Physical Health Bolivia Project #7920

Water Project for Andean Villages in Bolivia

by Quaker Bolivia Link

Project Report | Oct 20, 2011
The Inauguration

By Robert Vincent | Project Coordinator, QBL-US

We are proud to announce that the community of Janko Marca Sirpa finished their water project. It was inaugurated together with the participation of our technicians, representatives from the Bolivian Board of Directors and local Municipal and Provincial officials. The inauguration included an official accounting of the different resources provided to carry out the project, speeches of encouragement and appreciation, dancing and a festive meal.

All of the infrastructure was completed as planned, with the addition of water meters purchased with municipal and community funds. QBL worked with the local health post to provide training to school children and local families in hygiene and the appropriate storage and handling of water in order to prevent illnesses. The school director hopes to carry out a hygiene campaign in the near future. We also trained the families in appropriate ways to keep their community clean. Each child in the community received their own hygiene kit with toothpaste, a toothbrush, soap and a small towel.

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We want to make sure that our projects are sustainable in the long term. Together with QBL, the community developed statutes that cover responsibilities for maintaining the water system. These statutes define how much each family will contribute to cover the costs of any future maintenance needs. The statutes also define the responsibility of the water committee that is responsible for repairing any problems that might arise.

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With the project finished, we will return several times over the next two years to visit the community. This will ensure that the community is benefiting fully from their hard work and the financial investments provided for this project, and also that your donations make a lasting impact in the lives of of the people we serve.

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Jul 1, 2011
Visit to Janko Marca Sirpa

By Robert Vincent | Project Coordinator, QB-US

I returned from Bolivia a few weeks ago and wanted to share about the progress of our water project in Janko Marca Sirpa. We had named it "Jankoaqui Water Project", but the actual name is Janko Marca Sirpa and therefore we changed the project title to "Water Project for Andean Villages in Bolivia".

As a reminder, this project will restore and extend a previous water system that was installed several years ago by the municipality. The original project included digging a well, installing an electrical pump, building a water tank, and then piping water to a single water faucet in the village square. Since that time, the water tank has started to leak in several place. Your donations will refurbish the water tank, provide piping and faucets to each family in the community and train each family in hygiene and managing the water system.

A meeting with the project committee and interested village members in Janko Marca Sirpa.

I arrived early in the morning. I usually ask that our staff not announce my visits because the community, in their enthusiasm and appreciation for the project, will often organize elaborate and generous receptions. This time we met with the committee and several others from the community who were interested in why a foreigner had visited (these communities rarely get foreign visitors). Since the project only recently began, Eloy, one of QBL’s technical staff, took this opportunity to explain the next stage in implementing the project and also introduce the mason that will be working on refurbishing the water tank. I asked a few general questions. The village was appreciative of our help in this community and will work enthusiastically over the next few months installing the piping and family faucets.

Eloy and the mason examine the current water tank and decide what needs to be done to fix it. After developing their plan, they talk with the village members and project committee to organize work schedules. You can see the village center in the background.

A villager digging his ditch in preparation for the piping.

The village has been busy at work digging ditches for the piping that will come in the next month or so. It is a tremendous amount of work to dig several kilometers of ditch by hand in order to get a functioning water system. Even when the villagers have to do such back-breaking work, their appreciation and expressions of gratitude for the support that QBL provides through our donors can be overwhelming. It is impossible to express this gratitude in words.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments about this project. And thank you again for your contributions!

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