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.
