Turn On The Water - The We Need An Enormous Tank Phase

It's been one year since SuNica raised $51,700 to fund the Turn On the Water Project which IS BRINGING clean water to 110 families in a community called El Porvenir in Nicaragua.

The ride has been bumpy and wild with countless twists and turns, but much progress has been made. To date, we have finished the drilling phase. The Pump is pretty easy in that we simply need to purchase and install it. This won't happen until we get the tank installed. The Pipeworks phase has been under construction since July and is about 80% complete. It simply takes a long time to dig three kilometers of trenches (mostly by hand), lay pipe and cover it back up properly.

And now for THE PROBLEM: Our original estimate for this project included $10,500 for the tank phase. It turns out that this tank is going to run more like $20,500! So why the bad estimate SuNica? 

Here's the story: There is an existing concrete platform in El Porvenir's primary school yard that is really big compared to the tiny water tank that currently sits on it. It's big enough to hold a tank that would service El Porvenir's entire community and we were counting on using it. Unfortunately, the topographic and hydraulic studies (which happened after the fundraiser)  determined that the existing platform was not high enough to create the head pressure needed to pressurize the entire community's pipeworks. For this reason; we must build a much taller tank AND TOWER, so we're about $10,000 shy of getting this project done. 

Together, we can do this, so let's raise this final $10,000 and make this dream come true for the folks in El Porvenir! They've worked hard on their system and they're so close. Let's help them punch it out!

Total Project Cost

     Phase I:    $15,500 Drilling Phase ( FUNDED! )
     Phase II:   $8,200   The Pump Phase ( FUNDED! )
     Phase III: $10,500  The Tank Phase ( FUNDED! )
     Phase IV: $17,500  The Pipeworks Phase( FUNDED! )
     Phase V:  $10,000 The We Need An Enormous Tank Phase ( now funding )
     (note: the one-time goal (top right) will be lowered periodically to account for off-line giving)

          Total:  $61,700


If you didn't watch the Turn On the Water film last year, watch it now.



Note: The gentleman featured at the 1:10 mark has now passed away from Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Origins (CKDu), a disease very much related to dehydration and not drinking enough clean water.

Progress To Date

We are SO CLOSE to getting this project done. Check out some of the current progress.


    

Here are trenches being dug by hand. We've got young and old alike jumping in the trenches. Men, women, locals, and even work crews from other towns have pitched in to dig. Most of these trenches are being dug by bare feet or flip flops.




This little well cap might not look like much, but those pipes travel 140' below grade and tap into an abundance of clean drinking water!  Hooray!

Ownership

One of our biggest wins of this project has been when the local community decided to hire a mini-excavator to dig about one kilometer of their trenches for them. The community had approached SuNica about doing this and we informed them that this was not in our budget. The community preceded to petition a nearby plantation owner for the use of his machine. The community was granted that petition and they did a little fundraiser to come up with the money to pay the operator and purchase the diesel to power the machine. This is incredible because it shows an incredible amount of ownership on behalf of the community. This is just the level of ownership that is needed to see to it that El Porvenir owns this project when all is said and done. 

The Existing Condition

During our time in Nicaragua, we've seen all too many clean water systems broken and abandoned. The reason for this is simply a lack of community buy-in. This is why we've made it our business to go head to head with the social front-end of developing a water project. This is the niche that SuNica has taken upon itself to fill. There are plenty of outfits capable of implementing the physical part of the project (ie: designing the system, drilling the borehole and installing the pump, electrical systems, etc.).






This is a bold statement, but we are the only organization that we know of who has entered the space with the focus being the social development of the project.  We do not have plans to own drilling equipment because there are plenty of organizations locally that have that capability.  In other words, we can sub-contract this part of the work, which is actually the easiest part. 

Our Social Coordinator, Mario Moraga (pictured below) is a sociologist by trade.  We've been able to teach him the technical aspects of implementing a water project, but we didn't have to teach him a thing about engaging and inspiring people.  Oh no, this is a place where he thrives. 

The true measure of our success is and will continue to be the community's buy-in.  They are ready to pay for 10% of this project themselves and to do all of the physical labor in digging trenches.  You can read more about how we've worked hard to instill ownership in this project by reading our latest blog post - Sustainability Starts With No.