COCIRA Meeting (Consejo Ciudadano Rural de Agua de San Miguel de Allende

COCIRA Meeting

(Consejo Ciudadano Rural de Agua de San Miguel de Allende

Location: Alonso Yanez

April 9, 2015

Attendance: Presa Allende, San Lorenzo, Juan Gonzalez, Tierra Blanca, Vivienda de Abajo, Alonso Yanez, Lindero, Correlejo, Boca de La Cañada, Cienega Juan Ruiz, Capadrillo. Approximately 36 community Members and a boat load of children. Chela Martinez, Margarita Godinez and Saul Juarez from CEDESA. Lee Carter from Rotary San Miguel Midday.

Missing: Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca, Montecillo de Nieto, Nombre de Dios and La Banda

This was a good turnout and we were pleased to welcome a new community, Boca de La Cañada, to COCIRA. Boca de La Cañada, stated they came because they had been invited by Alonso Yanez and they had heard through them about the water contamination problems. They have a preliminary list of 30 families that are interested in a water harvesting project. They noted that their children are getting dental fluorosis. They also said they are interested in getting dry toilets in the future as well.

The many possibilities of things that can be done to improve community health and economics by working through COCIRA and CEDESA was discussed. Among the many things were included Bee Keeping (Apicultura), Water Harvesting, Dry Toilets, Health and Alternative Medicine Clinics, Transformation of Products. Chela Martinez spoke about the importance of working together in communities and through COCIRA to achieve significant change in their lives.

Saul and several community members reported about the World Water Day activities from the event last month in San Cayentano in San Luis de la Paz. Lidia from Vivienda talked about how interesting it was to meet persons from other municipalities facing the same problems that we face here in San Miguel. Alejandro Guerra and Lee Carter from Rotary had attended the event also.

Chela announced that CEDESA would be celebrating its 50^th year in community development in June and invited everyone to come to CEDESA headquarters in Dolores Hidalgo on June 20 and 21 for two days of workshops and celebration. Chela also told the history of the Rotary water projects and how that led to the formation of COCIRA. Were it not for COCIRA and the work of Laura Stewart and Holly Yasui there would never have been such success in the rural rainwater harvesting projects.

Lee reported that he had visited Presa Allende on April 7^th with Dr. Norman Feldstein, a retired dentist and dentistry professor who had taught fluorosis at the University of Pittsburg. The examination of 23 children clearly demonstrated the existence of fluoride from the well located in Salitrillo. Although, fortunately there was no clinically severe fluorosis present, the mild and moderate fluorosis seen confirmed the importance to finding alternative drinking and cooking water for the community as soon as possible. That project is now scheduled to begin in May.

Lee also reported that Rotary has begun looking for funding for the next water harvesting project and that first results appeared encouraging. Lee asked the COCIRA members if there would be any interest in returning to communities with prior projects with water safety and cistern maintenance classes along with a review of the current status of cisterns built since 2008. Chela was in agreement and would like to set up a program to do this within the next grant if possible. Perhaps we can do some one day community visits where we can teach the materials that are being developed for the new grant. Community members agreed that this could be a helpful program. Chela also announced that Rotary would be expanding its work to include all communities affected in the Independence Aquifer region.

Saul reported that this year there were 16 new cisterns in Juan Gonzalez (plus 4 rotoplas's), 17 in La Banda/Montecillo, 16 (plus one Rotoplas) are under construction in Lindero and 23 are to be started in Alonso Yanez in two weeks. Presa Allende is standing by for a minimum of 20 cisterns. (There were 36 families in waiting last September and some of the lost families may come back into the project now that they know it is definitely going to happen.)  Saul and Lee are going to set a community meeting there in the next two weeks to “reanimate” the community.

Representatives came from San Lorenzo to ask for cisterns for two families there. They reported also that the Villa de Guadalupe well is finally operating after more than 18 months of waiting for the pump to be installed by SAPASMA. Lee stated that he would like to have that well tested as soon as possible remembering that there were 8 families there that wanted cisterns if the water quality of the new well was not satisfactory. Lee will follow up on that.

