Water Committees and Potential Projects

Pictured: Water committee in Porvenir at my very first successful meeting!

Last post I mentioned that my English classes are just a side project--a side project to what, you may ask? That’s complicated. Right now my main goal is to finally get some meetings happening with the water committees in my town and in the surrounding caserios (smaller towns that are part of the same population district (central poblado). Each caserio has its own water source and committee to manage it, with its own problems, although they are all alike in that the water is not treated and is of poor quality. Some (most?) water committees also apparently don’t actually hold meetings—I’m discovering that some are managed by a just a few people. “El comité no funciona” (The committee doesn’t function), they tell me. This set-up works for maintaining the status quo, but less so for having the organizational capacity necessary to make improvements unless the regional government steps in and does it for them.

After various failed attempts, my new approach is to call a more general community meeting so that there are more potential attendees if the water committee doesn’t show up. I had a meeting with one promising caserio (Porvenir) last Sunday--but I spent Friday before (my birthday, actually) passing out fliers and talking it up. Turns out this might not have been necessary because this particular water committee is well-organized enough that it actually fines people for not showing up at important meetings! But I also did some surveys and met a lot of new people, so it wasn't a waste of time by any means. And Sunday's meeting was a success! I think I will definitely have a trash management project there, if not also latrines and water treatment. Not only is the water committee functioning but the Club de Madres (Mother's Club) and health post seem eager to work with me as well. Yay!

This makes me feel better about the fact that on Tuesday, after waking up at 5:30 to meet the president of the Buena Vista water committee (in my actual site/town where I'm living) only to be blown off AGAIN, I have pretty much written off working with the water system there. I still will have projects with the colegio once classes start again in March, and I might be able to do some workshops with the health post, but unless the water committee president stops flaking out, not bothering to even call me when he's not going to show up, and in general having absolutely no respect for me, my time and my potential contribution to his work, I don't think I can do much in that area. Thankfully the municipality is currently installing a new water system and even a sewage system, so the need isn't as great as in the caserios (although being that I have to consume that water on a daily basis, it would be nice if they would start chlorinating it...).

Friday I visited another caserio much further from Buena Vista (about 2 hours hanging on in the back of an agricultural truck!) to see a project being done by Engineers Without Borders--they're installing an entirely new water system, and the piletas (water taps) are connected to a gray water pit that keeps the water from puddling underneath the tap and actually helps replenish the ground water. I'd really like to implement something like that in my site, as well. Photos are up on Facebook!

This weekend, I'm in Trujillo and am happy to report that the hostel has finally decided to invest in some toilet seats--yes! Now if only they could get the water to be consistently hot...