Lotus
Humanitarian Aid Foundation and SAPASMA
Jointly Fund Cistern Projects in
Ex Hacienda de Peña Blanca and Ex Hacienda de
Jesus
With A Little Help From Their Friends
Cedesa & San Miguel Midday Rotary Club
In March of 2014, Lotus Humanitarian
Aid Foundation (Lotus) and SAPASMA (Sistema de Agua Potable Y Alcantarillado de
San Miguel de Allende) agreed to fund a project for construction of 18 water
harvesting systems in the San Miguel community of Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca
(XHPB). The Midday Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende agreed to manage the
project for the benefit of the donors.
XHPB had no local water source other
than a much polluted, mostly dry, riverbed. They depended solely upon sporadic
delivery of water trucks from the municipality which often left the whole
community without safe water for weeks at a time. An agreement to split the
anticipated cost of the project 1:1 was made between Lotus and SAPASMA. The
proposed budget was $165,909.00 pesos for the Pena Blanca project. (See
appendix.)
Simultaneously Rotary San Miguel Midday
(RSMM) was asked to manage a pilot project of two cisterns in the community of
Ex-Hacienda de Jesus (XHJ) in the municipality of San Diego Union. The budget
for those two cisterns was $23,290.00 pesos. (See appendix.)
Lotus sent US$8000.00 to RSMM project
checking account in San Antonio, Texas. That money was transferred by wire to
the RSMM project account at Bancomer in San Miguel de Allende on April 22. A
total of $103,360.00 pesos was received and it was allocated: $17,047.72 for
XHJ and $86,312.28 for XHPB. SAPASMA agreed to fund its half of the project by
providing materials “in-kind”.
Members of the RSMM project team were Lee
Carter, Alejandro Guerra and David Hartman. Centro de Desarrollo Agropecuario
AC (Cedesa), once again agreed to be the RSMM partner organization to manage these projects.
CEDESA’s team included Chela Martinez, Holly Yasui, Saul Juarez C., and Benigno
Caltzonzin.
RSMM
visited the XHJ organizational meeting with CEDESA and began to manage the
financial aspects of the project at that point. CEDESA was responsible for meetings,
teaching the citizens to construct cisterns and coordinating the delivery of
construction materials.
In this simultaneous project it was planned that Lotus would fund two cisterns and
that the local community would try to raise funds to complete two more
cisterns. The original first Lotus cistern was planned to be at the elementary school in
XHJ but the participants have been unable to obtain permission from the school
administrators to put the cistern on school property.
Because of this, the
materials for the first “Lotus cistern” were moved to the community of Adjuntas
de San Jose.
A "second" cistern was completed through using community funds in the
community of San Cayetano and there are independent funds available to do the original first school cistern should permission ever be obtained. The two pilot cisterns were
built by a group of about 25 persons in XHJ and this portion of the project was
completed May. Payment records are available on the shared Google Document.
The XHPB project began with CEDESA
organized community meetings, attended by RSMM, in which the 17 families were self-selected
through their participation and work with the Regional Citizens' Council (COCIRA).
They divided themselves into three work groups who would send representatives
to learn the construction process (kind of "train the trainer") as a cistern was built at the Kinder (kindergarten) in Pena
Blanca. On most days that we visited, there were between 13 and 15 persons at
the Kinder doing the work.
The roof of the Kinder was old clay “tejas” and it
was determined that ½ of this roof needed to be changed to galvanized metal to
assure best sanitation procedures. Rotary agreed to fund this out of project
contingency funds by foregoing part of the administrative funds set aside for
RSMM in the budget.
The community’s parents decided amongst themselves that
they would self-fund the other ½ of the roof and they purchased and installed
the materials to accomplish that. A good cooperative start made for an
auspicious beginning.
