Physical Health Honduras Project #6014

Clean Water for over 4,000 people in Honduras

by Engineers Without Borders South Central Florida Chapter

Project Report | Jun 29, 2011
Update - June 28 2011

By Bob Williams | Project Leader

El Negrito Project--Honduras

Teleconference April, 13 2011

Attending
                Kelly Latham
               Juan Aceituno
                Neha Hridaya
                Bob Williams

Bob outlined the status of the project
                1. Mayor is considering upgrading first 3km of raw water Pico Pijol line starting at the intake.
                2. Alternate considerations for a new 150,000 gal. or 100,000 gal tank either at the existing tank
                   location or at a new site, yet to be purchased.

EWB SCFL is considering taking responsible charge of the named 3km section of the project.
Efforts to get a route survey and topographic survey through the Municipality with hands on by Brent Honnrlaw have not materialized. Details of the survey requirements supplied by EWB SCFL were outlined to Kelly. Kelly and EWB SCFL team discussed alternate survey procedures.

AGREEMENT ON WAY FORWARD

Kelly will send us info as a first step in getting existing top of the project site.
EWB SCFL will do a desk study of this survey information and prepare a route and profile of the proposed pipeline.
Brent along with the Municipality (and or the peace core lady) will be asked to use our plan/profile and walk/survey the line, making changes as appropriate.
EWB SCFL TEAM will conduct a second site assessment study for verification of line route and profile.
EWB SCFL will produce a design for that first 3km and a master plan for the entire length (22km)
The design will be submitted to EWB USA for review and approval.
Once approval is given, construction may start.
EWB SC FL will be responsible to arrange for the funding.

Robert H Williams

Update, May 6, 2011

During the week ending April 29, Team El Negrito received project site satellite topographic information from Matt Verbyla, EWB liaison officer for Honduras. We have commenced to review same in order to prepare route location and a site topographic map for the proposed pipeline. These maps would not be project conclusive and would need on site verification as noted in “THE WAY FORWARD” above.
In the meantime, during week ending April 29^th, Team El Negrito, received information from the Municipality of El Negrito that they , the Municipality, would be conducting site surveys on the noted 3 Km section of the proposed pipeline.
During the week ending May 13, Team El Negrito will again be the liaison with the Municipality of El Negrito, in order to sort this apparent two pronged approach to the survey.

Robert H Williams

Update-June 8, 2011
Last evening ( June 7) some members of the team (Juan, Neha and Bob) met with the Mayor of El Negroto, Delvin Salgado.

He gave us an electronic copy of recent survey carried out on the project site. Juan downloaded it onto his laptop. Also included in the electronic data was a design for a new 200,000 gallon water storage tank to be located at the new site. This info has been placed in DROPBOX/6/6/11.

We discussed further EWB-SCFL participation on the project. Whereas we agreed what we are capable of doing, it seems that those activities may conflict with our previous discussions/agreements with EWB-USA.

Two things become very important:
1. Discuss procedural anomalies with EWB-USA and get another ‘way forward’ agreement
2. EWBSCFL meet to review the data supplied and in conjunction with results from discussions with EWB-USA determine the next activities for EWB-SCFL.

Update June 9 2011 (Discussion with Kelly Latham)
In attendance:
                Kelly Latham
                Juan Aceituno
                Bob Williams
Bob outlined the Mayor’s suggestions, that is:
                Mayor’s engineers will do design for 1.7 km of pipeline and 200,000 tank
                EWB-SCFL would review design and provide cost estimate
                EWB-SCFL would over-see the construction
                Funding for the construction –how much can EWB-SCFL help?

Kelly indicated that that arrangement does not fit the ideal EWB model

SUGGESTINS FOR WAY FORWARD
                EWB-SCFL review design and send to EWB-USA for review and approval
                Greatest obstacle may be funding. EWB-SCFL to ensure that the Mayor is aware of this
                and do funding projections to get a level of funding possibilities as an initial activity.
              EWB-SCFL will approach Rotary and Water for People as two entities that may help in
                funding.
Note: El Negrito municipality does not yet own the land proposed for the new 200,000 gal tank.

Update June17, 2011
The Mayor has returned to El Negrito. Prior to his departure Juan conveyed to him the future activities of EWB SCFL, and they are:

1. Review of the design now on (Juan’s lap top)

2. Inform the Mayor if there is a need for more field data.

3. When satisfied with the design, we will submit same to EWB USA for review/ comment/ approval.

4. Upon completion of the approval process, EWB SCFL will move their fund raising into high
gear, targeting among other organizations, the Rotary Club and Water for people
Footnote # 1:
During our visit to El Negrito, Robert took the lead in hydraulic/ pipeline analysis/design. If possible, I would like to see Robert take the lead again. Nevertheless, since we are a team each team member is being given the opportunity to conduct his/her own review and submit comments to Robert.
Again, since we are a team, if anyone sees a different process, other than the one being proposed herein, please be prepared to air same.
Juan is now being asked to evaluate the logistics of sending the survey info to team members who are interested in conducting design review.
Footnote # 2:
Upon review of the current update please let us have a telecon on Thursday June 22 at noon.

