#Cuatro Comunidades
#Ojojona
#Tamara
#RASHON - International Year of Sanitation Conference

Cuatro Communidades

To increase awareness of the treatment plant projcet in the community, we are planning a fair for 11.30, in which APP, the Water Board, local schools and the Department of Health will participate. The fair will include a 4-way soccer tournament, information tables, and other activities.

Wednesday 10.22 we met with the Water Board to begin planning the social and educational part of the project. This Thursday 10.30 will be an all-day FODA workshop (stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Threats) to analyze the current situation of the Water Board and how it can improve that situation. At the FODA we will set the dates for the four all-day training sessions that will be held during and after the construction of the plant. Saturday 11.08 the Water Board and other community members will visit Ojojona to see the plant there.

We are now getting price quotes to begin purchasing materials. At the FODA, the construction plans will be presented and Ing. Serrano says that construction should be in full swing by Monday, 11.03.

Ojojona

Antonio went to Ojojona Friday 10.24 because Mario, one of the opperators, said the plant was not functioning properly with the new Type B alum they bought. When Antonio arrived they determined that by lowering the alum dose they could get the plant to function properly. Antonio is concerned that some of the Ojojona opperators are still not completely comepetent in the operation of the plant.

Tamara

We visited Tamara Tuesday 10.21 and found that the plant had not been functioning well for two days. The last floc baffle had come out of place, and was blocking the passage of the water leaving the floc tank. This was breaking flocs and affecting the operation of the plant. We emptied the floc tank and re-arranged the floc baffles. During this process we realized that when Antonio and Carlos had cleaned the floc tank the last time they did not put all of the baffles back in the correct order. We know know that it is important to glue each module together so that they do not fall apart and become disorganided when they are removed.

The Tamara Junta has made little or no progress entering the plant opperation data into Excel. This is understandable, since the secetary in charge of entering the data, is not paid by the Water Board and is very busy with his normal job. We are beginning to think that it is not reasonable to expect that all communities will be able to enter the plant data into the computer.

RASHON - International Year of Sanitation Conference

On October 22-24th Tamar attended the RASHON (Red de Agua y Saneamiento de Honduras, The Organization of Water and Sanitation of Honduras) conference in Hotel Clarion, Tegucigalpa.
The most impressing talk was from Engineer Pedro Ortiz, who spoke about eco-sanitation, the use of composting toilets and the holistic approach to treating waste.
I also made contact with Engineer Mirna Arguetta who represents SANAA. She is in charge of the Las Laureles water source and treatment plant. She previously met Monroe in Chile, and can be a good friend of the AguaClara project in Honduras. We agreed to schedule a meeting to talk about how to strengthen the partnership between APP/Cornell and SANAA.
Other presenters included talks about work in Peru, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Most were themed on NGO's working in the area of sanitation.