Cuatro Comunidades

The meeting with the Junta programmed for last Wednesday was cancelled due to rain and lack of electricity in the community. We are going to reschedule for Thursday night to finish ironing out the details of the contruction agreement and to meet with Aldea Bonita, one of the communities that has been reluctant to participate in the project. Saturday, we hope to sign the construction agreement with the community so they can start preparing the construction site. All of the funding seems to be in order to start construction.

Gracias, Lempira

Ing. Wil has nearly finished the budget for an 800 gpm plant for Gracias, Lempira. Eventually, the community would need two of these plants to satisfy its projected demand in 20 years. We plan to send the design and budget to the mayor in Gracias and request a meeting with all of the interested forces in the community, including the municipal government, businesses and the health department.

Ojojona

A group of mechanical engineering students plans to visit the Ojojona plant this Thursday to evaluate whether they can fabricate the flow control modules here in Honduras. The Ojojona Junta plans to visit the Tamara plant Monday 10.13.

Mercedes, Ocotepeque

John traveled to Mercedes last week to follow up on the installation of chlorine flow controllers there. Together with several APP technicians and an engineer, we installed three flow controllers. After these installations, the APP technicians in Mercedes are well prepared to continue installing controllers on their own. We also visited Limoncito and Miraflores, two commnuities where Antonio and Tamar had installed flow controllers in August. Miraflores had run out of chlorine and was in the process of buying more. In Limoncito, the flow controller was functioning and there was 1.0 mg/L of chlorine residual in the distribution tank. The doser hose was partially clogged with chlorine sediment, reducing the flow from the controller. We suggested that the opperator clean the hose with vinegar.

John left 10 more flow control modules, to be installed in other communities. We still need to provide the community with 3 more, but will be unable to do so until we find connectors that don't leak. The municipality is purchasing the flow controllers for about $45 each from APP with funds from the project DESCEAS.

Flow Control Modules

We are having a problem with leaking bulkhead fittings in the flow control modules. When we switched from acetyl fittings to polypropelene fittings the problem developed. We sent a problem description to Alissa Tuesday at noon. Perhaps the Cornell team can put some students to work on this problem soon, as it is somewhat urgent.