December 2013 – January 2014
Five members of ACTS/Engineers Without Borders (and their alumni team, “the A-Team”) launched construction of the water system for Carrizalito in December 2013. The trip, which was primarily intended to construct a pump tank and water transmission main, went almost entirely according to plan.
Design had been accomplished on an earlier trip. To build the pump tank, a team of villagers excavated a hole for the foundation and provided fieldstones for the sub-base. With the help of a local master mason, the reinforced concrete floor slab was constructed in one day, and the reinforced brick masonry walls were constructed in approximately three days. The mason used Julio (the Water Board President) as his right-hand man during bricklaying, and trained several villagers to assist them in mixing mortar and preparing bricks.
The existing source was connected to the new pump tank with new steel piping. A single brick was chipped out of the front wall of the source box, the pipe was inserted, and cement mortar was packed around to seal the hole.
Prior to the team’s arrival, the villagers had excavated a trench for the water transmission main. The trench was 900 feet long and about 2.5 feet deep. They said this trench took 71 people 6 days to dig.
Installation of the 1-inch diameter PVC pipeline went without a hitch. The A-Team demonstrated proper technique to the community, worked alongside them for the first few joints, watched them for the next few joints, and then they were able to work independently with no problems.
On the team’s last day, the A-Team visited Los Oreros to show the students’ pipe bridge design, verify it will work with the site, and determine if the village wants to proceed with this part of the project. The villagers indicated support of the project, and in fact had dug some of the trench for the pipeline approaching the new bridge site.
