#Cuatro Comunidades
#Ojojona
#Tamara
#UNAH Students
#New Communities

Cuatro Communidades

On Saturday 10.18 was the 'Groundbreaking' event of the plant in the Cuatro Communidades. Present to sign the contract were Arturo Diaz representing APP, Oscar Rivera of CESAL, Alan Montenegro representing the Municipality and Tamar signed on behalf of Monroe. About 60 people from the community came, most of which were present at the first presentation we gave to the community where they voted in favor of the plant. Since there are about 250 homes in total, we were slightly disappointed with the turnout. Our next steps are to strengthen the water board to represent each of the four communities more. We are planning to visit 'Aldea Bonita,' and 'Rio Frio,' to have more presentations to explain more about the plant. Speaking with some of the attendess on Saturday, they explained that since many houses were not present at the initial meeting, they are still not on the same page and do not fully understand the plant's benefits.

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Ojojona

The Ojojona Water Board purchased enough alum to hopefully last them for the rest of the rainy season. In the last year the price of alum has risen from 12 to 16 Lempiras ($0.64 to $0.85) per kilogram.

Tamara

On Thursday 10.16 we visited the plant to obtain pH and temperature data on the plant. The Tamara water board, with their own funds, has initiated construction of a pressure break box about 50m before the conduction line arrives at the plant. They hope this will help remove air from the water before it enters the plant. APP has not been involved in the design of the box, but we took some crude elevation measurements when in Tamara and think that their design should function hydraulically. This box could be a good location to install the aeration device being researched by Tiffany.

UNAH Students

Mechanical Engineering Students working from the Universidad National Autonoma de Honduras have started the assignment for their product design class, fabricating the float valves for the flow control molules.
Ing. Guadalupe Nunez, the professor in charge of the student project, reported on Monday 10.20 that the students are already advancing on the fabrication of the float valves. The Honduran university students are presenting their proposal to build the float valves the first week in November and are supposed to have a product by the end of November. They have set up an e-mail account at: im418unah@gmail.com for contact with the students from Cornell.

New Communities

On Wednesday 10.15 Antonio and Tamar visited Morocelli, Valle de Angeles and Villa de San Francisco. Morocelli was where a plant was initially designed in 2007, but the Water Board had issues that prevented going through with the project. We let them know we are still available when they are ready.
In Villa de San Francisco, we spoke with the Vice President of the water board and scheduled a meeting for 11.6 to present about the technology.