Middletown, Connecticut Reporting on Water Harvesting Project: Las Magueyes and La Palma, Guanajuato, Mexico

This article retells the story of the water project completed in April 2013.

Details & more Photos of the project & process can be found here

http://www.middletownrotary.org/MexicoWaterProject.cfm

Tierra Blanca - cause of higher than average mortality rate discovered!!

In May 2010 the Cedesa/Rotary water project team visited Tierra Blanca at the invitation of the community, who were interested in becoming participants in the water project that was being carried out in various neighbouring communities.

At that meeting members of the community spoke & raised the topic of the higher than average mortality rate of their community & asked if we could help them resolve it. This was not something the Water Project team had encountered in the surrounding communities, & after hearing the heart rending stories of the young people who had died, & whole families who had been wiped out by this cancer, we agreed to work with them to find the cause.

The puzzle was it was only occuring in this community - despite the close proximity to other communities who shared the same water, socio economic situation, food, environment etc, so why was it only happening in Tierra Blanca, & why did it even happen to people from Tierra Blanca when they left the community.

There were many theories - one included a curse, on those who had found ancient graves & sold artefacts in the 50's.

We agreed as a team to take this on.
Many months elapsed with various steps involved:

• There were many visits to Tierra Blanca working with & informing the people of the community.
• Many water tests taken - all showing high levels of Fluoride but although Fluoride has many symptoms the symptoms described by the people, ie sore shoulders & arms, then pain in the lungs, & then death within approx 6 mths, were not symtoms of fluoride poisoning. 
• Cedesa & a team of students led by Jesus Gutierrez created an interview protocol & carried out a census.
• With the results of this census a meeting was made with the then Mayor Lucy Nunez & she granted access to Sanitaria Dos officials.
• These officials were not convinced that the death rate was not just a result of a genetic predisposition running in families. They were aware of the deaths but none had been investigated.
• We also reached out to Dr Ortega of UNAM.
• He subsequently met with us in the community, & spoke with the people to gather more information.
• Dr Ortega committed to working on this issue & returned to take water samples there & in surrounding communities, from various sources, wells, springs & the dried up water bed - where locals dig holes & retrieve water from the puddles.
• The test results showed high levels of fluoride & in some cases arsenic but were inconclusive as causes of the cancer killing members of this community.
• Air, & soil tests were also carried out.

I left the team in 2013 & to be honest many of us believed we many never get to the bottom of this.

Fast forward to 2014 & today a very good friend forwarded an article appearing in the local bi-lingual paper. To read this exciting article & discovery please go to the following link:

http://amsanmiguel.com/?p=871

In the spanish version of this article they credit UNAM with discovering the cause of the high mortality rate & the cause is Erionite. 

"Erionite is a naturally occurring fibrous mineral that belongs to a group of minerals called zeolites. It usually is found in volcanic ash that has been altered by weathering and ground water."

Carcinogenicity of Erionite

"Erionite is known to be a human carcinogen and is listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a Group 1 Carcinogen.^[5]The prevalence of malignant pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma due to erionite exposure in the Central Anatolia Region is very high."

In our own Tierra Blanca, it has been reported, there is nothing for them to do but leave their homes - which of course many are unable to do. 

So on a high note, the moral of the story would be "don't give up, if something does not seem right it isn't & keep working until you find the cause"

On a low note, finding the cause does not necessarily solve the problem.

Love

Laura

Rotary Club of Ann Arbor Visited Los Torres & Fred tells the story..

LOS TORRES BLOG CONTRIBUTION
Shortly after the completion of the first Project in Los Torres, we—my wife Sue and I—visited the Project, this was back on 13th November 2009.

What would motivate the two of us, who had no previous contact with the Project,  to go to Los Torres?

We belong to the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor, one of whose members, Tom Conlin, spent several months in San Miguel de Allende.

While there he attended meetings of the Rotary Club, and became interested in the Water Project. When he returned, he persuaded our Club to join in support with other Rotary Clubs.

