The Port Isabel Rotary Club has partnered with the Trujillo Rotary Club since 2007 on all types of projects…including water, power, school construction, and computers. Water projects have been carried out with Rotary Foundation Matching Grants and Global Grants as well as with direct donations from Rotarians in Barrio San Martin (6000 people/Matching Grant), Barrio Cristales (3000 people, Matching Grant), Barrio Buenos Aires (1500 people, Matching Grant), Barrio Eduardo Castillo (3000 people, Global Grant), Barrio Capiro (58 families, one Rotarian), and the villages of Bonito Oriental (60 people, California club), Silin (135 families, Port Lavaca RC), Moradel (150 people, Rotarians, primarily Jim Moser formerly of the Edna Club and Bill Mann, McAllen). A current Global Grant is providing water for 5,503 people in 8 rural villages. All told about 20,000 have received water from these projects.
Port Isabel Rotary Club has received Global Grants for two of these projects totaling $238,273.00 serving 8,803 people. Its Rotary donors have come from all around the world…Canada, Taiwan, as well as clubs in Texas, South Carolina, Florida, and Vermont in the United States. The communities are expected to provide all the labor through local assessments or labor in lieu of assessments. The Barrio Eduardo Castillo project serving 3000 people was for $120,475.00. The existing source of river water had dried up and a new source of water was identified 1.8 miles away in the mountains. The project consisted of a new dam and sediment filter, 1.8 miles of pipeline, a 54,000 gallon storage tank, distribution line to all the houses, and a chlorination system. A sustainability plan has been implemented and is funded through monthly water fees…it pays for a reserve fund, three employees (a water technician, a bookkeeper/secretary, and a health worker), maintenance, and chlorine. The community provides office space. The health worker monitors water purity throughout the community and helps families maintain sanitary water practices and pursue medical attention for persons with water borne diseases.
The Agua Amarilla Global Grant is providing $135,798.00 to make major improvements to a system originally destroyed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and inadequately repaired over the years. The greatest need addressed by this project serving 5,503 people in 8 rural villages was leaky pipes…and a piecemeal replacement of pipes with odd sizes…6 inch pipe into 8 inch pipe into 4 inch pipe etc….destroying any hope of water pressure resulting in households at the end of the lines seldom having any water. The existing dam (12 kilometers from the dam) was deepened, widened and heightened, the sediment tank was repaired, and the distribution box is being replaced and enlarged, the pipes are being correctly sized (10, 8 and 6 inch pipes, reinforced with cement where necessary) and replaced (already resulting in an increase of water pressure for those at the end of the line…the communities span about 6 square kilometers). Still to be done are repairs to a 45000 gallon reserve tank and a chlorination system placed on top of the existing 90,000 gallon tank. This project also assesses fees for the labor and assesses monthly fees for the sustainability. |  |
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