Providing Safe Water for Rural Guatemalan Village

The effort over the past two months has been to create the best plan for the water tanks to be supplied by the new well. Originally, the plan was to provide three 10,000 liter centrally located plastic water tanks, connected to the well via a pipe system. The village leaders expressed a desire for a concrete water tank instead, with the potential for the community to later install piping from the tank to the majority of homes in the village. To this end, we have been engaged in doing a GPS survey of the community to define the best location for the tank, and have been working with an engineer to design a tank. We expect a final design and location to be agreed to sometime in July. While there has been a short delay, making sure the tank system meets the community needs and is in the correct location is worth the time. Thanks to our donors, we have the funds available to commence building the tank once this is completed. As the work since the last report has been primarily discussion, measurements, and design, I do not have new photos for this report. Please stay tuned for the next report!

Thank you!

Our first step in preparation for the well drilling process was to define the best location on the community-owned land for drilling, based on our geophysical groundwater survey equipment. Then we provided funds for the conversion of a footpath to a short road to allow access by the large well drilling rigs and support vehicles to the community property in the middle of the village.

Following this, the work to drill the well began. We are excited to share that the well driller initially found water at a depth of 50 feet - 40 gallons per minute, which is quite a lot compared to other wells we have provided. Since we want to go at least about 200 feet deep in order to avoid contamination with neighbors' latrine pits, the drilling team is back in action right now in Chinaboquil. Since the ground below 50 feet is a combination of clay and rock, the driller may need to bring a different type of drilling rig to the area to complete the final portion of the well. Once the well is completed, he will install a pump at the bottom. We are working on the final plans with the village on the location of the water storage tanks we will provide once the well is completed. Hopefully, most of this will be completed prior to our next report.

Thank you for your generosity in helping this village have access to clean water.

Donald Roe

Links:

• The AgInno Institute web site