We came to San Miguel for a National Geographic Photo Workshop, & contacted Laura Stewart, whom we knew had worked hard to accomplish the goals of the Water Project.

She kindly consented to show us how the Project had worked in Los Torres. On our part, we were eager to see the results of the Project, and were delighted that Laura would take her valuable time to take us.

Laura drove us out for an hour over roads that barely existed; they were as bad as those we’ve seen anywhere (including Belize, Kenya, etc.).

When we arrived, we saw a substantial community,  (in two parts), and (o our great pleasure), many of the cisterns designed to harvest the rain water.

We were especially pleased to see the cisterns at the kindergarten &and elementary schools. That told us that harvesting rain water had become a community project. The community had evidently organized itself
around the project, and  the idea of working together as a community was in itself new to them.

We also visited a family who had installed their own cistern.

Old water collection method, wait for the water truck
to come & deliver water, then collect it by wheel barrow
& cart it home.






 

The new method to collect water - family's own cistern.    







Despite the language barrier, we could sense the love the family had for one another. I tried to depict this in my photography, and in the image Sisters I think I succeeded.

After this inspiring visit, Laura drove us back to
San Miguel over the  same roads as before.
Again I worried that the suspension would break,
and that getting back to San Miguel would be long postponed.
But that didn’t happen, and we returned knowing that our Club
had invested its dollars well in helping others to enhance their own lives
 in a significant and permanent way                                                            


Sisters...


.

Tere Martínez of CEDESA, 1947-2013: An Exemplary Life

It began as a dream, fueled by the indomitable will and energy of a group of young campesinos, led by Father Guillermo Dávalos (Padre Memo) in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato.

They took on the greatest challenges that face humankind: poverty, ignorance and injustice. They created a place called CEDESA, the Center for Agricultural Development, where they lived and worked and brought others to share experiences, teach and learn. They planted crops and trees in the dry scrub-land, and ideas in fertile minds– about dignity, development and autonomy.

Among the many who contributed to this effort, the three “muchachas” as they were affectionately known in the communities where they worked – Lucha Rivera, Tere and Chela Martínez – decided to dedicate their lives to CEDESA.

In 2006, Lucha died of kidney failure, leaving Tere and Chela to carry on the work of CEDESA. A week ago on April 17, Tere died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving her younger sister Chela, the fourth pillar of CEDESA, standing alone – but not entirely.

At an emotional meeting a few days after Tere’s death, the CEDESA team of outreach workers, consultants and directors reaffirmed their commitment to the dream and spirit of Padre Memo, Lucha and Tere.

Teresa Martínez Delgado was born on May 19, 1947 in the village of La Grulla, municipality of Dolores Hidalgo. At that time, no schools existed in the countryside, so Tere’s parents sent her to the city to live with her grandmother and attend primary school. Thus she became one of the few campesinas in the region who knew how to read and write. At the age of 12, she began to work as a literacy teacher and participated in courses given by Padre Memo on organizing, agriculture and handcrafts.

Tere with Padre Memo and Lucha Rivera in the late 1960s.

1968 was the year in which repression of liberation and social movements reached its apogee throughout the world; in Mexico, with the slaughter of hundreds, perhaps thousands of students in the in infamous massacre of Tlateloco.

In northern Guanajuato, large landowners of the region, allied with conservative clergy & worked together to eliminate the campesino movement. Taking up the banner of anti-communism, they expelled several progressive priests from the diocese, including Padre Memo.

In 1970, Tere joined the board of directors of CEDESA, and in spite of powerful opposition, stood firm as the youngest director of CEDESA, continuing to organize in the communities, and she helped to develop collective projects such as corn-grinding mills and beekeeping.

As a founding member of the Beekeepers Union of Northern Guanajuato (ASANG), Tere remained an avid advocate for natural bee products all her life. While still in her 20s, Tere also took charge of coordinating the construction of the CEDESA facilities on the 50-hectare tract that Padre Memo had purchased for the training center.

