10th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba Water Project

Record of Event pg 1 of 5
10th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba Water Project


Where: Vivienda de Arriba (40 mins from SMA)
When: Wed Aug 4th 2010 12.10pm- 2pm
Who: Holly & Jesus, (Cedesa) Laura, (Rotary),
(Chela was ill & so Jesus attended in her absence), + 39 adults including 9 men.

Purpose: The water project funded by Rotary has concluded, with the successful completion of 17 cisterns (1 school & 16 individual family).

This meeting is continuing relations & development in the community & neighbouring communities. There were representatives from 3 communities attending today.

Juan Gonzalez
• Juan Gonzalez (located past Tierra Blanca, on the other side of the river)
• There are approx. 75 families in Juan Gonzalez
• their water comes from Family Pozos (water in the Pozos in this area are fluoride contaminated), not all families have Pozos (wells) but they share.
• The wells are approx. 20-35 mtrs deep, some are 7-10 mtrs if they are closer to the river
• Attending were Maria Ramirez ph 415 149 4772, Soledad Lopez, Margarita Hernandez & Salvador Correa

Cinco Senores
• Cinco Senores is in front of Juan Gonzalez but the Vivienda de Arriba side of the river
• There are approx. 20 Families
• They have no wells, their only source of water is the river, which is dry in the dry season (ie most of the year!) they have to dig as much as 1mtr in the river bed to find water. This is their only water.
• Attending were Letitia Lopez, Adelita Gonzalez, Josefina Herrera, & Maria Beatriz Baranca – contact Maria Ramirez (as above) 415 149 4772

San Isidro Capadero
• San Isidro is on the road to Cruz del Palmar, on the left, ie between Vivienda de Arriba & Cruz del Palmar.
• Approx. 35 families of which there are 30 on the list of potential participants in a water Project.
• They have family wells (also contaminated with fluoride) approx. 10-20 mtrs.
• They buy water to drink
• Attending were Jesus Rico (the sand guy – ph 415 155 9406, 415 112 5703), Roberto Reyes, Roberto Caldino, Jose Rodriguez.

San Lorenzo
• San Lorenzo is close to Juan Gonzalez (makes more sense to combine JG & SL, than with Vivienda 2nd phase).
• Approx. 4 families
• Attending were representatives of Estevan (3), Abel (4), J Piedad (9), Alfredo (4), the contact person is Rosa Maria Ramirez (the sister of Aurelia the young woman attending), 415 114 2539.
• Humberto Alfonzo – a young man, approached us after the assembly & said he was very interested in doing social development work & learning how to be a promoter. Holly took his details.



Record of Event pg 2 of 5

We talked with the representatives from the new communities first, we asked them the above details & Jesus explained that we are just at the beginning of a long process, that Rotary & Cedesa do not have a big pile of $$$ to offer. What we are offering is the opportunity to gather together to begin to work on the solution to lack of drinking water.

Jesus specifically emphasised we are not able to guarantee funding, but that we are taking statistics of communities who are motivated to resolve this issue, we are just beginning the process.

He suggested that in the meantime we could do a workshop in Cinco Senores re how to avoid bugs & minimise germs since their only source of water is a dirty river.

Jesus stated we are not a religious organisation or a bank or a source of funds, we are here to talk & begin to organise to find the solution, & we can begin to work to seek resources. We are not many people, for example Chela is not here today because she is sick from working too hard 24/7, & we don’t have 20 Chela’s.

Cedesa is only Benigno, Juanita, Chela, Tere, Pancho, Justy, Abel, Holly, Jesus & part time Saul. & there are more than 140 communities Cedesa is engaged with.

“It is very important you realise this & don’t have unrealistic expectations.”

Annamaria (young leader from Vivienda de Arriba), suggested creating a commission of representatives of all the communities & having just one assembly to discuss all the issues of all the communities.

Holly asked Anna to describe the process of the water project from the beginning to it’s conclusion for the new people attending.

She first visited Los Torres assembly in October 2009 & continued to visit each assembly every month, until we began to visit Vivienda de Arriba & hold assemblies there. After the first assembly she returned to Los Torres the following month with a list of who wanted to be involved, not just in the cistern construction, but also attending & participating in assemblies.

They all kept attending assemblies & were very lucky that $$ came through quickly as a project in another community had cancelled. The pilot was completed at the primary school & then the whole community worked together in groups to construct their cisterns.

Jesus explained the components of commitment required
• Assembly participation
• Taking the roll
• Organising & co-ordinating planning meetings
• Understanding the work process
• Learning the construction process
• Working in groups to complete the cisterns
•
One of the women from Vivienda de Arriba stated, it is more than just getting a list of people’s names, they have to be prepared to come to meetings & participate in the whole process.

We asked for contact details of all the new groups, (some are attending for 2nd or 3rd time).

Holly & Jesus gave their contact details
We then introduced ourselves - a little late!!


