G-2704

Clean water for El Potrero

Description

Financing

Documents

Photos

History Logs

Project Description

Region: Central America

Country: Guatemala

Location: El Potrero

Total Budget: $50,342

Area of Focus: Water, sanitation and hygiene


This project will increase awareness of the benefits of clean water, sanitation and hygiene and enhance and strengthen the access and capacity of safe drinking water. One component will be interactive education programs that will enhance the communities' knowledge of the benefits of safe water, proper sanitation, and good hygiene. A second component will be assistance in development a new safe water source for the community and the training and education in the maintenance and governance of the system for a sustainable future. This will involve building a spring box, water storage tank, and distributions system in the community. A third component will be the addition of 13 latrines for families in need.

Community description: The community of El Potrero is part of the village of El Tablón which is in the northern part of the municipality and department of Sololá, just north of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. The Mayan language spoken by the people is Kakchiquel.

Background: The water system in the community of El Potrero was built more than 34 years ago. Originally 30 families had been included in this gravity-fed system, which has a source is in the mountains on the northwest side of the village. There are some families who have some water every day (2 hours during a day). Other families do not have water at home at all. These families use water from their relatives, collect water or purchase water. Purchasing water is very expensive due to transportation, as the location of the community is remote. The shortage of water causes the children and mothers of the families to spend a lot of time looking for and collecting water every day, thus decreasing school attendance for children, and lessening other opportunities for women. The new project is planned to serve 85 families with an estimated population of 350.

Community Commitment: The community has shown a commitment to the project and the sustainability. The community has a Community Based Organization, called the COCODE (Community Development Council) The committee has been able to buy the spring of water for this project, the cost of the spring was Q 115,000 (US$ 15,132), and this purchase was made by the entire community in which 85 families contributed. The committee has been able to buy the land where the distribution tank will be built for this project. The cost of the land was Q50,000 (US $ 6,579) and this purchase was made by the entire community in which 85 families contributed. All members of the community can participate in the COCODE. To be part of the committee, people from the community propose the candidates in an assembly and select members through a vote.

Parters: The community with the support of Rotary and EWB-USA Guatemala office will make a governance plan to manage, maintain and operate the water system, for its self-sustainability. Rotary and EWB-USA Guatemala do periodic follow-up on all their projects with the communities.The local municipality and the community are both also contributing to this project. The municipality will contribute $13,280 and the community will contribute $5789. The community will also supply unskilled labor for the project.

This project is also supported by Engineers without Borders USA (EWB-USA). EWB-USA will be assisting with technical design and implementation. EWB-USA has an in-country team in Guatemala and they will be partnering with the EWB-USA Fort Collins Professional Chapter.

Pictures of Rotary visit to the community are available at: https://www.fortcollinsrotary.org/Guatemala/El-Potrero-Water-Project/

Pictures of recent Rotary visit and Engineering survey available at: https://www.fortcollinsrotary.org/Guatemala/El-Potrero-Engineering-Visit

Primary Host Partner

District: 4250

Rotary Club of: Lake Atitlan

Primary Contact: Shad Qudsi

Email: squdsi1@gmail.com

Primary International Partner

District: 5440

Rotary Club of: Fort Collins

Primary Contact: John Trone

Email: john.trone@fortcollinsrotory.org

Project Status

Paid
This project is "Paid". This means the funds have been received and the project is being implemented.

Project listed for the 2021-22 Rotary Year.

The TRF Grant application number is #2125241.

Proposed Financing

Existing Contributions Towards This Project

Date

Cash

DDF

Total

Fort Collins (5440)

24-Mar-21

$7,500

$15,000

$22,500

Glenview-Sunrise (6440)

1-Apr-21

$5,000

$2,508

$7,508

District 6440 DDF

18-Apr-21

-

$3,516

$3,516

Amount Requested from The Rotary Foundation

-

$16,818

$16,818

Total

$50,342

Note: as of July 1, 2015 there is a 5% additional support fee for cash contributions. This fee does not appear in the financials above because it does not apply if the funds are sent directly to the project account (without going through TRF, and therefore without Paul Harris credit). Clubs sending their cash contribution to TRF must be aware they will have to send an additional 5%.

Project Supporting Documents

Project Photos

History Log Entries

24-Mar-21

by John Trone

System Entry: Creation of project page.

