#Cuatro Comunidades
#Tamara
#New Communities
#UNAH Conference on Sanitation and the Environment, Foro Saneamiento Ambiental
Cuatro Communidades
They have now nearly finished with the excavation for the foundation of the plant. The majority of the materials (re-bar, sheet metal for roof, girders for roof, PVC pipe) arrived Thursday 11.17. The majority of the re-bar for columns, castillos, and the tank floor reinforcement is already cut and tied together. They plan to pour the tank floor sometime this week.
Because of the level of the parcel of land the water board bought for the plant, and the elevation we want the plant to be at, the plant is turning out to be in a bit of a hole. There will be 10 steps to go down to the plant from the level of the street. We plan to locate these steps inside the plant so that the door will be at street level. The low level of the plant is causing some inconvenience and required quite a bit of digging, but we don't think it will cause any problems with the final result.
Tamara
After the sed tank entrance tubes were fixed and the sed tanks were cleaned, the plant has been functioning more reliably. They are not having as many problems with floating flocs and rising sludge. The rising sludge probably went away because we fixed the entrance tubes. Perhaps the new pressure break box is helping with disolved air and the floating flocs.
Even though the sed tanks are working more consistently and look better, the effluent turbidity has not been very good. It hovers between 5 and 6 NTU. Perhaps this is because we lost the sludge blanket? We suggested to Carlos that he wait longer before purging the tank to see if the effluent turbidity improved.
New Communities
We made contact with Chet Thomas from Aldea Global and found out that they are working on improving the water quality in La Libertad, Comayagua, where we went with Luis Caballero to investigate the feasibility of a water treatment plant. Aldea Global has impemented a stand-alone high-tec filter plant to treat water from a public tap in the center of town. However, this system was implemented as a disaster project (after the heavy rains) and is only there for a few months. After taking out the filter, they would like to have a long-term plan for improving water quality. They are interested in learning about the AguaClara plant so see if it might be suitable. Friday, 11.18 Provash Budden, who works for Mercy Corps and is currently in Honduras helping out Aldea Global, and another Aldea Global employee, visited the Tamara plant to see how it works.
Tuesday, 11.25 we will present to the mayor various other interested parties in Gracias about the possibility of a plant there. We will also travel to Atima, Santa Barbara (one of the communities suggested to us by a Peace Corps volunteer) to meet with the mayor there.
UNAH Conference on Sanitation and the Environment: Foro Saneamiento Ambiental
"Foro Saneamiento Ambiental" sponsored by the Industrial Engineering students at the UNAH (Universidad National Autonoma de Honduras) took place on Friday November 21st. The event was put on by the Department of Industrial Engineering at the National University. The same class of industrial engineering students that visited the Ojojona plant a couple months ago hosted the conference.
The event included Engineer Miguel Omar Montoya representing the World Health Organization and the Panamerican Health Organization, and Pedro Ortiz of SANAA.
We would like to work more closely with Pedro Ortiz.