In the Palan Buena Vista community, a gravity water project delivering 70 liters/day per inhabitant and a latrine to individual houses, education for maintenance, long term hygiene and sanitation, the preservation and reforestation of the watershed.

Narrative

The water supply and sanitation project in the community of Palan Buena Vista, Municipality of Rio Blanco, in the department of Matagalpa is a gravity flow system that is benefiting 19 families.

Spring :

The system is fed by a spring that is located near from the community. In order to receive donation of the area of the main spring, the community and APLV had to accept to give water to the owner of the spring. For this purpose a second spring have been found upwards, and a small water system has been built to provide with water the owner.
With this, the spring owner gave to the community an area of 0.4 ha around the spring.

This main spring capture is constructed of simple brick and mortar, has an internal filter of rock and sand, a collection box with a metal lid for inspection, and an inspection cover for the filter.

Conduction Line :

The main conduction line starts at the spring and consists of 1434 meters of PVC pipe (a combination of 1” SDR 26, 3/4" SDR 17 and 1/2" SDR 13.5). It has a capacity to of 112 liters of water per minute.
The other conduction line (for the spring owner) is 156 m long.

Water Storage Tank

There are two storage tanks. The small one (for the owner of the spring) is 1.1 cubic meters. The main storage tank has a capacity of 5 cubic meters.
For accessibility reasons, both tanks are Rotoplast tanks (cylinders of plastic), protected from the sun and rain, inside a kind of wooden hut.

Distribution System

The trench is being dug one meter deep, with the aim of ensuring greater durability to the pipeline and therefore lower the maintenance cost for the community. In total 3477 meters has been excavated, pipes going from 1/2" up to 1 1/2" have been installed.
21 water-stands have been constructed : 19 in the houses of the people, one in the school and one in the evangelist church.
Every house is equipped with a water-meter. Every family pay a fixed quote per month (see below).

The beneficiaries participate in whole work, by digging and carrying materials. It represented 70 days of work for each family.

Latrines ans sanitation :

19 latrines have been constructed. One model latrine has been constructed by APLV mason. Each family received the material and they constructed their own latrine.

Over the period of the initial proposal and the implementation phase, the following activities have been undertaken:

Community Organization :

• Presentation of standards and policies of APLV
• Socio-economic survey which allowed us to assess the economic situation of the community
• Legalization of easements and agreements with the owners of the spring and the tank area.
• Formation of the Water Committee
• Signed commitments from all beneficiaries (70 days of labor per family)
• Ensure the logistics for the APLV staff during the execution of the project.
• Implementation of several assemblies to form working groups and evaluate the progress of work
• Home visits to encourage family participation.
• Two training session with nine members of the Water Committee with the themes of responsibilities, functions and leadership.
• Four training with the entire community to discuss the organization of the project
• Four meetings with the Water Committee to assess progress of the work.

Health and Hygiene:

• Participation in two assembly aims to raise awareness of the water and sanitation project
• Sanitary-hygienic assessment and a written report of the assessment
• Physical, chemical and bacteriological analysis of the water :
--> Before project : spring water quality = 6 CFU of coliforms / 100 ml.
--> After project completion = 0 CFU / 100 ml
• A workshop for the 19 families on solid and liquid waste.
• Home visits to 19 families to assess the state of hygiene in homes
• Workshop with students in first through sixth grade on the subject of maintaining a healthy environment in order to prevent vector-borne diseases
• Workshop with the whole community on health monitoring system and water-borne diseases.
• Three training sessions with beneficiaries on use and management of water, personal hygiene and food hygiene.
• Four training sessions with students on school and environmental hygiene, water use, food hygiene and household sanitation.
• Two home visits to follow up on the guidance given in trainings and lectures.

Watershed protection :

The 0.4 ha around the spring has been surrounded with barbed wire. The owner of the area accepted to surround also an extra area of 1.25 ha. These two areas are now free of cows and horses, which prevent water contamination.
The forestation program learn to some beneficiaries how to do a tree nursery. 2500 trees have been grown up and planted in the two areas around the spring.
Trees selected were : cacao tree, peer tree, guanacaste, bimbayan.

• One training session to children about environment preservation
• Two training sessions with the beneficiaries about how to preserve a watershed and how to grow up a tree nursery.