Water Charity

Gregorio village has 321 families, comprised of 1100 inhabitants. Queimadas has 16,000 residents. The villagers suffer from water shortages, and are dependent on water trucks that come to deliver water.

To get a graphic image of the water crisis in the community, and the need for a water storage system, CLICK HERE

The tank will be built beside the College Renato Gonçalves Martins. The site was selected by an association of villagers and heads of the school to serve the school and the surrounding community, and meets the approval of the municipal secretary of development and education.

This project, Water Charity’s first in Brazil, will be implemented by Instituto Diamante Verde (IDV) under the direction of our friend Rosângela Araújo, who serves as its Vice President.

The ferro-cement tank will have a capacity of 30,000 liters, and will hold water collected from the rainwater catchment system. The tank can also be filled from water trucks during the dry season.

The rainwater catchment system, comprised of zinc gutters, will be fabricated by a specialist on site. The gutters will be attached to the roof of the school, and will capture water from the 360 square meter roof. Water will flow through a PVC pipe into the tank, and will be available on demand.

A master builder, with experience in this tank technology, will supervise the construction. The residents of the community will provide the labor.

There will be a capability for filtering the water, if necessary, utilizing the seeds of Moringa trees. The trees are already being grown under a separate project being carried out by the community with the assistance of IDV.

The project will directly benefit the 180 students registered at the school, plus approximately 400 additional villagers, comprised of relatives of the students and neighbors of the school.

To indicate your desire for your contribution to be allocated toward this project, please click the Donate button below.

The project was to construct eight family latrines in the rural community of Akodebakou, Benin. The technique was to use concrete blocks made on-site to line the pits to contain the waste.

Dennis reports that all of the latrines were completed according to plan, despite some delays due to roadblocks and a shortage of cement in the area.

Individual families were left to complete the latrines with privacy walls according to their own preference and on their own schedule.

Dennis had the opportunity to discuss latrine usage, latrine maintenance, and the importance of washing hands with the participants.

Dennis was able to finish this great project, within budget, on the eve of his completion of service with the Peace Corps. He is returning to California leaving his community a better place.

The project is under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer and Engineer Sarah Casey as part of a larger plan for a comprehensive water system for the community.

La Colorada Arriba is a rural community of almost 900 people, living without access to potable water. To meet their daily needs, families are left with no choice but to buy river water contaminated with diarrhea-causing parasites from passing trucks. Particularly in young children and the elderly, diarrhea can lead to serious health complications, including dehydration and malnutrition, or even death.

Community members, well aware of their need for potable water, have identified a sustainable solution—a water distribution system powered by a centrifugal pump. Water will be pumped from a protected spring to a storage tank located above the community. From there water will travel completely by gravity to the community below. The spring, with almost a liter per second of flow, provides sufficient water to meet the residents’ demands as well as those of the community centers: a schoolhouse and three community churches.

To ensure sustainability, the community has formed a water committee to manage the project through all stages: planning, construction, and maintenance. The residents of La Colorada Arriba will supply all necessary labor for construction as well as a monthly quota towards future system upkeep.

Additionally, each family is contributing $35 towards the purchase of materials. While the community is contributing in kind a large percentage of the overall project cost, they do not have the financial means to purchase the majority of the materials.

A significant part of the overall project is the construction of the storage tank, which will use the proven ferro-cement tank technology. The tank will have sufficient capacity to provide water on demand for the community during all seasons of the year and all hours of the day.

Project funds will be used to purchase materials, including rebar, wire mesh, cement, sand, gravel, wire, aluminum lids, plywood, tarp, paint and plumbing fixtures.

As part of the overall program, the construction of this tank will include the training of several Haitians who, immediately after completion of training, will go to Haiti to build additional tanks. As this is the third tank in the process, they have already gained substantial proficiency, and this construction of a larger tank will provide needed additional experience.

The construction of this tank is underway, and expected to take a week or so to complete.

To indicate your desire for your contribution to be allocated toward this project, please click the Donate button below.

Six Senses Resorts & Spas has graciously offered to provide matching funds for donations contributed for this project.

According to Zac:

Tounto is a settlement of some 4,000 people who are mostly simple millet farmers. They have a market, a small clinic, a primary school, and the recently built secondary school.

75 percent of all of the students at this school come down with diarrhea over the course of the year, and at least 65 percent come down with full-blown dysentery.

The project was to build sanitary latrines and handwashing stations at the Tounto Secondaire Cycle.

Zac reports:

Exceeding all expectations, we have three latrines – one for boys, one for girls, and one for teachers. And we have a barrel with a spigot that the students are going to fill with water so that they can wash their hands.

The women will provide handmade soap, and the students and adults of Tounto will be responsible for cleaning and maintaining the latrines.

Project funds were used to buy cement and other construction materials. Secondaire Cycle student body collected sand, gravel, gravel and rocks.