At that time, the young CEDESA team lived in rooms they had constructed in the “El Socorrito” church in Dolores, and took turns working in the communities and working on the CEDESA land, applying agricultural techniques they had learned: terracing, creation of windbreaks, and soil conservation.

In the mid 1970s, the primary supporter of CEDESA, the Misereor Foundation, stopped payment of the construction grant they had been providing because of accusations that the young CEDESA workers were “a nest of communists, embezzlers of funds … and invaders of temples.”

After four years of extensive auditing, the charges were found groundless. Construction resumed and the CEDESA offices, meeting rooms, kitchen, dining room and dormitories were finally completed in 1979.

The CEDESA team, in front of their newly completed facilities.

Tere is in the first row, second from the right (her younger sister Chela stands behind her, in a white blouse and Lucha next to Chela, in a blue shirt and skirt.

This hard-won accomplishment, according to the book that Lucha, Tere and Chela wrote, CEDESA, the Social Struggle against Poverty in Northern Guanajuato, was seminal to the work and spirit of the grass-roots organization they had created.


“Thus we were finally able to experience the freedom to live in our own space. From that moment on, the project was entirely in our hands … we felt we had finally won the independence to be the creators of our own development, as individuals and as communities. We finally reached the end of the tunnel that had limited our possibilities for growing … and we took on the risks of our own choices.”

During the tumultuous 1980s, CEDESA, with Tere, Lucha and Chela at the forefront, helped campesinos defend their rights to land and water though the regional Union of Campesino Communities of Northern Guanajuato (UCCANG) that they helped to form.

They marched on the capital, demanded the release of compañeros who had been jailed, won titles to land for communities against large landowners, and drinking water systems for more than 50 communities in the municipalities of San Miguel de Allende, Dolores Hidalgo, San Felipe, San Diego de la Unión, and San Luis de la Paz.

In the video On the Road toward a Dignified and Sustainable Life: CEDESA Tere says:
“This period was important, a time of transition, of radical change. Instead of each individual working in his community, the communities all started working together."

In 1993, CEDESA undertook an internal evaluation in order to plan for the future. In response to the pervasive problem of immigration and abandonment of the countryside, UCCANG and ASANG prioritized strengthening the family economy – not just financially but also revalorizing the contributions of all members, including domestic and community work – as a way to enable campesinos to stay on the land and draw sustenance physically and spiritually.

Tere helped define and implement the “Sustainable Campesino Home” project, encouraging families to root themselves in their land by producing their own food (using eco-technologies such as rainwater-harvesting cisterns, gray-water recycling, dry toilets, and wood-saving stoves) and surplus to trade or sell. Tere was passionate about this campesino self-sufficiency project, especially the fair trade and solidarity economy aspects.

In 1999, she was elected president of the Mexican Network of Community Commerce. She was the driving force behind the Feria Nacional de Productores y Consumidores held annually in Dolores Hidalgo, offering a wide variety of organic products and handcrafts, and promoting barter and social coin as well as environmental consciousness and alternative health. She also helped organize various local community markets, including barter fairs in Dolores Hidalgo and the Tiangüis Orgánico de San Miguel de Allende (TOSMA).

Tere travelled extensively promoting and participating in community commerce /fair trade and solidarity economy conferences and meetings, including frequent visits to Mexico City and Guadalajara, and international trips to South and Central America.

At the same time, she was in charge of all the programming of workshops and courses at CEDESA, including short workshops on diverse topics such as cooking with soy which she herself taught, composting and bio-intensive gardening, construction with adobe, quilt-making, cultivation of organic nopal and a large variety of products (jams, pickles, sweets, liquors, capsules,etc.), building solar water heaters and distillers, and the use of medicinal plants; and months-long diploma courses on groundwater; apitherapy (use of bee stings and bee products for alternative health treatments), and rural tourism. Tere’s interests and capacities were amazing.

