#Cuatro Comunidades
#CCC Study
#Gracias

Cuatro Comunidades

The Cuatro Comunidades plant should go online Tuesday 3.17. All of the lamella, baffles, and accessories are installed and the tanks have been filled up from a hose. With Henry Zheng and Sarah Long visiting, they helped install the dose controller on Tuesday morning. Currently, the source is only producing ~4.5 NTU water. We are hoping to still be able to make flocs and a floc blanket with this relatively clear water.

From Cuatro Comunidades Construction

On Wednesday 3.18 Antonio and Tamar worked with the operators, Gustavo and Justo on calculating concentration and dose for the aluminum sulfate. We also installed the correct number of orifices in the plant entrance exit tube.

Saturday 3.14 was the last training session for the water board and potential operators, which covered chemical dosing. All active members of the water board were present, as well as Justo and Gustavo, the two potential operators. The power went out for the first three hours of the session, so we took advantage of that time to discuss the plant inauguration and the terms of the operator's contract. The Junta will decide this week whether they want to inaugurate the plant right away, while it is fresh in everyone's minds or whether to wait until the rainy season makes the effect of the plant more noticeable.

From Capacitations in Cuatro Comunidades

Unfortunately, the 55 Lempira tariff the community agreed to will only be enough to pay one fulltime operator. For the first 2 weeks of operation until the end of April, both Justo and Gustavo will work for the water board, being paid by the day. They will switch off daily, one operating the plant and the other working on finishing up the construction. After March, Gustavo will work the full month of April and Justo will work the full month of May. At that point the water board will probably have to contract one of them fulltime, with the hope of paying the other to work part-time during the rainy season.

There is still work to be completed at the plant: putting the final layer on the floors, painting the walls, constructing the fence, making the caps of the walkway for the valves to drain the tanks, etc. We have temporarily stopped applying sulfate to finish the construction of the tops of the chemical tanks. We have decided not to make covers. We are hoping work gets finished this coming week and to have the plant running by the following Monday 3.30.09

You can see all plant construction photos on our online picasa album here

CCC Study

Thursday 3.12 we went to Lepaterique to present the chlorine flow controller study to the vice mayor, the health center doctor, the health promoter, members of the Lepaterique water board, and representatives of ADAL, an NGO that works in the region. All were quite supportive of the initiative. We also gave the health promoter and SANAA technicians the monitoring tables they will fill out when they make visits to the communities.

From CCC Estudio con SANAA

From CCC Estudio con SANAA

The next day, Antonio returned to Lepaterique with the SANAA technicians. They installed one chlorine dose controller in El Guyabal and trained the plumbers and water board members in El Rodeo and Acaguaque to monitor their current traditional drip chlorination. The SANAA technicians will help the plumber in the center of Lepaterique start chlorine monitoring as well. We are somewhat concerned as to whether the plumbers and water board members will be able to fill out the tables daily, but are encouraged by the fact that the SANAA technicians, a technician from ADAL and the health promoter will be making frequent monitoring visits to each community.

Gracias

Friday 3.13 we discussed the Gracias design alternatives sent to us from Cornell with Wil. We are leaning toward the design with longer, narrower tanks. This design results in a squarer overall shape to the plant, and allows for easier access to the center of the tanks. With the wider tanks, it would be much harder for the operator to get to the center of the tank. Wil will begin making a construction budget for the plant this week.