December 2014
Six members of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) traveled to Honduras to finish construction of the water system for Carrizalito. Prior to the team’s arrival, the community members had dug trenches for 90% of the distribution system, and had hauled about 20 cubic yards of sand and gravel up the mountain to be used in building a water storage tank. The EWB team brought in 8 tons of cement, 2,500 bricks, 1,500 pounds of rebar, and two miles of PVC pipe, all of which the community members carried up the mountain.
The purpose of this trip was to build a network of pipes throughout the village, and a 4,500-gallon tank. The pipe network provides every house with a continuous supply of clean, fresh water. The pipes are kept continually full and pressurized from the storage tank on a hill overlooking the the village. This storage tank is supplied with water from a natural spring partway down the mountain, improvements to which were completed on an earlier trip.
The people of Carrizalito proved, as usual, to be enthusiastic and hard-working companions over the two-week trip. Although two weeks is not nearly enough time to construct all of these components, the goal of the trip was to see that construction started properly, and that the local community members could see it through. In addition to the always invaluable Ronis and Dionisio, many members of the community took on integral roles in construction, and the team also left a master mason on site to help finish the tank.
The pump and community pila built previously are working flawlessly. The community runs the pump every other day for two hours or so, during which time everybody arrives at the pila site and fills every bucket and jug in the village. Everything will need a final inspection when the next engineering team arrives, but the completed system should be up and running by late February.
In addition to the work in Carrizalito, the team finished construction (begun in May) of a new pipe suspension bridge to bring water into the village of Los Oreros. The existing supply line was badly deteriorated from exposure to the elements, biological growth inside, and many patchy repairs made over the years.
This trip marks completion of the fourth and fifth major water system projects that the ACTS / EWB partnership has undertaken.
