The Blog has moved...

We've moved our El Porvenir blog here. Please check it out.

La Pita - Still working, 5 years later

A few months ago, El Porvenir had the opportunity to visit La Pita, Terrabona. In 2007, thanks to our supporters at Create Good Foundation and Global Water, El Porvenir worked with the community as they built their gravity flow water system and household latrines. We wanted to go back and see how things were holding up five years later. (This story was also featured in more detail in our recent newsletter.)

Staff interviewed Victoria Hernández in her one room brick home. She told El Porvenir how life was before they had water and latrines in their homes. Victoria used to walk 2km (1.25 miles) to a creek to collect water to carry home. They used to wait in line for some time and the water was contaminated, often by the community members themselves, as they did not have sanitation facilities. The contamination led to illness, usually diarrhea and/or parasites.  

"I had two miscarriages because I had to carry water from far away, carrying one bucket on my head and one on my hip. Many children got sick during that time; some died." - Victoria Hernández

Victoria proudly shows off the water spigot in her yard.

Now, things are much different. Victoria has water just outside her door and a latrine nearby. The families are healthly, the women have more time available and their lives are improved. Victoria's husband works as a day laborer and Victoria had time now to open a small store in their home. The family earns $6/day —much higher than the average of rural Nicaraguans: $1-2/day.

"We have more savings because we don’t have to spend our money on medicine." - Victoria Hernández

Victoria also happens to be the Treasurer on the local Potable Water Committee. She collects all the families monthly fees and reports back to the community and their collective maintenance fund. She reported to El Porvenir that the committee has c$12,000 saved (about $520US).

Victoria shows us how she washes at her house.

"We thank the donors that supported us in the latrine and water system projects.  Always we will care for it; we will not let it fail." - Victoria Hernández

People like Victoria are what inspire us to continue our work to provide clean water and sanition to people in Nicaragua. We are working towards long lasting solutions that empower the people we work with. There is more to be done, can you help? Consider a gift to Rob's birthday.

The rope pump, a local solution

New year, new post. Here at El Porvenir, we wish you a Happy New Year!

Well and rope pump in Puente Ocho, Sauce, Nicaragua, photo credit: Nile Sprague

El Porvenir is well-known (where we work in Nicaragua at least) for its hand-dug wells. Even on the machine drilled wells, however, we use the rope pump - the standard for water pumping in rural Nicaragua.

Rope pump in Tule Oriental, Camoapa, Nicaragua, example of a machine drilled well.

The rope pump was invented by the Chinese thousands of years ago. Local stories say that the Nicaraguan version of the rope pump was invented by a Belgian technician, Jan Haemhouts, with Nicaraguan campesinos in the early 1980s. The rope pump caught on widely in Nicaragua and is the standard, as mentioned above. The rope pump technology has been exported to India and Africa as well.


What is the rope pump? From ropepumps.org: "The Rope pump consists of a wheel that pulls up an endless rope with cone shaped high precision washers that pass through a PVC pump tube, in this way lifting the water." A picture is worth a thousand words, so this diagram may help: http://www.akvo.org/wiki/index.php/File:Rope_pump_cross_section.jpg

Rope pumps are basically a bicycle wheel with a crank. Photo credit: Nile Sprague

Data from a few years ago showed more than 70,000 rope pumps installed in Nicaragua. Why did it catch on so well? The technology is fairly simple in concept and in fabrication. Thus it is easy to understand and repair. It is cheaper than most handpumps in terms of upfront costs and maintenance. In Nicaragua particularly -since it is our local standard - it is easy to find someone in a community or a nearby community that can repair a rope pump if something needs fixing.

12 year old boy repairing rope pump, photo credit: Lynn Gleason

For El Porvenir, it is part of the sustainability of our projects into the long term. We make sure the people install the rope pump with our staff so they know how to fix it. Parts are available in each rural town. Let us know what you think.


Further reading:


http://www.ropepumps.org
http://www.akvo.org/wiki/index.php/Rope_pump

Site visit to La Rinconada, Achuapa

It's been on the busy side here in Nicaragua at El Porvenir, but I had a wonderful visit to the community of La Rinconada, Achuapa this week; I thought it was worth sharing. Our valued partner Global Water was here to visit the communities and schools they have been supporting.

