1000+ cisterns achieved!

1,101 Cisterns

54 Communities & Counting!!

NB 1000 cisterns completed - 101 more will be completed this spring...

Water Harvesting Education Program in Los Platanos

Over 30 participants attended the 3-day Water Harvesting Education Program  (February 20-23) in Los Platanos. The participants were from the communities of Los Platanos, Vergel de Guadalupe & San Cayetano in the municipality of San Luis de la Paz in the state of Guanajuato.

This was the first time Rotary Midday of San Miguel de Allende & CEDESA have visited this community; invited by volunteer community organizer Lucha Villafuerte & Father Zesati to help provide solutions to the contaminated water in the Independence Aquifer.

On day one of the program, between singing, dancing & eating, the participants learned how important water is to life & how to avoid contaminating water in the way they use water . Participants were astonished to learn that only 2% of water on Earth is suitable for human consumption & resolved to use it wisely. The ‘grandmothers’ in the group spoke to us about how they used water long ago which caused the group to reflect on the wastefulness of modern-day usage.

Day two was full of dynamic activities focused on how water in these communities became polluted & how this affected health.  The day started with participants creating a mural of their watershed & learning where their water comes from. They discovered there were three types of pollutants; chemical, mineral & biological, some of which they have control over & some they do not.

The promoters showed photos of adults & children with various stages of fluorosis & arsenic poisoning (fluoride & arsenic both contaminate local water supplies), which caused much discussion. A guest from a nearby community shared the problems her own community is experiencing; the tap water is highly contaminated & has caused several cases of cancer, kidney failure, & death. She reported the municipal government denies that the health problems are caused by city water. She is working with a committed group of 8 concerned citizens to help bring awareness of this serious issue. She heard about the work of Rotary and CEDESA & came to seek help and resources.

Day three of the program began with an original song & sketches about why we shouldn’t drink or cook with tap water. CEDESA & Rotary Midday member, Lee Carter, got in on the act with a humorous role play about a community rallying around clean water for their children.  The participants concluded that harvesting rainwater in cisterns was the best solution to their problem. They were enthusiastic about starting cistern building the following week.

At the conclusion of the 3-day prog. the participants agreed the problem of contaminated water is everyone’s problem & they will work together to build cisterns & to spread awareness in their communities.

Eighty-one cisterns are in the process of being built by communities in the San Luis de la Paz area.

Submitted by: Wendy Coulson (Rotary Peace Fellow/Curriculum Developer)

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)

Celebration Charco de Araujo October 29, 2016

Today we celebrated the completion of 14 cisterns & 3 tinacos in the community of Charco de Araujo. 

This community is near San Diego de La Union & is the first community we have worked with this far north for several years. The area of eastern Dolores Hidalgo, San Diego de La Union & San Luis de la Paz has some of the most contaminated water in the Aquifer. It is for this reason that Rotary San Miguel Midday took the decision to expand its geographical service area with this grant for 319 water harvesting cisterns.

The rural grassroots organization, UCCANG, is working as a partner with CEDESA & Rotary in these projects. UCCANG was founded approx. 35 years ago to work to resolve the issue of lack of potable water resources in the northern part of Guanajuato. They are well organized & managed by a board of directors from those communities. UCCANG helps us identify communities that are requesting cisterns & play a critical role in the project in addition to choosing beneficiary families. 

They have the responsibility of inspecting & verifying all cisterns are in 100% working condition before we have our community celebrations. They are also going to make a formal review six months later to follow up on maintenance issues & recommendations for cistern water disinfection. This is critical to the long term success of these projects.

Seven UCCANG communities attended today’s event. The program for the day included testimonials from the beneficiary families describing their experience in self-constructing their cisterns in work groups each consisting of 7 families. All of the communities in attendance performed songs or dances that remembered their cultural traditions. A wonderful meal, including carnitas (!), capped off the day.