Upon completion of the pilot cistern,
CEDESA and RSMM coordinated the delivery of materials for the rest of the
cisterns from our normal suppliers and directly from SAPASMA. This created
extra coordination and minor difficulties, but the donation of ½ of the total
cost of the project in materials from SAPASMA has made us optimistic re possibility of the current administration of SAPASMA to partner with RSMM in future projects, (we have successfully partnered with Sapasma with past administrations, & this is the first one with the current administration).
Because of
economies that we were able to achieve in the materials cost, we were able to add
a 19th cistern to the project, at the local primary school. We were
very pleased this worked out as the children at both schools had no safe water
supply available.
Each team of 5 to 6 families began the work
of constructing one cistern at each of the family’s home. CEDESA
representative, Saul Juarez, and the RSMM project team visited the community at
least on a weekly basis during the construction process. The 19 cisterns were
completed and a celebration was held August 8, 2014 at the community with all
involved parties invited to attend.
The final celebration, as always was a joy
to attend. More than 100 adults and children were in attendance of which approximately
50 were from the seven COCIRA communities that are on the waiting list for our
upcoming projects.
SAPASMA sent the Secretary of the Administrative Board along
with two others. Cedesa brought five representatives including Chela Martinez,
the Director of CEDESA.
Rotary showed up with nine club members,
one wife and two grandchildren. Gary Reid came with us to take photographs of
the families, the cisterns and the beautiful Pena Blanca area. After painting
the pre-school and a nice closing ceremony, we enjoyed a spectacular fiesta
prepared by the families of XHPB. It was a beautiful day and a fitting closing
to a successful project.
Of significance, the teacher at the
pre-school brought two of the supervisors who oversee most of the schools
throughout the various San Miguel communities. We had the opportunity to talk
with them about future school projects and particularly working to improve
water education with the kids, the teachers and the parents.
Financial Notes:
This is a financial summary of the Ex-Hacienda
de Pena Blanca project. Details of payments and costs are available on shared Google
Docs and all parties to this project have been invited to share and review these
documents at their leisure.
1.
Project Budget for 18 cisterns:
$165,909.37 (mxn Pesos)
2.
One-half of this amount was
funded by materials in-kind from SAPASMA.
Thus, RSMM was managing Lotus’
portion of $82,954.69. $86,312.28 was available after wire transfer expenses.
3.
The municipality of San Miguel
de Allende provided “pipas” (water trucks) needed to mix cement) weekly
throughout the project saving approximately $3,500.00 pesos.
4.
With a 19th cistern
added to the project, the final cost of the project for Lotus was 72,058.26.
This is $10,896.43 below the budget.
5.
At the request of Lotus, RSMM
will be holding the saved funds to be applied to the next Rotary Water
Harvesting Project that is Global Grant #1422619.
6.
Also Lotus funds received for
this project were $86,312.28 when their budgeted portion was $82,954.69. The
extra $3,357.60 pesos will also be held for the Global Grant.
7.
Total Lotus funds to be applied
to GG#1422619 are $14,254.02 or approximately US$1,117.96.
Simultaneously Rotary San Miguel Midday
(RSMM) was asked to manage a pilot project of two cisterns in the community of
Ex-Hacienda de Jesus (XHJ) in the municipality of San Diego Union. The budget
for those two cisterns was $23,290.00 pesos.
Project Budget for 2 cisterns:
$23,290.00.(mxn pesos)
2.
Project Expenses paid in cash
by Lotus directly to CEDESA: $6,395.00
3.
Allocated funds to this project
from Lotus Foundation donation: $17,047.72.
4.
The final cost of the project
for Lotus was $21,472.40. This is $1,817.60 below the budget.
5.
At the request of Lotus, RSMM
will be holding the saved funds (and overfunded amount) to be applied to the
next Rotary Water Harvesting Project that is Global Grant #1422619.
6.
Total Lotus funds to be applied
to GG#1422619 are $1,970.32 or approximately US$154.53.
THEREFORE: Total funds carry forward from both
projects combined: US$1,272.49.
Report submitted by Lee Carter - RSMM
