SHI: Safe Drinking Water for 20,000 Rural Families

Nueva Guinea is one of nine municipalities served by Self-Help International’s Clean Water Program in Nicaragua. In this area, 27 rural communities have had chlorinators installed in their water systems. In one of these communities, Los Angeles, there are 1,130 residents and water is distributed through a pipe network to 210 homes.

In 2015, Self-Help partnered with Los Angeles to bring safer drinking water to the community by installing a CTI-8 manual chlorinator in the community’s water storage basin and its associated plastic water distribution tanks. Self-Help didn’t only help the community access safer drinking water through installing a water chlorinator; Self-Help also provided technical advice and training to the community’s Water and Sanitation Committee (CAPS) directors so they could independently and sustainably maintain the water system.

As of 2021, the Los Angeles CAPS is led by five directors, but three of them haven’t been actively participating. The remaining two, President Geovany and Treasurer Arlen (who has also assumed the secretarial responsibilities), have worked very hard to administer and ensure the sustainability of the Los Angeles water system. Geovany has also taken on putting chlorine into the chlorinator, monitoring the chlorine, and doing all CAPS-related errands on his motorcycle . 

In June 2021, Self-Help staff went to Los Angeles to talk with Geovany and Arlen and learn about the work they are doing as CAPS leaders and the sustainability of the water system. This is what the leadership shared:

“We have been leaders in the CAPS since October 2017. By October 2021, we will have served four years, which is two terms - we were re-elected by the community after our first term for administering the CAPS well. 

“Self-Help taught us how to calculate water rates and how to administer our water system. We received the water rate calculation training in March 2018 and the water system administration training in March 2019. 

“In each training, we received explanations on how to apply what we learned, and we were supplied with manuals on the chlorinating system so that we could study and strengthen our knowledge. 

“There was a community assembly regarding the cost per cubic meter of water, and community members proposed a price of  3 cordobas (C $ 3). We were able to apply what we learned from the training in the discussion, and we proposed C $ 7 per cubic meter of water instead because we knew that all maintenance and operation costs of the water system had to be included. 

“We charge a minimum cost of C $ 30 for 5 cubic meters, and for any additional cubic meter beyond five cubic meters, we charge an additional C $ 7.

“The training sessions have helped us to improve the administration of the CAPS and to assess a water rate that is both affordable for our community members and allows us to cover expenses. This ensures the maintenance and sustainability of the water system that we have. 

“Each month we spend between C $ 735 to C $ 1,000 in order to purchase between seven to ten chlorine tablets. This makes sure that our water stays chlorinated so that community members have safe drinking water.

“We charge for water services on the first day of each month and charge again after eight days. Anyone who doesn’t pay after the second charge falls into default and is given up to two months to pay the balance. If, at this time, the user doesn’t pay, water service is cut off. At present we have a 15% payment delinquency. 

“During the period that we have been managing, our CAPS has pooled its own funds together to make  investments in our community’s water system. The chart below details what we have done.

"We also have monthly expenses due to the operation and maintenance of the water system, which you can see in the second chart below. 

“We have an average monthly income of C $ 12,000 and a monthly disposable fund of C $ 5,000 after all of the expenses for maintaining the aqueduct. Since assuming our leadership roles three and a half years ago, our CAPS has accumulated C $ 155,488 cordobas, which is in the bank. We have been able to save that amount thanks to the rate we charge for water, which we learned from all of the training and support Self-Help has provided.”

El Sincoyal is a rural community in Río San Juan, Nicaragua, located 60 miles north of the Self-Help International offices in San Carlos.  It has 121 houses and approximately 500 people. Before 2018, the town water supply came from two communal and three home wells that worked with rope pumps.  In November 2018, the Mayor's Office, in conjunction with the Emergency Social Investment Fund (FISE), inaugurated a project to improve the water system in the community.  

The head of the El Sincoyal health post, Pastora, has lived in the community for 13 years. She commented that when adequate water chlorination had not been provided, community members (especially children) had been experiencing diarrhea, urinary infections, and vomiting.  There used to be 12 cases per month of these water-borne diseases.  Quality tests were carried out and the water was contaminated with fecal coliforms.

The FISE project rehabilitated one of the community wells, introducing a submersible electric pump and incorporating a chlorination device to eliminate contamination from the water. The final part of the project included a storage basin in the upper part of the town from which to distribute the water by gravity to the houses in the community.

The chlorinator that was installed to chlorinate the water was not efficient in eradicating microbiological contamination of the water because it did not discharge an adequate amount of chlorine. From 0.50 ppm (parts per million) up to 1.00 ppm of chlorine is necessary to disinfect the water and eliminate bacterial contamination.  This chlorinator achieved chlorine concentrations of only 0.21 ppm, well below the minimum; therefore, contamination in the water and diarrheal diseases in the population still persisted.

Jahaira is the president of the Water and Sanitation Committee (CAPS) in El Sincoyal.  She has lived in the community for 20 years.  She was concerned about improving water quality, so she began to investigate.  She contacted Orlando Montiel, Self-Help’s Clean Water Program Officer, and explained the situation.  Orlando agreed to make a technical inspection visit to the community's water supply.

When Orlando performed chlorination tests at several houses, he found that the chlorine present in the pipes was insufficient to disinfect the water.  The results ranged from 0.21 ppm to 0.24 ppm.  Based on these tests, he proposed changing the chlorinator they were using to the new design that the Self-Help water program was promoting.  Jahaira made a proposal to the other CAPS members, and they approved the installation of the new Self-Help chlorinator by Orlando.

The community has been using the Self-Help chlorinator since 2020, and the results are encouraging.  Pastora, the nurse at the health post, commented  that diarrheal diseases no longer occur in the population, and urinary infections are no longer common reasons for consultations.  Water from the health post measured 0.63 ppm of chlorine, within the range determined by the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health as an adequate concentration to disinfect it.  

The directors of the CAPS toured several houses to verify the presence and efficiency of water chlorination with the new chlorinator. The result was an average test of 0.78 ppm of chlorine present in the water that flows through the town’s pipes. This is an excellent measure of the quality of the water intended for human consumption, indicating that there should be no bacterial proliferation in the water from the basin and pipes. For their part, Jahaira and the other CAPS members feel confident that they can drink the water without worrying about getting sick or suffering from other diseases.