We drove up from visits to schools in Cuidad Darío and Terrabona the day before and stayed in the new hotel in El Sauce. The following morning, Kathleen and I had an early breakfast then joined Erick for our trip. We took the "highway" to Estelí about an hour drive up - literally - for the most part uphill. We left the vehicle in Campamento and met Chepe from the community of La Rinconada, who had brought down 3 horses for us to ride up on.

Chepe leads the way as Erick, Kathleen and I follow on horseback.

We rode for about an hour, across a river and through very muddy tracks - the horses were fantastic, although there were a couple of spots they had trouble getting through. We were pleased to arrive though to a very welcoming community. We saw the well, but also where these families previously collected water. 

This is where Chepe and the nearby families got their drinking water previously.

The above natural spring was unfortunately open and unprotected and not a good, healthy source of drinking water. The community members told us of the problems they faced with diarrhea and parasites in previous years. Since there was a stream right beside it, any rain overflowed it into the spring; also the animals often bathed in the spring as well, contaminating it. However, what choice did the people have, but to drink the water there?

The community members proudly show their latrines, nicely decorated with flowers.

With help from our partner Global Water and others, we were able to provide some of the materials for the project for the community members to build. The community members contributed the labor, sand and rocks for the construction. The community members dug the latrine pits and the well. Then they did all the masonry involved. The well took 18 months (140 person days) to dig and complete.

The families kindly humored us in holding the banner for the photo.

Hearing the stories of how the community was before and how they felt now, it reminded me why our work is so important. There is still more to be done, for example, they are requesting 2 more wells in the area and a washing station, but they have made an excellent start. If you can help, please consider it through our web page or mailing a check. The future is a little brighter for these families and we hope it will continue to get brighter.

Of course, we are in the rainy season, so we got very wet on our way back to the vehicle. It was still worth it though.

Truck Cab Donation

Just for fun, we had a very generous donation of a truck cab to El Porvenir from Johan from Canada. It was a bit of work for Gabriel (shown below) to get it through customs though. Although we cannot use it, we will be selling it and putting the money in our fund for a much needed new pick-up truck. We are very grateful to Johan and Gerdy who brought it down.

Rob pretending he knows how to drive the cab. (photo as per request)

The truck parked outside our office.

 

Rob and Gabriel - Gabriel did all the work to get it into our parking lot.

Water is Life. Passing it on.

We had a pair of fun visitors here at El Porvenir last month: Canyon and Forest Woodward. Excellent people and excellent photographers.

Check out Canyon's photos and thoughts on his experience here:

http://canyonsage.blogspot.com/2011/03/water-is-life-pass-it-on.html

One of many photos from Canyon's blog

Why Double Pit Latrines? Continual Improvement

Sneak preview of an article from our next newsletter:

Our philosophy has always been one of continual improvement. If we can do it better, then that's what we try to do. Since I started at El Porvenir, there has been a problem with our sanitation program, but we didn’t have a clear solution until now. The official latrine choice for the government and most groups working in Nicaragua has been the single pit VIP (ventilated improved pit) latrine.

Single pit latrines work well. They eliminate open defecation, contamination of water sources, smells and fly proliferation; they improve the community’s health. However, the problem is that they have a finite capacity. The usual depth of our latrines and the government latrines was about 3 meters or 10 feet deep. These usually filled up in 5-7 years with a typical family. After that, if the family didn’t take the initiative to build another, then they often returned to open defecation. Or, another organization came along and built another latrine, contributing to what we call “latrine cemeteries”. Resources were being wasted and trash created.  

Latrine cemetery: This photo shows 3 different sets of
new and abandoned latrines at a school in Terrabona.

So, we did some research and discovered another option from Africa, the double pit VIP latrine. We have been piloting double pit latrines in a few communities since 2007, building 200 to date. A double pit latrine is the same as the single, but has two pits. The beneficiary can use one pit until it fills, then can move the superstructure to the second pit. Once the second pit fills, then the first pit can be emptied as the bacteria will be dead by that time (likely 2-3 years for the pit to fill, although at least a year is needed for it to be safe). Then the superstructure can be moved back and forth between the pits, with luck endlessly.

Note the second pit on the left. Latrine from El Sauce.

