Honduras Interns Progress Report

Date: 12/17/07
Location: Ojojona

Ojojona

Plant

(picture included) We tried Monroes idea of lifting the baffles with the a beam and it worked beautifully. We used a 2x6 beam that spanned the length of the tank. When the spacers and the beam were tied the beam was lifted and a brick put under the beam on each side to suspend the laminas. This was done before the tank was empty which I think helped to make it easier to lift the laminas and not have them run during draining. It suspended the laminas about 15 cm and worked beautifully.
There was one problem however, and that is with the tapaderas there isn´t a way to leave the beam in place above the tank. Therefore instead of tying knots the string was simply wound once around the spacers so the wire could be slid back and forth. The string was left in place with another piece of string in place of where the beam should be to keep it out of the water. While this works it is not idea and can be tricky with the string as it easy to confuse which part of the string is which once the beam is gone.
For the Tamara design however it is possible to leave the beam in place. However for a more permanent solution another material besides wood or perhaps another way to remove the beam should be found (as well as for Ojojona).

• The manual has been translated into spanish and we are now waiting for Antonio to review it for grammar and content.
  FODA con la Junta
• We had an analysis of the junta (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and a talk about the sustainability of the plant. The entire junta was invited as well as three members of the alcaldia and three leaders of the community. 5 of 7 members of the junta showed up and two leaders, no one from the alcaldia arrived. We managed to talk about some of the major obstacles of the junta honestly and hopefully it will help with the future of the junta and the raise in tariff.
  The major concern is that the Junta is up for re-election, we are hoping that a few of the old junta members will continue to make the transition smoother and facilitate the raise in tariff.
• Once option still under consideration is putting in water meters. While this would be a great solution to the financial needs of the plant as it would generate more revenue than just raising the tariff, the concern is that this will not be an option for a while. We are still unsure when they are planning on raising the tariff...
  We have scheduled an official hand over of the Plant for January 11th. There will be an official act and hopefully a dinner to hand over the plant.

Siguatepeque

• We gave a presentation at the nacional AHJASA (Asociación Hondureña de Juntas Administrativas de Agua y Saneamiento administradora) conference. It went well and there memebers there of different Juntas from around the country so we got the word out a bit. Everyone there seemed really interested and had a ton of questions. They were also really impressed with the pilot plant (as always!). We didn´t have as much time as we would have liked to answer questions but there did appear to be lots of interest.
  Capacitation of plant operators, Sustainability
  I think they have unofficially chosen Alexis to be the permanent operator of the plant. They are still alternating at the moment and we don't know when they will make him permanent. The operators have been doing a good job at covering the plant and recording data. However, information on the houses has been lacking.

Tamara

• We will be going back on Tuesday December 17th to figure out the location of the site of the plant. We had an original location chosen but it didn't leave very much altitude between the distribution tank and the exit of the plant. We are going to look for another location that will leave about 2 meters of distance between the distribution tank and the exit of the plant.
• All the plans for the Cornell Students visit in January should be finalized Tuesday December 17th as well.
• We hope to leave all the lists and money for buying materials for the construction of the plant in January ready before we leave.

Design for Tamara

• The engineer is working on another draft for the design. We have already looked over it twice and it should be complete and ready for one final review tomorrow Tuesday December 17th.
• We have changed the roof design(shown very roughly below). Instead of being in two parts and only having on slope it has been changed to include 4 parts and have 4 different slopes. This will decrease the height of the roof.
• A new part of the design is that instead of having a high security fence around the perimeter there will be only a barbed wire fence and the plant will have walls. The change in the roof design will allow for the walls of the plant to be lower and hopefully decrease the cost. As well as provide the extra shade for the tanks to hopefully eliminate algae growth.

The plan above shows the partition of the roof and the slopes. I don't remember the dimensions exactly but I believe that the heighest part of the roof is the corner above the barrels at 3.5 meters above the floor.

Plans for the Future

• Get ready for the student visit in January
• Get ready to begin construction for plant in January
• Plans to get the word out about the plant. Hopefully have some meetings or go to some other meetings with other organizations. APP would like to have some general meetings with aide organizations and perhaps Juntas as well.
• Go home for Christmas!!! Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año!