Thursday 21 August 9am at FAI – with Enrique

2nd record of mtg 11.08.08

Record of Meeting pg 1 of 1

2nd Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Where: Sapasma, (Head office across from Liverpool)

When: Monday Aug 11^th 2008, 1.15pm

Who: Bob Leonard, Laura Stewart & Enrique Orvañanos SMA Rotary. Alfonso Sanchez (Director of Sapasma)

Purpose - SMA Rotary has tasked Bob, Enrique & Laura with defining the “needs” & determining the best proposal, for a major water Project involving the writing of a competitive grant for approx. US$100K .

Rationale: As part of the process of defining the “need” we will meet with as many people as possible that are directly involved in the provision of, or are aware of the need for the provision of, safe drinking water solutions to marginal communities.

Sapasma is the Municipal water organisation, responsible for administering & maintaining supply of water to communities in & around SMA.

Discoveries/discussion/decisions:

We explained our goals to Alfonso.

He told us that there were essentially 150 communities in SMA, 80 with water & 70 without.

He said that people believed there were more communities, but that they are really small communities or “casario’s”.

Bob enquired about Cruz del Palmar – popn of approx 1100, but with naturally contaminated wells. He mentioned they are building another well there.

He mentioned that there was essentially no surface water usage that lasted the whole year as all the areas of surface water dry up at various stages before the next rainy season.

The meeting was essentially a short one as Alfonso advised he was not the best person in Sapasma to be talking to. He advised us to make a meeting time with his engineer Ernesto Lopez.

Meeting ended. New meeting time to be advised.

1st Exploratory mtg 8.8.2008

Record of Meeting pg 1 of 2

1^st Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

Where: FAI Office, Hidalgo #13 SMA

When: Friday Aug 8^th 2008, 10am - 11.30am

Who: Bob Leonard, Laura Stewart & Gary Peterson(part meeting)(Rotary SMA)

Eugenia (PEASMA), Silvia, Enrique, Carlos (FAI), Julian Gaxiola (UICN)

(FAI= save the children), PEASMA (environmental organisation) UICN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

Purpose - SMA Rotary has tasked Bob & Laura with defining the needs & determining the best proposal for a major water Project. This is the first step towards writing the grant for approx. US$100K of competitive grant.

Rationale: As part of the process of defining the “need” we will meet with as many people as possible that are directly involved in the provision of, or are aware of the need for the provision of, safe drinking water solutions to marginal communities.

The team at FAI have been working on this (& other ecological, environmental & conservation) issue(s) for almost 20 years. Likewise has the team of PEASMA for a shorter time. They have been involved in a” hands on” way, working directly with affected communities.

Discoveries/discussion/decisions:

At this point we identified the issues as:

Communities with

• No access to water (ie water is trucked in from any available source – potentially contaminated dams & streams, contaminated pozos* etc)
• Water from pozos – containing various contaminants (natural & introduced)
• Water from streams, rivers or lakes (most likely contaminated)
• Water from pozos – where water level is reducing & not replenishing fast enough to keep up with demand.

*a pozos is a well.

The PEASMA & FAI team brainstormed & came up with 6 communities they believe would be good “project partners” for the following reasons –

• They have water issues ie have a “need”
• They have a working relationship with them already
• They are likely to be receptive to outside assistance/involvement
• They have demonstrated their motivation to learn & help themselves in the past
• The govt. is currently providing no direct assistance with their water issues

The Communities decided on initially are

1. La Campana (near Jalpa)
2. Sosnavar (near Jalpa)
3. Pena Blanca (on road to GTO, no water, only river)
4. La Venta (road to Dolores)
5. El Nina de Atocha (no water, using neighbours’ – near Coral de Piedras- road to Qto)
6. Tierra Blanca (largely indigenous community, needing water for subsistence crops)

Cont.d Record of Meeting pg 2 of 2

1^st Exploratory Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Committee

There was much discussion across a variety of associated topics. Some points raised were -

1. 60% of villages have drilled pozos (the govt’s previous solution), as a result the aquifer is hugely diminished, the water being used is 100’s if not 1000’s of years old & is not replenishing.
2. FAI & PEASMA have been installing dry composting toilets in the villages (more than 600 of them to date) in order to prevent contamination of groundwater from sewage seepage.
3. Many communities have demonstrated their willingness & eagerness to learn & to change when educated with the issues & possible solutions.
4. Some programs have been implemented where by the receiving village becomes the Starship village & must then demonstrate & replicate their successes for other villages, hence spreading the success.
5. The national water institution is called CAN
6. Each State has their own commission of water, eg in this State (Gto) it is Sapasma
7. Each village has a Committee de Agua Potable, who are tasked with maintaining supply of potable water to the people of the village, for which they are paid (an estimated) $8000pesos per month, for things like electricity, maintaining cuotas, pipes etc. It is questionable about whether the money gets spent for the right purpose.
8. FAI & PEASMA have worked with numerous villages in many regions – the results have been mixed, some very cooperative & receptive, others not so. The region of Allende has historically been difficult to work with, Tierra Blanca & Victoria (for example) have been great, & Dolores has been OK.

Note to Board Members – request for guidance in this matter.

It should be noted that there was discussion re payment of consultancy fees for the FAI & PEASMA people involved in the project. They indicated that they would invoice Rotary for the time spent – at this point, driving Bob & Laura to the villages, introducing us to key stakeholders, assisting with identifying the need etc.

This is a point that needs to be clearly specified from the outset, as SMA Rotary does not have ready funding for this, & it would ultimately be contingent on the success of the grant in December, we would be out of pocket if the grant application is unsuccessful. Payment for services would be expected in an ongoing fashion, so we will need to work out how we will fund this. We will need to apply to the board for guidance in this matter.

Next steps:

Meet at FAI 9am Thursday 14 Aug. Enrique (FAI employee) , (& Julian) will drive us to one or more of the communities.

Meet at FAI 8am Friday 15 Aug. Carlos will drive us to Tierra Blanca (no. 6 on the above list of communities)

On both visits we will take notes, photos & discover their need.