Comunidad teams up with Aqualink for a water system renovation and quality assessment trip
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The weekend of January 28-30 saw a different type of trip for Comunidad, as Director of Transportation Bill Rush joined forces with members of CUNA and Aqualink to assess the water system of the village of Santa Caterina and how best to bring potable water to the villagers.
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Santa Catarina is a village of 150 people spread over hundreds of acres at an elevation of nearly 4000 feet above sea level in the mountains 90 kilometers east of Ensenada. It has been without an operating water system for over six months, with members of the village being forced to travel to a small water catchment or a hand-dug well with buckets to meet their basic needs.
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In October, Comunidad, aided by the generosity of a major donor, provided the necessary supplies and materials for reconstruction and repair of the community’s water mains, as well as additional supplies to bring the water supply to each residence in the village. Progress was slowed by the unusually difficult trenching and large boulder formations prevalent in the village, coupled with the breakdown of an increasingly unreliable pump. As Comunidad and Aqualink have looked into the different options and their costs, the villagers completed construction on all of the mains and laterals. The only remaining item is now to fill the storage tanks and test the system.
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The water source for Santa Caterina is a small creek with a dam that allows water to pass into a concrete box which is then pumped a quarter of a mile away and up 100 feet vertically to a storage tank (pila). The water is then gravity-fed back into the village. The major challenge is that Catarina is five miles off the main road and is still without electricity. In the past they have used a solar pumping system which was unreliable and problematic. The current solution calls for the installation of a gasoline pump which would take approximately 2 hours per day to replenish the water in the tank. Comunidad will now purchase and install the pump, completing Phase 1 of this project. Once the delivery of the water is complete, Aqualink and Comunidad will turn their attention to the quality of the water, with options such as chlorination and reverse osmosis under consideration.
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The next steps are to purchase the pump, weld and secure it, and testing the pipes, with the goal being running water to each house by March 1. Once the water is considered potable, Comunidad and Aqualink will turn their attention to the water systems of San Antonio Necua and La Huerta.