“Las Muchachas” - Chela, Lucha and Tere 

Former editor of the Atención San Miguel newspaper, Suzanne Ludekins says: “It was a privilege and honor to collaborate with Tere Martínez. Tere's love and respect for the land and its people was an inspiration.... Tere's commitment to educating, empowering and helping the people of the campo she loved so much showed me the true ethics of a social activist.”

Teresa Martinez Delgado: a woman who dedicated herself heart and soul to a dream that she helped to make real, whose exemplary life is a light for those who follow

(written by Holly Yasui - Cedesa  - & irreplaceable member of the Water Project team !)

Inaugural Celebration at Las Magueyes and La Palma 19.4.13

It was a beautiful day out in the country today. With the completion of 16 water harvesting systems, we gathered to celebrate the success and hard work of the community work teams that made this happen. There were 38 persons in attendance plus some extra children coming and going. Octavo Perez, the Secretary of the Board of Directors of Sapasma attended and spoke briefly and eloquently about the importance of bringing water to those communities without water or, worse, water contaminated with harmful chemicals that cannot o be filtered out. Octavio emphasized that Sapasma (local semi-governmental water agency) needs to be a player in bringing safe and potable drinking water to all those living in rural San Miguel. Octavio, we are going to hold you to that promise! Although we completed two previous water projects with the previous directors of Sapasma, we are hoping to be able to do a Sapasma funded cistern project with the new administration soon in the community of Juan Gonzalez.

Also we were pleased to be joined by Mauricio Sanchez, Presidente de la Red de Comunicación y Cultura del Agua del Noreste de Guanajuato (President of the Northeast Guanajuato Network for Water Culture and Comunication) y Vice Presidente de Educación y Comunicación del Observatorio Ciudadano de Agua y Saneamiento (VP for Education and Communication for the Citizens Monitoring Group on Water and Sanitation). It is good that we are beginning to form more formal partnerships as we work to resolve water and sanitation issues in the San Miguel villages.

Fellow Rotarians Layla, Ivar, Denis, Alejandro and I went to enjoy the day and the completion of this project that will provide safe, clean and potable drinking water to 120 people protecting them from the harmful effects of excessive fluoride in the water. We had visitors, Pat, Fran and Kelly from La Joya, California that were also interested in these projects and who we hope will join forces with us in a future project. Pat is the president elect of the La Joya Rotary Club. Adriana Felix, a new comer to San Miguel joined us to learn more about the rainwater collection systems. We were also joined by David Burton of the United Universalist Church (The UUs). He came to see a water project and decide whether they want to join with us in another project down the road.

First, we all piled into all of the available vehicles and went to visit three of the cisterns built in La Palma. Ivar Schacke, President of Rotary San Miguel Midday cut the ribbon to officially mark the successful completion of the La Palma part of the project. After returning to Las Magueyes, Lilia guided a short meeting where everyone had an opportunity to introduce themselves. Holly and Saul of Cedesa spoke briefly about the importance of these projects and the importance of participating in the Regional Water Council (Cocira).

It is a bittersweet day for all of us involved with Cedesa. Only two days ago, we suddenly lost Maria de Teresa Martinez Delgado, a founder of Cedesa. Tere labored for more than 50 years in helping develop the communities surrounding San Miguel and Dolores Hidalgo. We will Tere miss terribly. She worked with great passion and dedication in helping the communities and the people living there. Today, in addition to celebrating the completion of this project, I choose to think that we also celebrated the life of Tere and the incredible things that she and her sister, Chela, have accomplished over the previous 50 years. Vaya con dios, Tere.

Next, after a quick tour of the Las Magueyes cisterns and the final ribbon cutting ceremony, we arrived in the best part of the day: lunch prepared by the 16 families to welcome us and thank us for the resources we provided in this great team project. We are grateful to have been able to serve in this way. Finally, we know that we are only a part of the wheel. Real work is also done by the family work teams, by our partner Cedesa, and by the work of the Regional Citizen's Council (COCIRA). I believe that the families in Las Magueyes will continue to conduct community meetings and seek solutions to other problems that they identify in their community. I know they will continue as members of Cocira. They see now that the work invested brought them such a great return; a permanent and sustainable water source free of the injurious chemicals arsenic and fluoride.