So far, the results from the pilots are promising: 2 families have switched to their second pit. Seeing that the families are accepting the technology so far, we decided to eliminate single pit VIP latrines from our project portfolio in 2011. We’ll keep you up to date on how it is working with the double pits and other technologies but we are excited about this new, more sustainable initiative.   


p.s. Here is the technical design of this latrine, if you are interested, although it is a little faint (if you are having trouble seeing it, email us at info@elporvenir.org and we can email this to you): 

World Water Day activities in Nicaragua

Yesterday, El Porvenir celebrated World Water Day both in the US and Nicaragua. All 6 of our regional offices had activities. There were radio programs with hygiene messages, piñatas and celebrations in several communities. We happen to have a group visiting from Bellingham, WA and they were present at the celebration in San Lorenzo and witnessed the water drop piñata as shown here:

Small boy dances as he attempts to hit the water drop piñata

Don Álvaro's story - watershed recovery

Hurricane Mitch, back in 1998, caused a landslide and destroyed many of the trees in the area of Palo de Agua, where Don Álvaro lives. There was a small spring that provided water to the community; unfortunately, after Mitch, the spring dried up. By 2002, when reforestation was first contemplated, Don Álvaro's lands and the surrounding area were still treeless and without much vegetation. From the first trees planted back in 2002 from a small El Porvenir-led nursery, Don Álvaro started working on his dream of the reforesting the area. Those first trees were planted in the area surrounding where the spring had been. 

Don Álvaro is now 63 years old and has 6 children. He received literacy training back in the campaigns in the 1980s, but can only write his name. He is proud that all his 6 children finished primary school.

Don Álvaro showing off one of his many trees.

Don Álvaro is dedicated to his trees and farm. Over the years he has planted more than 2,500 trees. He also has planted pineapple, grafted fruit trees, banana trees and built living fences and barriers to protect the area. He makes a living selling corn and beans—and extra income from selling fruit in town. His land has regained fertility, and most importantly, the spring that dried up has begun to flow again! The spring even has more water than they remember.

Don Álvaro, proudly showing the preliminary structure he has built around the recovered water source.

Thanks to your support, we will continue to help more people like Don Álvaro return a vegetation-less field to productive land with a gushing spring.

Happy New Year - new educational materials

It's a new year, and a good time to look at renewals... So late last year, we at El Porvenir looked over some of our educational materials and especially at our "10 commandments" of latrine use. We have renamed it in recent years to the 10 norms of latrine use, but it still has the same basic concepts. The main focus this year was to add an equivalent set of norms for well use, double pit latrines, pour flush latrines, washing and bathing stations and improved stoves. Here are a couple of them, so you can practice your Spanish...

The suggestions try to go from most important to less important, so the local Water Committee was given importance in this case (#1).

Hand washing is #2, right after, always use the latrine!

We are glad to see stoves included in these now, and keeping it clean and hygienic is important!

We are optimistic that 2011 will be even more successful than 2010, so keep tuned for more news... Thanks for your support!

WFP visit to Wiwilí

Last week, El Porvenir had a visit from Diana Betancourt from Water for People (WFP) Honduras. We drove up to Wiwilí, with its improved roads (over previous year); it probably took just 7 hours this time. We saw several new pilot projects that the staff are working on. The double pit VIP latrine is nothing new perhaps for El Porvenir, but this was the first year we built them in Wiwilí. Here is one in Corrozal.

Although completed just a week before, Doña Dominga had already planted flowers around the latrine.

Then we visited Corriente Lira, on the Coco River (although we drove, then walked 3km to the community - no boat ride this time), to see the pilot of the pour flush latrines. This is a first for El Porvenir and very exciting for us. They were not quite complete, but they are close. Pour flush latrines are a good option for communities with an abundance of water and good soil absorption.

The leader, Don Balvino, explains to Diana the construction process in great detail.

The pour flush is similar to a toilet, but 1 liter of water is poured in to flush it.

These pour flush latrines are double pits.
The small box in the foreground allows for a switch between them.

Staff was particularly proud of this new handwashing station in Las Vueltas.
School is out for the year, so no kids around right now.

Photos from World Toilet Day (or World Latrine Day)

We changed the name to World Latrine Day for our regions

In Nicaragua, as I mentioned in the last blog, our regional El Porvenir offices held events to celebrate World Toilet Day (WTD). We invited local communities to come to our Open Houses, held in our offices, to discuss methods to rehabilitate their old latrines. It was a successful day and we plan to repeat it again next year. Some people did get the impression that we were going to give away new latrines, but most people seemed to understand what we were getting at. Several students from a nearby school also came and a couple of local NGOs. Here are some photos from the event in Darío.

Marlon gives some latrine rehab tips to people that dropped by the Open House

Mayra explains our 10 hygiene "tips" for using the latrine

Staff decorated the office outside with hygiene messages.