1-Apr-21

System Entry

System Entry: Pledge of $5,000 with $2,508 DDF by Mary Pribyl of the Rotary Club of Glenview-Sunrise, District 6440.

18-Apr-21

by John Trone

System Entry: Pledge of $3,516 DDF by Chester Ray Zeiss of the Rotary Club of Wilmette, District 6440.

18-Apr-21

by John Trone

System Entry: Pledge of $158 by John Trone of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins, District 5440.

18-Apr-21

by John Trone

System Entry: Project is now "Fully Pledged".

1-May-21

by John Trone

On April 28th, Jessica Kind and Joe Wakely, from the Rotary Club of Lake Atitlan, visited the El Potrero community to meet the COCODE (Consejo Comunitarios de Desarrollo) and community members. Todd Thompson, from Rotary Northfield MN, also visited. The community is excited about the project and Rotary's involvement. I have uploaded some of the pictures from the visit to the photo tab.

24-Jun-21

by John Trone

A second meeting was held on 6/17/2021 with the Los Consejos Comunitarios de Desarrollo (COCODE)(Community development board) of El Potrero. Jessica Kind of the Rotary Club of Lake Atitlan participated along with Waleska Crowe and Arturo Ujpan from EWB.

Topics discussed:

Clarification of the responsibilities of the different parties involved (Rotary, EWB) into the project. It was very important for the COCODES to understand who we are and what is the relationship between the stakeholders.

Talking about the importance of the sanitation situation for the water project. The COCODES pointed out that the access to water is the most important for the community.

2-Sep-21

by John Trone

Engineering team is doing a survey of tank, spring and house locations. EWB is working local students on the survey.

16-Dec-21

by John Trone

Engineering evaluation is complete and topographic survey was also completed. Detailed CAD drawings are now finalized and team is working on final design after meeting with community again. Pictures are available at this link of recent survey visit. https://www.fortcollinsrotary.org/Guatemala/El-Potrero-Engineering-Visit/

20-Jan-22

by John Trone

After meeting with the commmunity, we have added 11 latrines to this project so all families have adequate latrines. Asociacion Pro Aqua del Pueblo (AdP) has been chosen to do the latrine work. They are a well established local NGO that the host club in Guatemala has worked with on prior projects. AdP is also going to provide hygiene training for the community. Local Rotarians will be visiting the community again in the next few weeks, for what should be last visit before grant submittal.

22-Mar-22

by John Trone

System Entry: Project reverted to "Published".

22-Mar-22

by John Trone

System Entry: Pledge of $3,000 with $5,000 DDF by John Trone of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins, District 5440.

22-Mar-22

by John Trone

System Entry: Project is now "Fully Pledged".

28-Mar-22

by John Trone

We have updated the draft budget on this grant to include addition of 13 latrines in the community. During multiple Rotary visits to the community, this need was identified and included on community assessment. There has also been an inflationary increase in some materials costs since the initial estimates. Lastly, now that a full engineering survey has been completed, some of the piping and construction requirements have changed. The draft grant application is available now along with thirty plus documents that we will submit with grant. Please email if you would like to review. The engineering teams are meeting shortly to finalize some design elements so we have to have final costing in next few weeks, and be ready to submit grant.

28-Mar-22

by John Trone

System Entry: Project reverted to "Published".

5-Apr-22

by John Trone

System Entry: Project is now "Fully Pledged".

16-Apr-22

by John Trone

Grant application is complete and has been submitted for authorizations.

4-May-22

by John Trone

System Entry: Application Sent to The Rotary Foundation through Member Access.

21-Jun-22

by John Trone

We have received feedback from RGO Maria Emig and we responded to her questions and suggestions. After receiving our responses, Maria indicated that this grant is now ready for approval pending the completion of two outstanding reports on existing grants. We are working with the leads on those grants to get those reports finalized so this grant can move forward. Thanks!

30-Jun-22

by John Trone

System Entry: Application approved by The Rotary Foundation.

2-Sep-22

by John Trone

This grant has been approved, and funding has been received from clubs and the Rotary Foundation. We are scheduling visit to community in November to finalize implementation plan.

