Global Grant Update La Banda/Montecillo de Nieto: & Alonso Yanez and Presa Allende: January 27, 2015

La Banda/Montecillo de Nieto: The pilot cistern at the elementary school in La Banda is now complete and the communities of La Banda and Montecillo de Nieto are ready to split into three teams and complete 17 more family cisterns. Hierro Comercial is delivering all the materials today and the other components, gravel, sand, plywood, were delivered last week. It will take about six weeks to complete and we hope to have a grand celebration in the first week or March which is also when we will begin a 12 cistern project in Vivienda.

Alonso Yanez and Presa Allende: I continue to go bi-weekly to the communities of Alonso Yanez and Presa Allende to collect water samples from their wells. CATIS and Rotary are doing a simple study to determine how and if fluoride levels rise over the dry season as the wells are drawn down by the extra water being extracted. We have been doing this since the end of the rainy season and plan to continue until the end of the dry season. Talks with the “pozoleros” (persons that take care of community wells in the communities) have told us that the months of April and May are when the extraction is at its greatest. Alonso Yanez is consistently testing at close to 5 mg/liter for fluoride which is the highest we have seen within our municipality (water levels above 1.5mg/litre may have long-term undesirable effects**read more about fluoride here).

We will be building about 46 cisterns in Alonso Yanez and the adjacent community, Lindero, in April 2015.

Submitted by Lee Carter, Rotary San Miguel Midday

Juan Gonzalez - Inauguration January 24, 2015

Alejandro Guerra, David Hartman and I traveled to the wonderful community of Juan Gonzalez today to celebrate the completion of another successful water harvesting project. Sixteen cisterns were constructed by three workgroups and 4 water harvesting systems were installed using pre-fabricated plastic cisterns at homes where the owners did not have enough roof to collect water for a 12,000 liter cistern.

This is the second phase of water harvesting in Juan Gonzalez. About one-half of the community’s families now have safe potable water. This is one of the most organized communities that I have observed. The process of working together to accomplish a better life for all is becoming a part of their daily vocabulary. In addition to two cistern projects through Rotary, they have also worked together on developing backyard gardens, dry toilets and testing and adopting water filtration disinfection through CATIS.

We began by having an assembly where many of the people spoke passionately about what has been accomplished and what could be in the future. Saul Jaurez of CEDESA spoke about the success and the hard work that these people put in through COCIRA to become eligible for project funding. After this we all took a walk through the community to see the new built cisterns and also we had a chance to note that the cisterns from the first project of a few years ago are being very well maintained. Many of the new cisterns have been “decorated” with interesting statues at the top of the cone … everything from cats to Cristo Rey and in between.

After a ribbon cutting ceremony at the pilot cistern, we all returned to the elementary school for a diverse and delicious meal cooked by the members of the community. I look forward to more work in this community in the future.

Submitted by: Lee Carter, Rotary San Miguel Midday