Record of Event pg 3 of 5

One of the women from Cinco Senores had come on the first day of the month, thinking the assemblies were then, but they are actually the 1st Wednesday of the month, we reiterated that.

The visiting communities were given the option to leave or stay & observe the process, some had to leave to go back to work, others stayed.

The Vivienda de Arriba Assembly proper, started then
The Roll was called, 1 person was absent, visiting the funeral of a young man that had died in Tierra Blanca (2 have died in the last 2 wks, one age 34 & the other age 38, we are working on the mortality rate issue in Tierra Blanca).

Anna, co-ordinating & record taking for this meeting.
She added 3 new names to the list of people for phase II.
Anna reiterated to someone they can not continue to send representatives on their behalf, they must attend themselves.

The 2nd Phase list is growing.

Holly asked Anna to call for agenda items for this meeting.

• Sanitarios Secos
• Revision of Phase I
• Planning of Phase II
• Assemblies, when to have them in future
• Backyard gardens

Item 1 Phase I revision
All 17 cisterns completed & catching water.
The tinaco is installed, catching water already! (tinaco/plastic water tank installed for the elderly woman who lives on her own)

2 roof replacements, materials have arrived, not fully installed (need screwing on) will be installed by Tuesday.


Item 2 Phase II planning
There are basically 2 lists of people for phase II
1 list of people living in Vivienda de Arriba = 12
The other list of people currently living in the USA, but planning on returning = 10
Living here
Leovardo, Evarista, Francisca R, Nicolasa (absent), Luis, Gloria, Rogelia, Jose, Marta, Urbaldo, Irene, Francisca M, Cristina (12 here)
Living in USA
Juan Carlos, Gerardo, Federico R, Aderina R, Santos T, Noz, Valentino, Soloman, Elias, Marcos.

It should be pointed out that this region has a huge number of men in the USA. The people who stay behind feel very indebted to these guys who make the sacrifice to go to the states, so are petitioning on their behalves to have the cisterns provided for them. We of course think the priority should go to the people who live here & currently have no (or contaminated) water, but have to be diplomatic in conveying this.


Record of Event pg 4 of 5

Jesus explained the Funding situation:
Rotary has a long time frame, we need to wait months for approval & if approved, wait further months before $$ are actually available.

The Green Fund, from the Ecologia is currently funding their first project in Capaderillo, this is a Test Case, & if the people do a good job of the project it will open doors to more projects being funded by the Green Fund.

In the case of the “migrantes” – they’re not here & can’t participate. No one is sure if they’re coming back & when, so because we don’t have certainty it is difficult to plan.

There is the possibility of a “pay it forward” program (Tanda), whereby the first one is co-operatively paid for, then those people pay for the next one, & so on. A period to “payback/forward” would have to be a requirement. This is a suggestion – what do you think?

“We would prefer to wait, & then they could become phase III, we have received assistance with materials, & it would be good for them too”. So the suggestion then became those people would become the phase III list.

Holly reiterated it might be a good option to begin sooner, if the people in the States could send money back for the people in VdA to begin building them now for them…

Item 3 Sanitarios Secos
Anna mentioned they only became interested in Sanitarios Secos when the point was raised by visitors to their assembly from La Tinaja. La Tinaja are aware of sanitarios secos because of a save the laja project going on in a neighbouring community.

Holly suggested delaying discussion on this topic, for Chela since it is her specialty.
Jesus wanted to clarify a few things first
1. The existing model is very expensive (twice the cost of a cistern!)
2. It is important to find & design a cheaper model
3. It is important to understand the importance of toilets re health issues/germs/poo problems etc – to know the way the toilet works re the breakdown of bacteria, diversion of urine & lots of other details
4. If they are interested Jesus suggested a workshop would be a good way to learn these things before beginning a toilet project.
5. Other things to learn would be eg, the number of litres to flush a flush toilet, & the expense to maintain a flush toilet
6. Lots of people use toilets as chicken houses or storage sheds because the decide not to use the toilets

2 of the women from Juan Gonzalez mentioned they have dry toilets, they have had them more than 12 years & use them properly. “the materials from the dry toilets are a great fertilizer, if you use them properly” “it converts to dirt & where you put the dirt from the toilet the corn grows bigger!”

Item 4 – assemblies
Holly asked “how do you want to keep having your assemblies?”
Anna responded “we’d like to continue with backyard gardens, the possibility of dry toilets & other things”
Jesus talked about regional meetings – assemblies bringing together multiple communities.
It was suggested that we do 2 more assemblies as training, & then they would take up the reins on their own.

Record of Event pg 5 of 5


Item 5 – extra point – maintenance of cisterns & Sodis
Holly handed out the final information sheet containing information re on-going maintenance of the cisterns & also the SODIS method of purifying the water.

Next assembly was planned for Wednesday 1st September at 11am
(other communities were invited to attend then too)


Next we headed off for Tierra Blanca for our 3pm Assembly there.

Report respectfully submitted by Laura Stewart