5th Regional Mtg of the Communities requesting assistance with water 2nd as a Consejo.

Record of Event
5th Regional Mtg of the Communities requesting assistance with water
2nd as a Consejo.

Where: Cedecom bldg. just off the Carretera Qto.
When: 2.3 11 (postponed from the planned 23.2.11)
Who: Communities of the Consejo, I counted approx. 67 community members.

Chela, Saul, Holly Yasui,- Cedesa, Laura – Rotary,
Sapasma director & engineers & architecto Eduardo, Ecology (Helio + others), Felipe Ojeda Arsuaga of Desarollo Social, Lucy, Irma.

Purpose: the Consejo went to the Presidencia on the 4th? Feb to ask for an audience with Lucy.
This was ultimately granted for the 16th feb. On the 16th 4 representatives of the Consejo attended a planning meeting with Lucy (la Presidenta) & Miguel Gil (desarollo social sub-director) & Sapasma rep. to discuss the plan for the regional meeting first scheduled for 23/2, but moved to 2.3.11.

The purpose of the meeting is for the communities to represent their issues as a region to Lucy & the municipality & work collaboratively to resolve these issues.

This meeting was a long time & effort in the planning, Saul & other Cedesa team members had personally visited each of the communities in the consejo to advise them of this meeting. Communication between communities is very difficult, often no cell phone coverage, or limited cell phone users/or no credit on the cell phones etc, so it is better to visit in person to ensure the message gets to the right people. Saul spent at least 4 days visiting these hard to get to communities.

Transportation into town is also a major issue, many don’t have cars, so some were able to carpool, others were transported by Cedesa on their way through, & others caught buses or hitchhiked.
People were gathered outside the building & wrote their community names on large white cards which (Holly had bought), in order to be easily identified.

The meeting began approx. 11.40am (due to start at 11am).

The building is in the form of an auditorium, so the dept. heads, as well as Saul & Cata (president of the consejo) sat on stage at a long table.

Saul led introduced himself & Cata & opened the meeting, he identified the communities.
Lucy responded that she was very happy to see everyone here today representing their Consejo & their region, & began the points for discussion.

Cata also spoke & said the main issues were about water, but that they had other issues to discuss as they had begun organizing to analyse issues & necessities by community & region. She then presented the representatives of the consejo, & asked all the communities to introduce themselves.
Los Torres, Presita Santa Rosa, Capaderillo, Cienega, La Palmita II, Juan Gonzalez, Tierra Blanca, Cinco Senores, La Tinaja, San Lorenzo, Corralejo, Vivienda de Abajo & Vivienda de Arriba. Missing were Montecillo de Nieto, Villa de Guadalupe, La Aurora & Guerrero.

Minutes from the planning meeting were read.
Looking for 3 part participation, Govt, Cedesa/Rotary, Communities
Regular meetings on subjects/issues,
Sanitarios Secos (Desarollo Social).

Aim is for the presidencia to be made aware of the issues & to begin to work together to resolve.

General discussion points were then discussed.
In Cienega there is an issue about ownership of the water concession, the person who has the concession has since gone to the USA, there was lengthy discussion led by Lucy as to suggested methods to resolve, including instructions re visiting embassy in the states, documents required etc.
(Action)Ecology is going to help with the transfer of ownership


Los Torres Well – it has been constructed for 2 years but still no water being distributed. The electricity to the pump is the wrong “phase”, so it is running. Also only the upper part of the community have contributed so only the upper community will receive water in the first phase (when they finally get electricity to the pump).

Phase II will be to gather more resources from the lower community, so is down the track.

Pipas, (water trucks) are not coming regularly.

Vivienda de Abajo/Capaderillo, lacking co-operation of the 2 communities, for 1, the agreement & 2. The payment. Needs to be an agreement with the communities supported by desarollo social…

Villa de Guadalupe – illegal well/neighbours not sharing water - to be carried forward as VdG absent.

In summary there are many outstanding issues regarding sapasma wells in the communities, including pumps not working, pumps not working long enough to supply total community, people in upper parts of community often miss out, etc.

Sanitarios Secos
There are many options, but not all are good models as well people need to be trained in proper use & maintenance, & be motivated to want to use them. Desarollo Social reported they have begun work on this issue, & have been working with Delegados, Lucy suggested they could work with the consejo in this region.

It was proposed that the Consejo would meet monthly as a region, raise the issues for bringing to the presidencia, & then there would be regular monthly meetings with the presidencia dept. heads to work on the issues.

Lucy left the meeting at 1pm, the discussion continued with Sapasma engineer. Meeting closed approx. 1.40.

Next consejo/regional meeting 23.3.11 in Vivienda de Arriba.
(next presidencia meeting to be proposed)