Semesche Construction Update

We have been working with the leaders of Semesche all fall to develop a water system for their community. In December, all of our design work and training finally came together in the form of a construction week with  Knox ProCorps team.  I have developed a quick pictoral overview of our pogress.  

This is the owner of the land on which the spring was located (standing next to the spring)

The owners family using the spring before we built the spring box.

We hired a local contractor to lead the building of the spring box and a tank.  Local men from the village provided all the labor.  In this picture you see the spring excavated and the beginning of the spring box.

The completed spring box.

This is the beginning of the formwork for the tank.

Pouring concrete.  We used a gravity wall design that the local contractor and workers were familiar with.

Mixing concrete.  No mechanical mixer here. 

Here is the complete tank.

On December 7th, the Knox ProCorps team arrived.  We had just completed all the concrete work (spring box and tank) before they arrived.

Within two days, the men of Semesche opened up over 2 km of trench.

Julio, our local water tech, giving a presentation to the team about the design of the project, the materials on hand, and the plan for their week of work.

Some of our supplies.

The first day, we plumbed the spring box and tank.  Little man helping out.

Kevin Colvett was the engineer that was in the valley last year.  He led the Knox ProCorps team.  Little Man may have gotten a little vigorous on the sawing.

First drips of water in Semesche's new tank.

The men from the village did the digging while the team from Knox ProCorps glued pipe, fitted valves and fittings.

One day, the ladies of the water committee in the village provided lunch for us.  Tortillas with beans and coffee (very typical meal).

A view from the spring.  We ran water to the Baptist Church in the lower left, the Catholic Church just above that and the Mennonite Church at the upper right.  

Laying pipe down the hill from the spring box and tank.

Overall we have been very pleased with this project.  We had ample time during the construction to train the man who had been selected from Semesche to be their fontanero (plumber) and several members of the water committee how to clean the system and general operations.  All the churches and health centers now have water and we have hopes of extending the system at some point in the future to many of the homes in the village.

The best parts of the project for me:

1) Watching Julio as he participate in the construction of the spring box and tank.  We asked the contractor (Daniel) that we hired to train Julio how to build these structures.  Julio was there every minute and soaked up all the teaching from Daniel.  We asked Julio if he felt like he was ready to build two small tanks for the next project on his own and he said yes.  He then disappeared, returning about four hours later with a hand sketch of the tank and quantities of the materials he thought he would need.  Kris and I are elated with Julio's eagerness and abilities.  We have high hopes that Julio will be able to carry on the water work in the valley (supported with short term trips) when we leave.

2) Hosting the Knox ProCorps team was lots of fun.  Some of the folks were friends, others we had never met before.  Everyone worked extremely hard.  They did their work well and quickly, giving time for Kris to  train the local men in Semesche.  Our kids had a lot of fun having some more people around to "play" with and the everyone on the team was very gracious towards them.

In returning to the valley after Christmas, the system is operating well.  We look forward to walking with the water committee and the fontanero in the coming months.

Mark