“Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.”

I would like to excuse my followers; this post will be long. It is a topic I have avoided writing about because it has been the most difficult and confusing part of my service thus far, a problem I have never had to worry about in my life: water. I have touched on the struggles that my community has with water (or better said, lack of water) but I have not updated followers with what I have done to try and help tackle the problem…so here it goes.

I organized a meeting to elect a water committee. Before the election, I tried to do team building exercises that explained the responsibilities of each role and what values make an effective group. However the participants were very unresponsive and just wanted to elect the committee. In retrospect, I now understand that many of them have never been asked to think about values or group organization, which is unfortunately why all of the groups that have existed in Santa Marta have failed. Feeling discouraged, I did as they wished and moved on with the voting- which was probably more frustrating than asking what values are. For as much as they complained about wanting to fix our water situation, it was amazing how many people did not want the responsibility. For almost an hour we shuffled through proposals of candidates and refusals and re-explaining what each position was before the acceptance. Finally, we elected a president, secretary, treasurer, fiscal, and 2 vocals.

 

swear in of our water committee!

I have been meeting with the water committee every two weeks to get them into the habit of maintaining organization, communication, and punctuality. We have studied the laws of the Ministry of Health (MINSA) in regards to what power the water committee has. We have also set a price to start charging community members for water. Every house needs to pay 50 cents per faucet and with these funds the committee can fix small problems in the system such as broken tubes. Ideally, the committee would raise enough money to construct an entirely new aqueduct, which is a huge goal and most communities don’t ever reach it before receiving aid from the government or an outside organization. Apart from that I have helped the committee in the process of receiving a Personaria Juridica which makes a group of people into a single legal entity that can be culpable for what happens with the aqueduct even after the roles of the individuals has changed & allows them to do things like open bank accounts under the name of this new entity rather than a single individual. We have also been trying to figure out some other legal issues. The current well is on someone’s property who currently does not live in the community. The committee needs permission from the owner before they can do anything action (build an aqueduct, reforest the area, ect). Until the owner comes to visit, which will apparently be for Christmas, we have no way of granting written permission. I had no idea that part of my job as a volunteer would be sorting through legal matters! These meetings with the water committee have been productive and we are learning a lot, however it’s not a physical object that the people are seeing. Unfortunately I have been told that I am not doing anything in the community because people are not seeing the construction of an aqueduct and are not seeing that instant gratification. No matter how many times I try to explain that I am not here to gift an aqueduct, and that the community is capable of helping itself, the people (especially in the Comarca) are just so used to freebies from the government that it takes away incentive from people to want to work for themselves or the greater good of the community. My job here can be really thankless.

 

Meanwhile, I have been learning about various water systems here in Panama. I went to another volunteer’s site to participate in her water seminar. She works in the sector Environmental Health (EH) which is a sector of mostly engineers who work in water systems and sanitation (latrines and/or potable water). Las Ensenadas is a beautiful site off the peninsula that requires boat travel. In this water seminar, I did a presentation about reforestation and its importance in protecting watersheds. The community was very interested in the topic and seemed to learn quite a bit. The volunteer is working on rainwater catchment systems since her site is not well suited for aqueducts or wells. She is making catchment tanks out of something called Ferro cement. These tanks are made from chicken wire and have a light coat of cement around the wire. These tanks can be used to catch rainwater or for an aqueduct. PCVs use Ferro cement because it is cheaper, easier to build, and more applicable to rural communities than huge tanks made of pure cement. Apart from my presentation the seminar included the construction of these Ferro cement tanks, water pressure, distribution, gravity fed systems… I basically learned more engineering in two days than I ever had learned before. While rainwater catchment may not be most suitable in my community, it was still very helpful in learning about Ferro cement tanks and what options are available in bettering water systems.

Putting wire over a sand full of sack  to make the Ferro cement tank

Adding a  layer of cement

 

 

Finished project

Mock-aduct. Model to show gravity fed systems



Las Ensenadas

 

 

 

 I also had 2 EH volunteers visit me to help me “survey” the current water system in Santa Marta. Surveying consists of taking altitude and horizontal distance of all of the current tubes. We did this with something called a water-level. It’s a very easy tool to use and all that’s needed is two sticks and a clear hose connecting them. Instead of trying to explain it and possibly boring followers, email me if there are specific questions regarding the water level. We also calculated the flow rate of our well. In the month of November we calculated a rate of 216,000 gallons of water every day! This is quite a bit of water, however the flow changes throughout the dry and wet seasons. Our current plan is to measure the rate every month for at least a year to see the patterns of flow. With all of this information, an engineer can design a plan for an aqueduct: how big does the reserve tank need to be, what size the tubes need to be, where is the best place (altitude wise) for the tank, ect. But building an aqueduct is not cheap. Once they have assessed and designed a plan, many EH volunteers get grants from an organization called Water Lines. With all of the help I have gotten from EHers, and if I continue to get help in regards of the design, I personally am not applicable to apply for a Water Line grant simply because I am not an EH volunteer, which brings me to my next topic… my confidence in Peace Corps policy.

 

As a CEC volunteer, I do not belong in my site. Santa Marta needs an EH volunteer, an expert in water and sanitation. It is hard for me to promote environmental conservation when the people’s basic needs are not met. A strategy I have been using is making environmental themes more relevant to them. The problems of trash and reforestation is not just for helping the environment, but also addresses issues of health, water, and God’s will. But nonetheless, each sector has an Associate Peace Corps Director (ACPD) who is responsible for site development. Site development includes the APCD meeting with interested community members who want a volunteer but also entails checking the safety of the area, access to medical services, transportation limitations, and housing availability. During this meeting the APCD assesses the community’s needs. But I’ve now learned that site development is a rushed meeting with 4 or 5 members of the community which is not sufficient for an adequate assessment. Every sector gets a new group of volunteers ever year (usually 25 people, assuming there will be some Early Terminations). Because the APCD needs to fill these 25 “spots” within a few months, site development tends to be hasty. I am one of four CEC volunteers in Bocas del Toro/ Comarca Ngäbe area. This brings up several obstacles: 1. Agencies in this area are very familiar with agriculture and sanitation volunteers, so explaining our environmental goals is something rather new for them; 2. Sharing ideas and visiting other volunteers is a great resource, but with so few of us it has been difficult to do;  3. It is difficult to not feel isolated when I meet up with the rest of my group who are in Latino sites with running water, electricity, smart phones, 3 meals a day, and sometimes even internet and cable.

 

 PC Panama is also doing a new system of “clustering” Right now all sectors have volunteers spread throughout the country. But starting in 2015, each sector will only have volunteers in certain provinces. CEC is leaving the Bocas/ Ngäbe area (as I think they should) but this makes me feel like my service will be unsustainable. I can still have a follow up volunteer in the sectors of EH and SAS but any environmental focus may be lost once another volunteer arrives with a different (and perhaps more needed) focus. Although I am trying to be flexible in what my community needs, there is a limit to what I can and cannot do. I often feel discouraged about my work and what affect I will actually have on my community members. But to return to the theme of water, I hope to create a strong foundation within the committee so if an EH volunteer comes in as a follow up, there can be more focus on the physical construction of resolving our water problem.