A meeting of the council leaders of COCIRA was set for 9 am on Abril 21 at Corralejo. Chela and Lee set a date in June to go visit Nombre de Dios and Ojo de Charco two communities that are in dire need of assistance but are in a location that leaves them stranded neither belonging to San Miguel nor Dolores. The next COCIRA meeting will be on June 4, 10 am at Presa Allende.

As always we adjourned (3:30 pm) to a fine pot luck lunch brought by all of the participants. Lee took the back way home dropping off COCIRA members in Juan Gonzalez and Correlajo, & then visited the project under way in Vivienda. Pleased to report that all is moving forward on schedule and that the completed cisterns appear very good.

Lee Carter, Rotary San Miguel Midday

Dental Fluorosis report of community of Presa Allende

This document provides documentary evidence of the health effects; on a number inhabitants of the community in Presa Allende, of consuming fluoride contaminated water, 

View the dental fluorosis report here by Norman R. Feldstein D.M.D.

Despite the anomaly in current levels of fluoride testing below the maximum threshold of 1.5mg/l (most likely explained by the unusually high levels of rainfall this season, possibly diluting the levels of fluoride present in the artesenal wells), this report serves to explain the evident need for safe drinking water in this community.

Closing Ceremony – La Banda and Montecillo de Nieto

Today we traveled over the hill and through the woods (fording a river long the way) to enjoy the closing celebration for our La Banda and Montecillo de Nieto project. 

We are joined this week by representatives of the Lotus Foundation who provided significant funding to these projects and also to our previous project at Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca. Mark and Margaret are here and they have brought along the president of the board of Lotus, John, and Eric who is also a board member. Yesterday they were able to see the construction of a pilot cistern at Vivienda Urbano after having a presentation at our weekly Rotary meeting from Dr. Adrian Ortega, the absolute guru and expert on our Independence Aquifer and its problems.

Alejandro, Ivar, David H, Tom and Sara also came from Rotary San Miguel Midday. We brought a few other visitors with us that wanted to see in person our water harvesting projects. We arrived early enough so that we could go see five of the new cisterns … moving our group along from stop to stop was a bit like herding cats but ultimately we were able to do this. John and Eric from Lotus had many good questions and observations.

The closing ceremony began about 1:00 pm at the pilot cistern location in Nuevo Rancho de la Banda. There were about 60 persons present including Saul and Chela of CEDESA. There were six person representatives from each of the communities of Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca, Presa Allende, Alonso Yanez, and Lindero. All of these communities are hoping to begin projects soon. We will begin in Alonso Yanez and Lindero later this month. 

We had short speeches from each of these communities as well as from Alejandro for Rotary and Chela for CEDESA. Several people from La Banda and Montecillo de Nieto spoke about their experience with this project. Reina from La Banda explained that she was surprised by how hard the work was being that never before had she had to manage a shovel and mix concrete … she is right; it is hard manual labor. Everyone chuckled a bit and said they would be more understanding of their husbands when they came home from working as construction workers. 

Another person from Montecillo reflected that even though the work was hard, it was really fun working together in the groups. The Montecillo spokesperson pointed out that although they have been waiting two years to get the resources for this project that it has been a good experience and they have learned many other important things along the way. 

Finally, after cutting the ribbon to close the project, we got to the real business of the day: lunch. Many persons brought many delicious dishes and we all left full and satisfied.

After lunch Saul and I returned to Vivienda where the pilot cistern is being built. I watched as Saul taught the work teams to form the cone shaped top of the cisterns. I could only admire the way that the materials (wire and reinforcing) have been mineralized to leave not much more than the “oink” as they say. 

Overall it was another great day in the campo and enjoying the fruits of these projects.

Tomorrow we will be taking the Lotus foundation visitors to see the Ex-Hacienda de Pena  Blanca project where there is already a new group asking us to fund a phase II project for them. We will also visit Juan Gonzalez where we have just recently completed 15 cisterns.

