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• Domaine :

  Water

• Région :

  Central America

• Pays :

  Guatemala

The project:

In the village of Monterrey in Guatemala, to serve more than 3,000 people and two schools, drilling of a deep well of 500 feet, installing a submersible pump 25 horsepower contruction of a metallic tower of 20 meters high supporting a water tank of 40,000 gallons, all connected to the existing piping system.

The request:

February 18th 2016

Jean, Fatima, 

Happy Friday!!! I hope that all is well. A couple of days ago, I spoke with you about a water project in Guatemala where we had hopes that a local sugar company would carry some of the financial burden. Unfortunately they have decided that they can not participate. This left us with an approximate short fall of about $ 47,000.
WMI has decided now to "donate" the assessment fees which will result in a savings of approximately 4600,00.
The Edina Club thinks they have located another 20,000 to 22000.  This leaves us with a short fall about 20,000.  So we need to figure out if we can get Club money, District money or individuals money. When we spoke, you indicated that you should be able to help us find some of the missing funds. The International Club is The Rotary Club of Edina and our contact there is Gary Pederson. Please reach out to Gary to determine how you can help and what the source of the money will be.
I have attached a project overview and a budget so that you can familiarize yourself with this project. Please realize that the financial parts of these documents might be a little off as we have just learned that the Sugar Company will not participate and all of the various documents were published prior to that news.  
Bottom line this is a great project, the municipality and the community are very engaged and we have signed MOU's in hand.
Please let me know if you have questions.

Blessings
Jay Cook
Water Mission program director

http://www.fondationcoupdecoeur.org/upload/Monterrey Rotary Proposal.docx

For more information about the project, please refer to the text (Backgroud)  below the financial contributions.


Financial contributions:
 

Number of beneficiaries	3000+
Cumulative Beneficiaries (FCC)	120938
Total project cost	$ 308,000.00
The Rotary Foundation	$ 133,000.00
Rotary District 5950	$ 45,000.00
Rotary Clubs	$ 118,700.00
Lakewood Ranch Rotary Club	$ 5,000.00
Montreal Rotary Club	$ 2,100.00
Fondation Louise grenier	$ 2,100.00
Fondation Coup de Coeur	$ 2,100.00

Background

A team of humanitarians, Bill and Alberta Messer and Patrick Smythe, have been advocating for safe water and sanitation in the Escuintla area of Guatemala for several years. Patrick’s background is an Environmental and Urban Planning Engineer, Alberta is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and Bill Messer is an Industrial Water Treatment Engineer and Chemist, and all three live near Winthrop, Maine. Alberta and Patrick had been to the region many times doing medical relief work. Alberta frequently observed that the children and mothers she treated during her time on these trips were suffering from diarrhea and other preventable illnesses caused by lack of safe water and poor hygiene and sanitation practices. 
In May of 2013, Patrick, Bill and Alberta formed the nucleus of what is called the Guatemala Water and Sanitation Project, (GWASP) and recruited a Guatemala Team made up of three engineers and headed by Padre Emilton Gonzales. Their goal was to first determine if contaminated water and unsuitable sanitation could be the major cause of the repeated maladies, high rate of infant mortality and a shortened life expectancy. 
The initial step was to do a Community Assessment by testing the drinking water from homes and schools for bacterial contamination and conducting a detailed survey (WHO,UNICEF based) on sanitation practices from those patients that were seen and treated at the medical clinic. 
The tests results and survey data concluded that almost all of the water sources tested were indeed contaminated and that most of the sanitation practices were well below safe standards.
Alberta and Bill began researching international organizations focused on water and sanitation in developing countries and learned of Water Missions International (WMI). They approached Water WMI in spring of 2014 regarding the lack of safe water in the Escuintla region of Guatemala. Initially, Water Missions provided some technical consulting and asked the Maine team to begin gathering more information about the region and potential partnerships, to determine the feasibility of funding a project there.
Over the next several months, the Messer’s and GWASP team worked to complete a fairly comprehensive project application and submitted it to WMI in August 2014. The original project request included two towns in the Escuintla municipality, El Pilar and El Arenal, and the town of La Democracia. Once this was reviewed, WMI began planning to send a group of our engineers to conduct a technical assessment of the region from our Honduras and Mexico offices. 
Meanwhile, the Messer’s were invited to join the Winthrop Area Rotary Club and through the Rotary network and a family connection came to know the Covington Rotary Club of Covington, LA. Bryan Hall, District Governor Elect of the Covington RC, was interested to join forces with the Messers’ and the Winthrop Area Rotary Club to work towards a Global Grant application that will address the needs for safe water and sanitation in these communities.