Hello everyone! :)
I hope December is off to a good start for all of you! As I mentioned in last blogpost things at work have picked up quite a bit - and by that, I mean A LOT. So here it is: another 'day in the life of Sheila' as an intern at EMAPA Huacho.
Juan and I have known for a few weeks now that we would have a meeting this morning at 11am at the municipality (like city hall) with citizens groups to discuss bringing water and sewer systems to their area (slums in the southern part of town). Last week we were busy getting all of the required calculations done and documents completed to determine where to build a new well, how deep it would need to be, the minimum flow required, how big of a reservoir we would need to build, and how many homes we could provide service too (also included are a project hospital, school and market). Yesterday afternoon I met with the head of the slum to go over the current and projected population numbers and so that he could give me a better idea as to where each slum is located exactly and what its boundaries are. From there I had to go back into the documents we created last week and update the figures - only to realize that we had significantly underestimated the number of inhabitants, upping the budget from 6.8 million soles to 8.9 million soles (or roughly $2.6 CAD to $3.4 CAD). Woops. At least it's a good thing we doubled checked before presenting it to the municipality.
This morning we were scrambling to get things together (notably a powerpoint presentation) and print out the updated figures so that we could rush off to the municipality for 11am... only to wait until the representative from the municipality was free at 12:30pm (there was another event, something about a day to recognize the police forces going on, so he was tied up with that). Well, even though we felt slightly rushed and perhaps a little unprepared, our presentation went well (and by ours, I mean Juan presented, and I controlled the powerpoint). At the end of the presentation there were many groups (the hardest were by citizens whose houses are not included in our project, how to tell them they live too far away or not in a good location to receive connections to the water and sewage systems?), and then the head of the municipality spoke and pledged 200,000 soles (almost $77,000 CAD) to finance the required studies for the project to get underway (hydrogeological, soil, etc.). Our projected cost for this part of the project is 155,000 soles for studies and then another 100,000 soles to complete the project description (expediente técnico), so it's a good start - just need to make sure we follow up quickly so that it actually happens.
Alright, so one big meeting out of the way. Fiouf. Well, by this time it's 1:30pm (I usually go for lunch at 12:30), so Juan and I start walking back in the direction of my house (where I have lunch) and the office. On the way he offers to go for a drink or snack or something, so we stop into a little restaurant and share a fruit salad, and he orders an iced fruit juice (kind of like a slushly, but natural). I don't get home until 2:30pm (I usually have to be at work at 3), so I tell him I will be a bit late. That's fine.
I was contemplating spending more time at home to relax a bit and perhaps check my email, but decided against it and showed up at work again before 3:30; as soon as I walked in the door, Juan told me we had to go back to the municipality! This time to talk to landowners (farmers) about potentially buying their properties to build our waste water treatment plants (a topic we have not really worked on in over a month). Okay, so we pile back into the EMAPA truck. Partway there I ask the driver where we are going, and turns out we are not headed for the municipality in Huacho, but the one in Végueta! Végueta is a city about a 20 minute drive north of Huacho (also on the coast), and EMAPA is in charge of water and sewage there, too. Okay. So we spent a good hour outside (in the wind and the dust - I came home and my black pants were no longer black) talking to two of the farmers who are the head of the association, the mayor, one of the engineers who is on EMAPA's board of directors, and a few other important city officials about what land EMAPA wants, how much it would cost, next steps, and when to hold our next meeting. I did mostly listening this time, but it was really interesting to get to see a different step of the planning process. The farmers aren't really willing to sell their land, but they said that if they get a sufficient amount of money to buy a different parcel of land, or that EMAPA just trades them their land for a comparable parcel elsewhere (nearby, of course), that then things might be possible. I felt, from the way that the mayor of Végueta was speaking, that he was being a bit forceful... I mean, it's true, we would be stripping the farmers of their livelihood if we buy their land from them, but then again, the wastewater treatment plant would provide a service for almost 20,000 people. Tricky situation. I just hope that they don't get pressured into accepting something that isn't fair. I guess time will tell.
We arrived back at the office at 5pm and had to put together all of our documents from the morning's meeting (about building the well, reservoir, and 2,500 new connections) so send it to the general manager of EMAPA so he could follow up with the municipality. By this point in time I was getting quite tired... I finished my day of work, and tonight instead of going to the gym I have opted to relax: I took a warm shower first, and now I drinking hot tea and updating my blog. Hopefully I'll get to bed early so that I can be rested for tomorrow, because in the afternoon I am off to Lima again! This time to meet up with all of the WUSC volunteers and go to a touristy dinner and show. I am quite excited :) Thursday is a national holiday so we will just hang around there and quietly make our way back to Huacho.
I hope you're having a great week. That's all for now, thanks for reading! :)
Sheila
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