As usual the telecom # is 1 712 432 1620---PW 832 129

Permalink

Mar 29, 2011
Progress Report March 2011

By Robert H Williams, Juan Aceituno | Project Leader

Globing Giving Honduras Update March 2011

A team of six volunteers traveled to El Negrito, Honduras and completed the initial assessment and field work in September 2010.
Subsequently the Field Assessment Report was completed and submitted to Engineers Without Borders (EWB) in November 2010.

A project status teleconference meeting was held between EWB –USA and EWB-SCFL.
The discussion centered on the procedure adopted by EWB SCFL, that is, EWB-SCFL would prepare a master plan of the project, followed by a detailed design prepared by SANAA (local Honduran water entity) of El Negrito. EWB-SCFL would then review the design before implementation.
EWB-USA had an issue with this approach and suggested that EWB-SCFL take responsible charge of the entire project or any section of it.

Since then, EWB-SCFL has been communicating with the Mayor from El Negrito, Javier Umana of the Municipality and the local Peace Corps representative in El Negrito. EWB-SCFL has been trying to determine if the current scope of the project remains as it was outlined in the field assessment report. EWB-SCFL determined that there had been some variations though not significant enough to officially revise the field assessment report.

EWB-SCF evaluated three areas of the project and is currently prioritizing the one to take full responsible charge. EWB-SCF plans to design approximately 3 Km for a new raw water transmission pipeline parallel to the existing pipeline currently servicing El Negrito. In any event, there will be a need for a detailed route and topographic survey of the project’s route.
EWB-SCF is in constant conversations with El Negrito regarding these matters. In the meantime, EWB-SCF is finalizing the field survey specifications to guide the topographic survey activities in El Negrito.

Permalink

Dec 8, 2010
Post Assessment Report

By Alex M; Bob W; Juan A; Neha H; Oscar B; Robert T | Team Members

Executive Summary

The community of El Negrito, Honduras is currently supplied with domestic water supply from five sources. No water supply for firefighting purposes was identified.

The services currently serve about 1320 homes and approximately 10,000 residents.
Peace Corps volunteers working in the area reported to Engineers Without Borders –South/Central Florida chapter (EWB-SCFL) that the water supply to the residents is inadequate and there is indication of pollution resulting in water borne diseases.

EWB-SCFL visited the community of El Negrito during the week of September 19^th to 26^th to evaluate the report and to determine further involvement as may be required to improve the water supply and to alleviate the adverse impact on the population.

Meetings with the Mayor, Delvin Salgado, confirmed the number of water sources, the inadequacy of the current system, and the desire to upgrade to a single system to serve the entire community. This would involve a phased development with the addition of a 150,000 gallon storage tank in the first phase. The flow would also need to be improved by increasing the pipe size and fixing the numerous leaks in the system. Upgrading the pipes will induce heavier loads on the catenary support which should undergo structural evaluation. This evaluation is outside the scope of EWB/SCFL.

The EWB team’s field visits and engineering analysis supports this concept. It is however imperative to note that the current distribution system is not fully understood and for this concept to be effective that system would have to be fully understood and integrated. This effort is outside the scope of EWB-SCFL scope of activities.

Meetings with Dr. Carla Suyapa Fuentes and Dr, Juan Valesquez Ramon confirmed the existence of water borne diseases in the community. Field survey of residents and field water analysis support this view. Some form of purification will therefore be necessary in a long-term solution.

Population growth and subsequent water demand were calculated based on parameters supplied by the El Negrito Municipality. The current population is approximately 10,000 people with a population growth of 3%. Using these estimates, population in the year 2029 will be 17,535. This translates to a water demand of 208 gpm in 2010 and 365 gpm in 2029 and a needed storage of 160,000 gallons. The current tank size is 41,000 gallons. Current required storage is 90,000 gallons, meaning a shortfall of 49,000 gallons. Again, these numbers do not consider water for fire flow.

EWB/SCFL will proceed to evolve systems pertinent to the Pico Pijol system in a manner compatible with phased construction and to meet demands as dictated by the parameters noted above. This information will be supplied to the Mayor for his review and decision to have the detailed design completed by El Negrito engineers and implementation as he sees fit.

EWB-SCFL wishes to extend their appreciation to the people of El Negrito to be of service to them and would extend their desire to be of continued service.

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.