Where: Presita de Santa Rosa, off the GTO hwy, on the right just past Cienegita Bridge (approx. 40 mins from SMA)
When: Wed Oct 12th 2011
Who: Saul, Holly, Chela (Cedesa), Laura (Rotary), delegado Jose Luz Ramirez Vazquez, 20 adults incl 6 men, + 4 kids
Purpose: 1st Planning meeting for Sapasma funded water project. (from Sapasma Grant II)
Saul opened the meeting, describing why we’re here, & the history of our collaboration with Presita, including previous meetings & visitors to other assemblies from Presita. Presita also sent a mini commission to visit Cedesa approx. 1 yr ago.
Roberto, one of the members of the PSR community is also the secretary of the Consejo formed as a result of the water projects in the region.
The Roll was called, there were 20 on the list & 3 absent from that list.
Saul called for a co-ordinator & records taker & explained the reason & process (as we do at each meeting), Mayra was proposed & Mayra proposed Erica. A vote was taken & Mayra was appointed. Roberto was appointed records taker.
Mayra called for points for today’s agenda:
1. Cisternas
2. Contamination of Pozos
3. The process of construction of cisterns
4. Dry toilets
5. Roberto would like a mini commission to attend the Consejo, not just him
6. Organisation of groups
7. Taller at Cedesa changed to November
Chela re-iterated the involvement of their community in the process to date & reinforced that this is the reason they are now about to receive resources to construct cisterns.
She asked who knew the process of the construction of the cisterns, one young guy said he understood it was done in working groups, families banded together to build all cisterns for all families in the group. Another said they had heard they were going to be at the same time as Cruz del Palmar, & were now starting earlier?
Item 1 – contamination of water
There was general discussion about contamination, causes, symptoms etc. PSR have had water from the Banda Sapasma well for 5 yrs. Before that they had only small family wells & water from an irrigation well. They observed they have what seems like high concentration of sodium in the water as there is a lot of white build up on taps…
Saul explained that we had done a study & taken water samples of many wells including Banda, as a way to establish a baseline re our continuing study with Tierra Blanca to determine the cause of the high cancer rates they have there. The testing had been done by Unam & the Consejo on the Banda well & it was discovered to have very high level of fluoride, 3.47 (highest max safe level is 1.5mg/l).
This is a serious problem in this community but also in this region in general, causing damage to your health & that of your children, which is one of the main reasons we began this project in 2008.
There are more than 300 families currently using this well in Banda, & many are unaware of the situation with the contamination, you need to tell the communities (your neighbours) this information – one of the women joked “we don’t drink much coke, sometimes wks go by, but now we cant drink the water either – what can we drink?”. We all laughed & said, exactly, that’s why we are catching the rain water to drink.
At this point Chela took the floor to discuss junk food & it’s damage to health, & the benefits of eating healthily v the strain we put on our bodies having to process the chemicals & food colouring in junk food. Saul pointed out that initially there will be resistance by their families to eating healthy food, but once everyone is used to eating healthy food it becomes very difficult to tolerate junk food anymore… & just need to break the habit.
Item 2 Cisterns/project planning.
Apparently there are approx. 44 families in Presita & so only approx. ½ have stepped forward to participate (we have found this to be common in the communities, there is always an initial group of motivated early adopters & later the others “get” the idea & we have to do a phase II)…
It was decided the pilot training session will be carried out at the primary school.
There are approx. 30 children at the school.
The list of participants was transcribed for all to see.
There were 18 firm participants at that point. There was one other woman, not here today (since her kids are sick) who has been participating & it was voted to add her – Isabel.
Another woman was visiting for the first time & asked to be included, there was a lot of discussion about people’s ongoing work for over a year, & she had been invited but not participated previously & was just showing up today to get on the list.
“if you’re not part of the meetings you shouldn’t expect to get rewarded with a cistern”. “We’re not just working on cisterns, she should be involved in the other meetings too like the regional meeting in La Tinaja – there’s lots of work going on”
Eventually it was agreed she could join the group, there was a talk about possibility of her having to pay a fine, but nothing was agreed.
