Water Project for Andean Villages in Bolivia

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!