17-Sep-22

by John Trone

John, from Rotary Club of Fort Collins, Joe from Rotary Club of Lake Atitlan, Todd, Karen and Stephen of EWB Fort Collins, and Arturo of EWB Guatemala are visiting the community on November 12th and 13th. We will will have discussions on scheduling the work and verifying design and implementation details with community leaders.

1-Dec-22

by John Trone

Joe and Duncan from Rotary Club of Lake Atitlan,Karen and Stephen of EWB Fort Collins, Arturo of EWB Guatemala, John Trone of Fort Collins Rotary visited the community in November. We verified the design of system, walked the proposed distribution line to the spring, and met with community leaders to discuss implementation. The goal is to start implementation in 1st quarter of 2023. We also did drone survey of community and met with numerious households. Please email John Trone directly if questions.

Here are some pictures of visit:

https://www.fortcollinsrotary.org/Guatemala/El-Potrero-Site-Visit-11-12-2022/

11-Jan-23

by John Trone

Design plans are going through final review at EWB. Tentative date to begin construction is February 17th, 2023.

27-Jun-23

by John Trone

The EWB design process has been frustrating slow but the final design was approved. With the large delay, material prices have been re-quoted and there has been substantial increases in material costs over the last year, much larger than the contingency amounts in the grant. We are working with EWB Guatemala to determine a possible path forward.

30-Jun-23

by John Trone

System Entry: Payment has been issued by The Rotary Foundation.

8-Jul-23

by John Trone

Update: After have several meetings with EWB USA, EWB Guatemala, Rotary and the community, we now have a good path forward. We transfered part of the funds to EWB Guatemala to start purchase of materials. I am in Guatemala now, and will be meeting with our Rotary partner here in Guatemala this weekend to discuss next steps in person.

24-Jul-23

by John Trone

Happy to report that construction has started. Please check out some pictures at this link below:

https://www.fortcollinsrotary.org/Guatemala/El-Potrero-Guatemala/

12-Dec-23

by John Trone

After a good start to construction, we now have significant delays. The municipality had committed to providing some materials for the project and those materials are needed to complete the next phase of the project. The recent political unrest had significant road closures so it was not possible for those materials to be delivered. Unfortunately, that delay has created another delay as a new administration starts in the local municipality shortly and the current administration is winding down operations and not doing any more work in their term. EWB Guatemala has met with the mayor-elect and received a favorable response to supporting the current project. The new administration starts January 15th, so we do not expect any further work on the project until after January 15th.

24-Jan-24

by John Trone

The local team has met with the new mayor and municipality. Unfortunately, we have no firm commitment on the delivery of materials from municipality. The local EWB team is going to meet with the community to discuss possible next steps to restart work.

7-Feb-24

by John Trone

Sadly, with the delays, we have been caught in the election cycle. We have both a new Mayor and new leadership in the community. As mentioned previously, the prior mayor did not deliver the promised materials at the end of his term, and now the new mayor has refused to honor the agreements we had with the municipality under the prior administration. With the delays this has caused and because of new leadership in the community, the community is indicating that they want to complete the project without the assistance of Rotary or EWB. We are working on resolution but unclear what that will be.

14-Mar-24

by John Trone

After numerous meetings with EWB Guatemala, EWB USA, Rotary, and the community of El Potrero, the community has made the decision to complete this project without any further assistance from Rotary or EWB. Given the community’s decision, we are closing this project and working on the final reports. Any remaining funds will be returned to the Rotary Foundation.

Even though we are disappointed in the final resolution, we would like to point out several positive achievements (email to follow)

We are happy that the community sees the value of clean water and is committed to finishing the project and sustaining the system into the future. As this was the goal, we see the project as a success even though we will not get to participate in the final stages.

14-Mar-24

by John Trone

We would like to point out several positive achievements:

- Engineering surveys of the community were completed and used for project design and shared with the community.

- A complete engineering design was completed for the project and has been shared with the community.

- The catchment tank for the water system was completed, pictures on website.

- Most of the water distribution system in the community was completed.

- Engineers walked to line to the springs with the community and resolved all remaining stream crossing issues.

Pictures are available at:

https://www.fortcollinsrotary.org/Guatemala/El-Potrero-Guatemala

https://www.fortcollinsrotary.org/Guatemala/El-Potrero-Engineering-Visit

https://www.fortcollinsrotary.org/Guatemala/El-Potrero-Water-Project

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