Groups were formed as follows: A= Abanile, C= Co-ordinator
Group 1 7 families Group 2 7 families Group 3 6 families
20 Families + 1 pilot = 21
It was confirmed that water would have to be carried to the school for the pilot.
(approx. 3000 litres per day)
Community Co-ordinator was appointed – Hortencia + backup Roberto
PVC & Gravel will be delivered to one central location & collected from there to the house of Rosalia
No date has been set for the pilot, until we know when the $$ will be received, which is reliant on deciding the 3rd community (Currently Los Torres 19, PSR 21, 3 solo cisterns + 19 ??? – this is being decided at the Consejo meeting tomorrow)
Chela reminded everyone they need to work hard to make this project as success as future project funding is riding on this.
She explained that the process of building the cisterns is carried out to ensure that all cisterns advance at the same rate, ie all wire weaving done first, then the next step, applying cement etc, so they all finish at the same time.
They need to meet as groups to decide their hours of work & rules, ie fines if no work, Saul suggested the person breaking the rule might have to provide carnitas for everyone!
Tools – Saul listed the tools needed on the first day of the pilot, including grinder to make the small hooks needed to weave the wire & mesh together… scissors for cutting the wire, cutters for the maya etc, & also suggested they bring something to rest their knees on while they are kneeling to do the weaving of the wires.
Item 3 – Sanitarios Secos (dry toilets)
This community along with most of the consejo communities, was part of the solicitud to govt to construct 400+ cisterns in 18 communities. Chela gave an update of the situation with the resources Lucy had given them, that the $4million + pesos comes with a requisite to have outside contractors (& a bid process), which excludes them from being able to build them themselves, which was what they were hoping for to be able to stretch the $$ to provide more toilets for more families.
The Promoters from Desarollo Social have been visiting the communities to create a list of recipients (once they check they have no form of toilet – functioning or not – to be able to be eligible)… They have not visited Presita yet.
Item 4 Representation at Regional Meetings
Roberto is feeling like it is a lot of work to be secretary of the Consejo as well as to have to advise his community of “goings on”. He has also not received any contribution to his costs from his community, whereas other communities have supported their representatives. There are at least 4 people who are on the list of reps. of the Consejo, but have not been attending as they have not been informed, lack of communication is a common issue in the communities, as no-one has phones & they live a long way from eachother. It was agreed that advice of meetings will be given to Roberto & he will in turn inform the other reps. to ensure all know when the meetings are on, & they will begin to share costs of transport.
Item 5 Taller – Workshop at Cedesa
Saul explained that training & ongoing improvement is a way to increase people’s standard of living. Cedesa & the Consejo are committed to the process of integral development & ongoing work (not just completing the projects & that’s it!)… Part of this process is to continue to share information & learn new & better ways of doing things. As part of this process Cedesa holds regular workshops for campesinos on various techniques & information. There is an upcoming Workshop planned for 19th November 9am-5pm at Cedesa
The topic of this workshop is Food, & Alternative Medicines, Saul asked if anyone could define what Alternative medicines meant, one young man responded “ there are plants with curative properties, it’s about learning these”.
Saul explained - included in the Food topic will be how to construct a nopal tunnel – why Nopal? Because it’s one of the most noble plants in our region, it provides so much & is such a healthy option so if we take care of these we can ensure better production.
A commission of 3 can come from Presita (& all other communities) & report back & organise groups to learn at people’s houses, ie to interchange the information.
Chela reiterated the objective is to learn to produce food, since grains & beans will be a big issue this year, with failing crops & lack of rain. Change in climate has been a big issue & we need to adapt & ensure we work hard on alternative food production.
At this point the meeting was declared closed, one of the older women had left the meeting early to prepare food for us (visitors), she came back in struggling to carry hot pots of lentils & pasta soup with calabasa… & THE most delicious tortillas I’ve eaten!
There was no date set for the next meeting/pilot (this will be done by phone once we know the date of the receipt of funds).
