Holy Cross Anglican School, and the Rotary Clubs of San Ignacio and Belize City and are very excited to report an exciting first step for safe drinking water in San Mateo! This is a huge step forward for the local residents, many of whom have running water that is at risk of contamination from the dirty groundwater that surrounds the water pipes entering the community.
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| Ann Kuffner leading training with first members of the community to receiving the Rotary Filters |
So far 7 units have been given to the San Mateo community, with the hope of more to follow.
Like many good achievements, this has come as a result of many, many individuals working together for the common good.These include:
- The Rotary Clubs of San Ignacio and Belize, for all their hard work securing these filters for the families and children of Belize
- Kim Shackelford from the San Mateo Community Empowerment Project, for connecting us to the community.
- Lisa Tillett, from the Ministry of Health, for all your input and experience and wonderful co-operation.
- Ann Kuffner, for all your work coordinating between the different groups, leading training and being the person on the ground doing all this hard work.
- Heather Zwicker, from Belize Community Conservation, for introducing the school to Ann, so that we could be a small part of this wonderful project
- The many other;s whose names I don't know but your work was important in seeing this happen.
A huge thank you for everyone involved in this project. Your dedication to the families of San Mateo is truly appreciated.
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| Local residents learn how to use the filters properly |
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| The proud owner of a new filtration system. |
Anyone who has visited San Mateo in the last two years knows the absolutely transformational effect the roads have had on this community. Previously, all residents had to walk in and out on precarious "london bidges" - thin walkways made of old planks build over the dark and suspicious lagoon waters. But now - thanks to the roads - access in and out of the community is much, much easier and daily life improves as locals can now have building materials and drinking water delivered much closer to home.
The road building began with the University of Mississippi, who together with members of the local community who were sick of waiting for local authorities to act, formed the San Mateo Community Empowerment Project. It has now transformed the local community by providing access.
Here's the story of the latest road building told in the excellent words of the San Perdo Sun, our local newspaper here in San Pedro. (View this article with aditional images are read other great articles from the San Pedro Sun here.)
"The members of the San Mateo Empowerment Project continued with their main goal over the past weekend; to expand the San Mateo road. In the past two weeks, some 24 volunteer students from the University of Mississippi, USA paid a visit to San Pedro Town where they participated in many volunteer projects; one of which was to helping with the road expansion in San Mateo.
Over the last two weekends, beginning in the early morning, the volunteer students along with San Mateo residents and community members were off to work, caps in hand, to expand the road into new areas. Equipped with wheelbarrows, buckets and shovels, the group was able to make significant progress.
While there has been some help from the larger community of San Pedro, Shackelford explained that there are still some misconceptions. “Some people outside of San Mateo feel that there are not as many people living in the San Mateo area,” said Shackelford.
Slowly but surely the road is moving along replacing the London Bridges in the San Mateo area. The road project has been materializing mainly through the efforts of the “Ole Miss” students who continue to raise funds at their University to purchase materials. Along with the San Mateo residents, the volunteer students push forward, giving of their time when visiting Belize with the final goal to complete the roads."
Thanks everyone for your hard work.
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| The EWB team in San Mateo, Belize |
- WATER. The engineers tested the water and confirmed what the locals already knew: the town water supply that some residents have access to - while still being much, much better than carrying water home in buckets like they used to - is not reliably safe for drinking. Although it enters the area as safe water, the pipes lie in the sewerage contaminated lagoon water, which seeps into the pipes in some areas when pressure is low. Likewise, some of the many tanks that locals use for storing rainwater were found to be contaminated too. This is a serious hazard to the health of the local residents, especially infants and children. Read more here.
The engineers identified that informing the local residents of the issues and teaching the residents how to safely treat the water were the immediate need, and they will then develop several prototypes of point-of-use water treatment systems that will provide safe drinking water from the local tap water. (Currently locals pay $5 BZ for 5 gallons of bottled water. This solution would reduce the price to less than $1). - ELECTRICITY: The next need is electricity. Some houses are now connected to mains electricity, and a fascinating yet not entirely safe web of extension leads and wires attach yet more houses to the grid. Yet many houses are without any power and all houses have blackouts several times a month (or even several times a day on a bad day). The biggest impact is always the lack of evening light for study and general household activities.
The engineers proposed a simple battery operated system that could run a light electric load (eg a light, radio and maybe even a fan), that could then be recharged by someone who had mains electricity. The local population thought this was a wonderful idea and are excited to try it. I suspect that this might also be adopted by other residents of San Pedro who have less than reliable electricity, or as a back-up during hurricanes. - ROADS: The engineers were also able to give a few suggestions to improve the roads being built by the community. These were to add culverts to improve drainage, and adding a geotextile under the road to support it in the mud. Most interestingly with the culverts, they were as much to let the tidal water in as to let the accumulating water out - the tidal water is salty so every time it washes inland it prevents harmful bacteria and mosquitoes from breeding.
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| Electrical measurements |
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| Sampling the water |
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| Engaging the local population |
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| A new generation of EWB in training? |