In attendance were:

Chela, Ceci, Benigno and Meche from CEDESA, UCCANG directors & members of the local communities.  Nate, Fred, Beatriz, Gary, Wendy (who developed the project’s education program), Lee, & two guests from Rotary Midday, Carla Cadena (a Jovenes Adelante Scholar who is doing social service in helping administer the project), Edgarkis Crisostomo, (a Rotary Foundation Water & Sanitation Cadre volunteer from the Dominican Republic - who conducted extensive interviews with CEDESA representatives) came with us also.

After the event we all went to La Colorada, down the road, to see their progress in their project.

Submitted by: Lee Carter

Boca de la Cañada Inauguration 22 Oct 2016

Today we celebrated the completion of 21 cisterns in Boca de Canada. There were visitors from other COCIRA communities who wanted to share in the celebration: Presa Allende, Begona del Progresso, Salitrillo, Vivienda de Abajo, Corralejo, & Alonso Yanez. Mercedes Paramo & Abel Suartze were in attendance from CEDESA. Beatriz Salcedo, David Bossman, Catalina Rivera, Frank, & Lee Carter attended representing Rotary. All told there were about 70 persons in attendance. Following a program that included stories from the new cistern owners about the construction process; a poetry presentation by one of the community members, & a traditional dance performance by 12 of the beneficiaries, diplomas were awarded to all of those who successfully completed the education program.

The pilot cistern was built at the elementary school. The beneficiaries of the project agreed to teach an abbreviated form of the education program to some of the students of the school & they were awarded diplomas as well.


The community built two “models” of cisterns; the first demontrated a completed & connected cistern next to a home & the second demonstrated a cistern under construction. They also prepared a 4 ft x 8 ft picture board showing the people working in each stage of the cistern construction.

       

As always the program concluded with a delicious meal prepared by the community.

Report by Lee Carter

Eight Cisterns in Eight Weeks | Salitrillo Cistern Project

Wrapping Up   - 22nd Sept 2016

The cistern project in Salitrillo is well and truly underway. The Pilot cistern at the home of Señora Cecilia Luna Rosas is finished except for a curing period to set the concrete. 

Meanwhile the second cistern of eight which make up the first phase of the Salitrillo project is just about ready for its “gorro” or roof. At this point, the build team of seven women and two men are on their own except for weekly visits from Señor Abel, the technical advisor from CEDESA.

This year the Rotary San Miguel Midday Club working with the Rotary Action Group for Water and Sanitation (WASRAG) introduced an innovation in the cistern construction process: plastic wrap! 

As with any ferro-cement structure, cement must be allowed to cure slowly to prevent cracking and to attain its maximum structural strength. Normally ferro-cement structures are “watered”, sprayed down with water on a daily basis, for a period of days or weeks to make sure that the cement sets up slowly and remains crack-free. 

Needless to say this involves both careful attention to the watering schedule and the use of water which is then wasted. 

Hence, the use of plastic wrap. By wrapping the entire structure in a double layer of industrial sized plastic wrap (think kitchen plastic wrap on a grand scale), the cisterns wall and roof can undergo a slow curing period with much less care and feeding, and with virtually no wasted water.

Though it may seem modest, it’s important to place Salitrillo’s cistern project in perspective. The eight Salitrillo cisterns are among a total of 819 cisterns constructed since 2008. Each cistern collects 12,000 liters of rainwater when full. If you do the math, CEDESA and COCIRA, Project Beneficiaries and Rotary San Miguel Midday have created an amazing above ground reservoir capable of holding a whopping 9,828,000 liters of potable water storage. 

Think about that for a minute. 10 million liters is approximately 3 million gallons or roughly four Olympic sized swimming pools of water captured each year for the drinking and cooking needs of people living within the area of the Independencia aquifer.

When the current Global Grant is completed in the spring of 2017, a total of 1,092 cisterns will have been built representing an investment of over $10,000,000 pesos ($550,000 USD). Total rainwater collection capacity will top 13 million liters. And the geographic area serviced by the combined Rotary projects will include the communities surrounding San Miguel de Allende, San Diego de la Union, Dolores Hidalgo and San Luis de la Paz.

Guest post by Roger Brudno.