December 2023 - Ocotal Water Project - Phase 3
This trip continued the water project that began in partnership with Northeastern University Engineers Without Borders in 2015. The first construction trip, building spring-boxes to capture clean water in the mountains, was done by a team of engineers in 2019. Progress paused because of COVID, but continued with the second phase of construction in 2022, when a team of engineers helped the community to lay out and construct a 3-mile pipeline to bring water to the community, and begin construction of a 100-foot long bridge to bring the water across a river.
The Phase 3 travel team was composed of Northeastern University alumni and their friends and colleagues: Jake Vergara, Sarah McClellan, Mollie Scott, Chris Craig, and Julia Vanderstreet. The team had two primary objectives, and several side-missions. One of the primary objectives was to complete the construction of a suspension bridge to allow the new water transmission main to span a 100-foot wide river gully, and remain high enough to avoid damage during times of river flooding. The team started this important work before leaving the U.S., working closely (online!) with ACTS's trusted counterparts in El Rosario to source galvanized steel cables and accessories from the nearest city. This made their short time on the ground in Ocotal more productive. Thanks to the precision work of the community and ACTS's Phase 2 construction team, the bridge abutments were in fine shape and ready for the bridge superstructure. A lot of community members helped out with this high-profile component of the new water system.
The other primary objective of the trip was to lay out the foundation for a new, 8,000-gallon water storage tank. The community had prepared for this part of the project by excavating and screening giant piles of sand and gravel from the river, and hauling it up to the tank site. These materials were mixed (by hand) with water (from the new pipeline) and bags of cement (purchased by our team) to make concrete for the tank foundation, and mortar for the brick walls of the tank. Construction was off to a brisk start while the ACTS team was there, and has been proceeding well since the team returned home.
Additional work accomplished by the team on this trip included troubleshooting some issues with the transmission main, collecting data on new homes (since our 2015 survey of the community) to allow design of a water distribution system to each home, re-inspection of the two source-boxes, check-in with the neighboring indigenous community of Potrerillos (whose portion of the water system is already complete), and meetings with community members. The engineering team had satellite photography of Ocotal, which was quite exciting for the community.
Phase 4, the last remaining step in construction of the Octoal water system, will be to build a network of underground pipes to bring water from the new storage tank to each of the homes in Ocotal.
