COCIRA Meeting 25th Sept 2014

COCIRA Community Meeting

Presa de Allende

September 25, 2014

Meeting was called to order at 10:50 am

Agenda was set for the day

The following communities were in attendance:

Community Name	# adults in attendance	# children attending
Correlejo	7	6
Tierra Blanca	1
Juan Gonzalez	10
La Banda	6	3
Alonso Yanez	4
Lindero	3
Montecillo de Nieto	2	1
San Lorenzo	3	1
Cienega Juan Ruiz	1
La Palmita II	2
Vivienda de Abajo	11	3
Nuevo Rancho Villa de Guadalupe	1
Ex Hacienda de Pena Blanca	3	1
Presa Allenda	25	A bunch
Non-COCIRA Vistors
San Marco Begona	1
Puente de Carmen	1

Total Attendance: 81 adults and about 25 children.

At the previous COCIRA meeting held in San Lorenzo about one month ago, it was decided that a “commission” would be set up to visit communities where there had been previous water harvesting, dry toilet and other projects. The commission is to consist of representatives to COCIRA, CEDESA and Rotary San Miguel Midday. The purpose of the commission is to see how these projects have held up over time.

The Rotary water harvesting program began in late 2008 so Rotary is pleased to have a chance to go back and learn how the beneficiaries have fared over time. Specifically Rotary is interested in seeing whether the cisterns are being maintained as recommended, whether the families are taking any additional sanitation precautions with the harvested water and whether there are any changes in our design that could improve the cistern. Rotary is also interested in seeing how many persons in various communities have the Eco-Cina stoves and to see how the dry toilet projects (mostly done by the municipality) are progressing. This is also an opportunity for us to continue to update our community assessments to see what other needs the people in the communities have identified as necessary for their continued community development.

The commission is to consist of two teams who will visit the communities on the dates listed below:

Team One: Leonilla, Chela, Mayra and David
La Tinaja	October 3
Villa Guadalupe and San Lorenzo	October 17
Cinco Senores	October 24
Correlejo	October 31
Vivienda de Ariba	November 7
Cienega Juan Ruiz	November 14
La Palmita II	November 21

Team Two: Araceli, Saul, Lee, and Isabel
Vivienda de Abajo	September 30
Capadrillo	October 7
Guerro	October 7
Presita Santa Rosa	October 14
Cruz del Palmar	October 28
Los Torres	November 4
Las Magueyes	October 21
Tierra Blanca Abajo	November 11
Montecillo de Nieto	October 21

Next the program for new Water Harvesting Projects was discussed. This is the revised list of communities and families that are on the waiting list:

La Palmita Ii – 14 families

Montecillo de Nieto – 8 families

La Banda – 10 families

Rancho Nuevo Villa de Guadalupe – 6 families

Juan Gonzalez – 18 families (16 cisterns + 2 rotoplasts)

Vivienda de Abajo - 12 families

Presa Allende – 36 families

Alonso Yanez – 23 families

Lindero – 23 families

Alejandro Guerra reported the results of the testing of wells in those communities undertaken last week. The testing was graciously done at no cost by CATIS. Juan Gonzalez was not tested because CATIS did extensive testing there in November of 2013 and the results were all above 2.0 mg/liter which automatically qualifies them as in need of a project of this nature. Tests are in mg/liter of water.

Presa Allende 1.27; Artisano de Banda (serving La Banda) 1.84; Vivienda de Abajo 1.87; Alonso Yanez (also serving Lindero) 4.95; Montecillo de Nieto 1.40; Don Francisco (serving Palmita II) 0.53.

The Don Francisco well has tested to be low in fluoride over several years and it was noted that they are very fortunate to have safe drinking water in their community that is not degrading as precipitously as has been noted in other communities in this area.  As such, it was determined that they would not qualify for a cistern project at this time.

Following Alejandro’s report, priorities and “start dates” for the projects were determined. Priority is based upon the degree of contamination and the previous participation by the community in COCIRA. The following plan has been set to convene the first planning meetings for these projects:

Juan Gonzalez – October 7, 4 pm

La Banda and Montecillo de Nieto – October 28, 4 pm

Vivienda de Abajo – November 18 – 4 pm

Some notes about the other communities:

Villa de Guadalupe had a well dug there by SAPASMA in December 2013 and SAPASMA has installed the delivery pipes within the last 30 days. It is expected that they will have water available from this well in the near future. At this time, the new well is not connected (lacking electricity and a pump). We have not been able to test the water in this well although SAPASMA has indicated that the quality is “good”. Rotary will have the water tested as soon as the new well is connected and if it is deemed unsafe, we will provide resources to do cisterns there. We would prefer to do this at the same time as Juan Gonzalez but they do not want to wait any longer. IF Villa’s water is unsatisfactory, the community of Juan Gonzalez will provide the training and assistance to help these six families build cisterns. Otherwise there are not enough families to amortize the training and supervision costs over a small number of cisterns.

The level of fluoride measured in the Alonso Yanez well is the highest that we have ever encountered in the San Miguel area. (Note that as the mg/liter measurement increases that the potential health risks increase exponentially and not lineally.) There are currently 23 families in Alonso Yanez and 23 families in Lindero that want to participate in the cistern project. No one in either community knew before today that their fluoride levels were so elevated. This project will not begin until late 2014 because these communities are late comers to COCIRA . It was decided that we will hold to “educational assemblies” in October to inform the people more about the dangers of fluoride and arsenic in their community. We will also provide information about water quality and sanitation in general at these meetings. Perhaps other families will want to join in the project when they have scientific knowledge of the water situation in their community. The meeting in Alonso Yanez will be October 3rd at 10 am and the meeting in Lindero will be October 14^th at 10 am. Start dates for these two projects will be determined later in the year.

Presa Allende. At 1.27, Presa Allende is on the cusp of having a problem, but it may not be critical at this time. We want to study the situation more over the next several months before making a determination of whether to include Presa Allende in the water harvesting program for 2014/15. Additional testing will be done by CATIS over the next several months. Dr. Ortega from UNAM will be consulted to discuss the rate of degradation of the water to be expected in the near future. We will try to find results of testing done at this well over the last 10 years so we can plot the decline if any. Since the Mexican standard and WHO standard of 1.5 mg/liter were set some 15 years ago, we want to review the more recent scientific studies to see when the health problems begin to manifest  in relation to fluoride contamination. There has been much discussion within WHO in the last several years about whether to lower the NORM. This decision as to whether a cistern project is to be done at Presa Allende will be postponed until we have all the information necessary to make an informed  and responsible decision.

The next item on the agenda of the day was to see the various products being produced in various communities in the San Miguel area which was combined with a communal lunch brought by the COCIRA participants. Eric and Deyenira Ramirez from the Eco-Cina stove factory provided a demonstration of the Eco-Cina Stove (a prior Rotary project) which reduces smoke by 60%, uses substantially less firewood and reduces the illnesses associated with cooking on open fires. These stoves all but eliminate the dangers of children falling into open fires. We were all  pleased to receive fresh quesadillas from Deyenira and the many other delights brought by the participants.

Submitted by:

Lee Carter

Rotary San Miguel Midday

September 25, 2014

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////