Submitted by: Lee Carter, Rotary San Miguel Midday

Planning Meeting: Vivienda

February 25, 2014

Attending: Saul (CEDESA), Lee (Rotary) and 11 families from Vivienda

We met today to finalize our Phase II project in Vivienda. Two work teams have been established who will build a pilot cistern at the Secondary School followed by 10 individual family cisterns. Lee will finalize orders with Hierro Comercial for materials and he will deliver the plywood to the project on Saturday morning. Saul will coordinate with Jesus Rico for sand and gravel delivery. 

Veronica R agreed to take overall responsibility for local coordination of the project and Laura Yolanda R will be team leader for Group 1. Maria R  will lead Group 2. An eleventh family was asking for materials to self-build their own cistern but they were not willing to be part of the group work teams. The members voted that to be eligible to receive materials and assistance from Rotary, that working in the teams was an obligation. This is essential to having a successful project and to promote the concept of community development that we hold dear to our hearts.

We reviewed the reason that cisterns are essential (fluoride contamination) and also discussed the important of additional sanitation procedures that should be followed to have the “purest” possible water for their families. We planned out the schedule for this project and made an exhaustive list of tools that would need to be provided during the construction phase. The pilot cistern will be constructed from March 2 to March 6, 2015. 

See photo from the planning meeting: Organizing and Procedure for Construction of Cisterns. What is needed? #1 on the list is food. Then training, group organization, a construction assistant for each group, materials, the will to work!, tools, and predefined rules and responsibilities within each group.

Next week five persons from the Lotus Foundation will be visiting San Miguel to see the water harvesting projects in action. The work groups at Vivienda agreed to work on Tuesday in the afternoon to be able to give our visitors a chance to see a pilot cistern being constructed first hand.

Submitted by: Lee Carter

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

Juan Gonzalez Site Visit – Pilot Cistern

Today Tony DeCrosta and I traveled to the Juan Gonzalez to check on the progress of the pilot cistern and to arrange the delivery of the rest of the materials for that project which consists of 16 cisterns and 4 Rotoplast installations. 

We had been informed by the community that they wanted us to try to deliver the balance of materials, especially the chicken wire so they could begin the weaving of the wires to form the cylinders.

After a bit of confusion in getting to Juan Gonzalez we finally arrived. Juan Gonzalez is definitely “over the hill and through the woods”. It is about four miles off of the main highway down an unmarked road and across a seasonal river that had been unpassable only a few weeks ago. 

We arrived to find the pilot proceeding exceptionally well. The final plastering was being done on the inside of the cistern under the guidance of our teaching construction worker, Filiberto. They planned to put on the top cap later in the day. 

There were about 8 women and 2 men working and offering much advice to me as well. It is a lovely group of people with good humor and great pride in what they are accomplishing. Consistently it is the women who do the bulk of the work in these projects.

Upon arriving I determined that I had gotten confused over the total number of cisterns being built and had arranged the deliver for 14 more cisterns when, in fact, there are 15 more to be built. Fortunately I was able to reach Hierro Comercial to have them load the additional materials on the delivery truck. Hierro Comercial sent out the delivery truck late today.

Upon leaving as we were going down the four wheel access only road we "ran into" three woman carrying a very heavy cooler loaded with freshly made tamales. I stopped and offered them a ride and they said they were happy to be walking and they were taking the tamales down to the school to feed the kids. They eagerly offered us a few tamales which we more eagerly accepted. A beautiful and delicious finish to a beautiful day in the community of Juan Gonzalez.

This project includes the installation of four Rotoplast (prefabricated cisterns of 1,100 liters each) in Juan Gonzalez. This happens at times for older persons, generally living alone who cannot physically participate in the cistern construction but who have participated fully in the community’s organization for the project. 

Most times, they are also living in a house that has a roof too small to collect enough order over the rainy season to fill our standard 12,000 liter cistern. In Juan Gonzalez, three prefabricated cisterns have been included in the project for this reason. 

At Juan Gonzalez there is a fourth Rotoplast for a member of the community that will participate fully in the construction process but who plans to move houses in about one year. Thus, portability of the cistern is necessary and after much discussion by the project participants we decided this was the best alternative available to handle that situation. The Rotoplast and PVC materials cost $1,900 pesos vs $5,700 for a typical cistern.

Reported by Lee Carter, Rotary San Miguel Midday.