Brick masons made the bricks, and the Tounto Youth Association made up of young men in their teens and twenties, provided the bulk of the labor.

This project is estimated to serve 200 people. It will have a great effect on the school and community, in that it will eliminate the epidemiological hazards of open defecation. It will have the greatest effect on schoolgirls, in that it will eliminate the shame of exposing themselves to perform their bodily functions, and thereby make it easier for them to remain in school.

Our thanks go to Zac, for implementing the project despite the difficulties, and to all of the participants who made it possible.

The project started with an objective to build a 1,200 liter rainwater catchment tank, with an accompanying handwashing station, at the elementary school in La Cruz, Cajola, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

It became much more, with the help of a number of individuals and agencies.

In June, Ashley reported:

We started construction four weeks ago, but due to Agatha we had suspended construction for two weeks due to the conditions of the road. Currently, we are up and running again. The water tank can hold up to 40,000 L of water and has its own 5M water pozo (well) and rain water catchment system.

The project is under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer and Engineer Duncan Peabody, as part of a larger plan for a comprehensive water system for the two communities.

El Brison and Las Batatas Arriba, are located high in the Cordillera Septentrional in the north of the Dominican Republic. They have neither running water nor electricity, and access to the communities is difficult or impossible by automobile depending on the weather conditions. As a result the communities have been largely neglected and remain completely without infrastructure, apart from a one-room elementary school.

Duncan is working on an overall project for the construction of a gravity-fed water system with a spring catchment to provide drinking water to 49 homes. The water system will be complemented by the formation of a community water board to govern the water system, and health and hygiene promoters to teach the community how to use the water to improve their well. Work has already begun on the tubeline.

The system is designed to serve the current population of 205 people, plus expected expansion. The source flow rate will be 3.5 gallons/minute, with water availability at 25 gallons/person/day.

A significant part of the overall project is the construction of a ferro-cement tank. The tank will store water during off hours so that during peak water demand there will always be water available in the pipeline.

Project funds will be used to purchase materials, including rebar, wire mesh, cement, sand, gravel, wire, aluminum lids, plywood, tarp, paint and plumbing fixtures.

As part of the overall program, the construction of this tank will include the training of several Haitians who, after completion of training, will go to Haiti to build at least 8 additional tanks. As part of the agreement for receiving training these workers will capacitate more workers in Haiti to continue to build these tanks, which are in high demand during the current crisis.

Most of the labor will be volunteer labor, with the exception that the trainees will receive small stipends.

The construction of this tank will take 5 days to complete, and is already underway.

This project has now been fully funded through the generous donation of Santevia Water Systems as part of their Santevia Gives Back Program, together with the matching funds provided by Six Senses Resorts & Spas.

Any additional donations using the Donate button below will be allocated to the construction of water storage tanks in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

The community, now 13,000 strong, relies on local water springs for a constant source of fresh water. These water springs are unprotected from debris, and water that is not collected flows along mismanaged waterways. This creates seasonal overflow and ground erosion.

During times of heavy rain access to the springs is difficult. Furthermore, there is high rate of waterborne illnesses due to the accumulation of contaminated water.

This project is to create a number of stone reservoirs to protect the natural springs that serve the community. This will ensure access to clean drinking water as well as control the water run-off in a responsible way.

The project is being implemented under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Gail Bachman.

The community will provide materials needed in the construction of the stone reservoirs. Volunteer workers have organized to create a management team as well as to assist in the construction.

Local health extension workers have volunteered their time to help educate the community on the importance of safe water practices.

This is a very worthy project that will impact upon a great number of people in need of year-round access to clean water.

The participation of Water Charity in this project has now been funded, through the generosity of Six Senses Resorts & Spas as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.

Any donations using the Donate button below will go toward additional water and sanitation projects in Ethiopia.

Andrea reports:

The project benefited the community of Bajo Membrillo, which is located in a valley of the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle (the equivalent of an indigenous reservation with the political rights of a state) in the highlands of Panama.

9 families live in Bajo Membrillo and none had a latrine. When we began the project only one man had mixed cement. I am proud to say that today, every family has one or two men who learned how to mix cement, construct a latrine floor and use a metal mold to create the latrine seat. They are proud, too.

It seems sexist that only the men mixed the cement, but it keeps with the cultural norms of the area. The women helped to carry the supplies, and are educating their children on the correct use of the latrine. They are particularly grateful.

Just last week I hiked to the community and made sure walls had been placed around the latrine, the last requirement before the beneficiaries could claim their zinc roofs. All 9 latrines now have walls and roofs!

Andrea reported that the funds stretched much farther than she had imagined. She was therefore able to building 11 more latrines in her own community!

In all, it is estimated that 120 persons are benefiting from the construction of these 20 latrines.

We are grateful for the funding provided by Six Senses Resorts & Spas.