This is an especially touching project for me as Lilia, the community representative, came to our English speaking Rotary Club two years ago after she heard on the radio that the Midday Rotary was helping construct cisterns in our communities in San Miguel. After sitting patiently through our meeting, she made her plea for help to several of us. We advised her to contact Cedesa and begin to organize her community. Soon thereafter they were actively participating in Cocira. They earned they way up the waiting list, and now, two years later, her community has its completed their phase project. The finish the full circle, Lilia will be speaking on the radio next week to inform the public about the rainwater harvesting program that Rotary has been supporting since Laura Stewart undertook the first project in November of 2007. I take off my hat to you, Lilia!

It has been lovely working with these two communities. Perhaps I may not be visiting soon on Rotarian business, but I know that I will go there shortly as a friend, and particularly, to enjoy Dona Beatriz’ gorditas and updates from the wonderful Lilia.

Submitted by Lee Carter 

Los Magueyes & La Palma Sunday, April 14, 2013

Today I went to visit the 16 completed cisterns and document their completion via photographs. 

Lilia and her husband, Antonio, took me from house to house and it was a pleasure to spend the morning with them.

I was surprised to find several cisterns had been specially decorated to recognize the important role of Rotary, Cedesa (our community development partner) and Cocira (the regional citizen's council that has been formed by the 22 communities that now have rainwater harvesting projects + 2 other communities). 

This project has been very enjoyable thus far, but to have an opportunity to talk with each individual family about the process and their experience, really drove home to me the way these projects can change lives and change communities. 

Every family was rightfully proud of the work they had done and there were many jokes about which of the three work teams was the best. On Friday, April 19, many members of our club and their guests will attend the community sponsored inaugural celebration.

Here is one of the cleverest “thank you” designs I encountered painted on a cistern yesterday:

Submitted by Lee Carter

Assembly in Viviendilla Wednesday, April 10, 2013 9 am

15 people attended a pre-construction meeting in Viviendilla this morning. 

Saul Juarez (Cedesa) led the meeting. The two teachers from the school were in attendance. 

Of those in attendance only Eric and Deyenira were aware of the fluoride problems with the community’s water supply. It is surprising to find people who are not aware of this after having completed rainwater catchment projects in adjacent villages. 

In addition to this problem, the people wanted to talk about the other problems in the area which included sanitation issues and dumping raw sewage in the Rio Laja that passes beside this village. 

There was also a discussion about an illegal well recently drilled across the river in La Cieneguita … the well was drilled using a permit from the town of Acambaro more than two hours south of San Miguel. This illegal well is causing the spring in the Cieneguita to dry up. 

This spring has played a role in the Otomi (?) ceremonies for several centuries. This is representative of the illegal activities that are draining our aquifer and exacerbating the problems of fluoride and arsenic in our water.

After a discussion of all of these issues and the futility of individuals trying to stop this destruction of their water sources, Saul discussed Cocira, the regional Citizen's council. Everyone understood how working together there would be a better chance, through a strong single voice, to petition for the rights of all of the Communities belonging to Cocira. 

I hope that this community will join Cocira and attend the next meetings.

It was decided that materials would be delivered to a home adjacent to the school on Saturday, April 13. All parents in attendance will report on Monday morning at 9 am to begin work. Saul will come also to explain the construction process and get the cistern off to a good start. 

There is some sand and gravel left at the school from previous construction. If we can use that to reduce that expense, we may be able to pay Saul to go to the school once or twice to make presentations about water and sanitation issues to the students and, of equal importance, the teachers.

A list of tools needed for Monday morning was made and each individual made a promise to bring specific items. Deyenira Ramirez agreed to make the Monday lunch for everyone. With everyone is agreement the meeting was adjourned at 10:30 am.

Lee Carter San Miguel Midday Rotary