Tomorrow is World Toilet Day!

Tomorrow, El Porvenir will celebrate World Toilet Day (WTD). Our regions will hold open houses, inviting local communities to discuss sanitation in general and in particular to discuss the rehabilitation of their old latrines.

Pilot double pit latrine in La Calamidad, Camoapa, Nicaragua

The vast majority of communities in Nicaragua, if they have latrines, have single-pit VIP (Ventilated Improved Pit) latrines. Many built over the years are now full. Here at El Porvenir, we have been piloting double pit latrines (also known as Fossa Alterna) where the superstructure (the slab and enclosure) is moved to the second pit when the first fills. By the time the second pit fills, it is safe to dig out the first pit and start the cycle again. We plan to stop using the single pit VIPs in 2011 as the double pits are working. The photo above is an example.  However, looking back, we plan to work with communities that already have single pit latrines to develop ways to rehabilitate them, converting them into double pit latrines of sorts.

Those are my WTD thoughts... I welcome yours...

"Reforesting Today to Ensure our Environmental Future in our Community"

I have talked a lot on this blog about water and sanitation, even hygiene to some extent. However, I have been remiss in not highlighting our very important reforestation program. We are working with one of our great board members to morph our reforestation program to a watershed protection program. We already have a lot of the components of this in place, but some changes will be coming. For example, the staff (and I) have been learning that all reforestation is helpful, but there are areas where planting a tree can be more impactful - such as higher in the watershed where the streams tend to spring up, along stream or creek banks, etc. We are learning to work smarter.

In English: "Reforesting Today to Ensure our Environmental Future in our Community"

Part of our work in the reforestation program has always been to try to change attitudes and practices amongst the people we work with. Burning the fields to prepare them for planting is a common practice in Nicaragua. Unfortunately, it is not a very environmentally friendly practice. This new sticker that the staff created is being distributed in our communities as part of our recognition that we need to do even more in environmental education - helping people to recognize the connection between those trees and their water in the watershed. We hope to revamp our education program along with the reforestation program to get more people on board with "Reforesting Today to Ensure our Environmental Future in our Community."

Handwash-a-thon on Global Handwashing Day

On October 15th, Global Handwashing Day, El Porvenir held handwash-a-thons in many schools. 22 were planned, although it looks like at least 30 were carried out. Here are a few shots:

Handwashing in a school in Terrabona

Teacher showing the kids how to wash their hands.

Kids gather to wash their hands in the handwash-a-thon

Two girls show off their mural that they helped make for GHW Day

Many schools had cultural events, like this school in Ciudad Darío

The children line up at this school to wash their hands.

Other children watch as a young girl learns to wash her hands.

Blog Action Day/Global Handwashing Day/Clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

New well photo by Jon Polka

Happy Global Handwashing Day!

Although the Blog action day is about clean water, often a topic on people's minds, I think 2 related topics are equally important: sanitation and hygiene.

For an organization that works in clean water, like El Porvenir, it becomes imperative to include sanitation, often through latrines and other facilities to ensure that the clean water installed stays clean. Check out Rose George's excellent book on Sanitation.

Also, on Global Handwashing Day, it seems appropriate to talk to the hygiene piece. Even with the infrastructure in place, if the families aren't washing their hands after using the latrines, the health impact is not as great as we'd like to see it.

I am traveling today, so these are my brief thoughts to contribute to the Blog Action Day.

El Porvenir's 20th anniversary celebration in Nicaragua

Yesterday was El Porvenir's official 20th birthday as an organization. The staff in Nicaragua planned a big event in Cuidad Darío, El Porvenir's starting point all those years ago. I was away in the USA until just the night before at a board meeting, visiting supporters and attending the 20th anniversary event in San Francisco. (The event in San Francisco was very successful, by the way.)

So I was very impressed with all the work that the staff put into the celebration. Here some shots of the exposition stands they set up outside the hall.

Staff put a rope pump on a barrel, just like our US friends do

They even built a miniature slow sand filter

And a model showing a healthy and an unhealthy watershed

However, most pleasing for all of us was the arrival of El Porvenir's founder, Carole Harper.

Carole Harper speaks about EP's key to success, community participation

Overall, it was a fun event. We had musicians from each of our municipalities, from communities we have worked in. Who knew there was so much talent in our areas?

These talented musicians had everyone clapping and dancing.