Agua: The One About Work

As an environmental health volunteer, my main areas of work are water and sanitation. The goal of working with water is: sufficient, clean water in the homes of people I live with. Usually this means setting up a gravity fed water distribution system with a natural spring source.

Clean water in the home effectively contributes towards the development of the lives of underdeveloped people by decreasing the amount of time spent ill and concerned with the gathering of water, and frees up time for work and education.

• Sufficient water is difficult when nature's supply of water isn't conserved when necessary or when demand outreaches supply. 
• Clean water gets complicated when pure spring water gets contaminated in the home.

In the Peace Corps we realized that the initial construction of water infrastructure is usually the simpler part of water.  Appropriate behavior is what keep clean water in the home and keeps well built infrastructure maintained. Therefore we focus on training, capacity building, and modeling good practices as our main task in our communities with water committee seminars. 

When occasion for infrastructure construction or maintenance presents itself, it's sustainable if the indigenous Panamanians can either financially support themselves or agencies of the Panamanian government support infrastructure projects. Sometimes this is the case, and sometimes it isn't. Besides funds, a technically competent project manager should be available to design, advise, and supervise construction. Here is where I come in. I wander around, looking at water systems, and assist communities with projects that will improve their condition. 

Since March I have been working in two communities where water systems exist, but improvement is necessary to meet our goal for water. 

One

The first system is actually the lower half of a large system. Two tanks in series, we'll call it. There is not enough water after the first community to supply the second half of the system. 

The lower community had purchased a new water source and we've been working to connect it directly to the lower tank, choosing a route that avoids crossing hills and placing air-release valves where hills are unavoidable. 

Simple enough! But remember that all our work is done by hand. That is, over a mile of two-foot trenches though the jungle dug by men with shovels and pick-axes, tubes hand placed and glued in 20-foot sections, and everything buried. 

One of the project managers from the community, Esteven, drinks water from the tube that will soon bring it to his house!

Two

This community is flourishing with development. The people are very organized, mostly because it is home to one of the area's largest schools and one of the only 10th, 11th, and 12th grade high schools. Students walk for hours just to attend. Teachers living in the area have demanded that they have access to water to live and teach, and the community has been trying to keep up - not only for the teachers but for their families as well. The every-increasing population means additional stress on the water system. 

This is the way the system was when I arrived in the community. Water from two springs was brought to one tank and then fed three communities and a large school. 

Even if the two springs were producing enough water, the tube between them and the tank is not large enough to carry it all. As it was, the second spring source was not well made and stopped focusing the water flow into the transmission tube. 

The community members quickly went though the tank supply at peak water use times. The lower tank (Quebrada Gato, that's right - "Cat Creek" in English) always seemed to have enough water when the upper part of the community didn't. Following that trusty law of gravity, water always wants to be at the lowest point and will flow directly there as it can. 

The idea for the project was to fix up the second spring source to concentrate the water flow into one outflow tube. Then, place new tubes to connect this new water to the original tubes that went to the Quebrada Gato tank. This frees up more water for the school and upper two communities, and still maintains a sufficient amount of water for the Quebrada Gato folks. 

The work included construction of the new spring capture, construction of six cable bridges to bring the water line across deep ravines, and the laying of two miles of PVC tube. 

Whereas the first project I was involved in was located along a fairly well maintained road in the mountains, this project is located an hour or more up a road that rivals any 4x4 track you've ever seen. Feet of mud, incredible steep hills, a river crossing, and carved out ruts. Delivering nearly 400 tubes, 15 100-lb bags of cement, and other various supplies was always an adventure. 

My heroes became the Chinese couple that run the hardware supply store in town. Three trips into the mountains it took Alexis with his indestructible Toyota Hilux truck. 

And some work photos...

Carrying bags of cement, sand, and rocks up the side of a ravine to make the anchors for the cable bridges. Strong guys! 

The second project is finished and the first is a few days away from done! I'm proud of these hard working people who have coordinated with me to better their lives through access to water.

T-minus 44 days until I'm no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer (I got wide-and-watery-eyed as I wrote that). I'm going to need another blog post to describe how I feel about that.

Take your time to read this long description of my official work. If you want an even longer one, I have the reports. If you have questions - ask!