A day in the field: Trip to Santa Rosa

Hello everyone!

I hope this post finds you all well as October is winding down to an end! I'd like to share with you what I learned, saw, experienced, and felt yesterday when I travelled to Santa Rosa with the EMAPA crew. It was a really eye-opening trip, and definitely one of the highlights of my time here so far in Peru. You know when you just have a day that really stands out and makes you think? That's how I felt yesterday. It was a great way to celebrate the 7-week mark of my time here (as of today, I have been here for 50 days already! Times flies!).

This is someone's house.

Trip to Trujillo

Hello again, and happy Friday! I hope you are all having a wonderful week.

Last weekend I went on a wonderful trip to Trujillo with Itxel and Carlos, and I have promised to write about it to tell you all about my time up north, so here goes!

All week Itxel and I knew that we wanted to go away for the weekend somewhere. Lima perhaps? Huaraz, to go hiking in the Andes? Well, the opportunity to go to Trujillo with Carlos (one of the people that we work with at EMAPA Huacho) was presented, and we decided to jump on the opportunity. Carlos is originally from Trujillo (he has only been living in Huacho since February 2011) and he often goes home on weekends, so he invited us to go with him. His family offered to let us stay at their house so that we would feel safer, too. What a nice offer.

So on Friday after work Itxel and I went home to finish packing up our things and have a bite to eat before leaving. Carlos came to meet us around 7:45pm and we took a taxi to Huaura, a neighbouring city. From here, essentially you take a seat on a bench near the side of the road, and wait for a bus to pass by. The only road from Lima going up north is the Pan Americana Norte (Pan American highway), and it passes through both Huacho and Huaura. Busses travelling on the road will stop in Huaura if they have extra seats though. So each time a bus would pass by, we would ask the driver where they were going... and then, if they had seats for the three of us... and then, we negotiated a price (you also have the option to buy your tickets ahead of time with some travel agents). Carlos had explained to us that sometimes you find a bus right away, and sometimes it takes hours... or you might have 4 busses pass you by before one with available seats stops. What a gamble.

My work at EMAPA Huacho

So, what am I actually doing for my field placement? As most of you may know, I am currently completing an 8-month field placement in Huacho, Peru. But what else?

I am working for a local water utility, EPS EMAPA Huacho S.A., focusing on user education and on environmental assessments (EA). I am studying the feasibility of the construction of three new water purification plants, which includes writing the terms of reference, compiling baseline data and completing studies of the physical, biological, social, cultural, and economic impacts of the project. I am working directly with the head sanitation engineer to complete the three EAs required (since EMAPA is going to build three waste water treatment plants in different areas of the region), while bringing a different perspective to the analysis of the situation. As we are in a low-lying coastal area that is prone to earthquakes (there was a magnitude 4.1 earthquake here my first week, but I didn't feel it), the potential waste water treatment plants need to be able to resist to certain natural disasters. We are also analyzing the risk of toxic matter leeching into aquifers in the case of a failure with the structure. The proximity of the waste water treatment plants to human dwellings is also of concern (legislation states that it must be at least 500 m away from the closest houses, but in one city the plant may be built as near as 100-150 m away from the closest properties for lack of other land). Planting a ring of trees around the facilities has been planned to help reduce the unpleasant odours that will be released during the water treatment process. Furthermore, we are planning preventative measures to reduce the risk of mosquitoes and other insects from breeding near the treatment plants. Throughout our analysis, we must keep into consideration cost, local knowledge (for when maintenance issues arise) and general needs of the population.

My best day in Perú so far

Hello everyone, and happy Friday!

This week I would like to share with you what I did on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday afternoon I got to visit Barranca (about 40km north of here). They have just finished building a brand new waste water purification plant, and the EMAPA Huacho staff (mostly engineers and important people within the company) were invited to go for a private tour of the facility. To my surprise, this construction isn't like your typical water purification plant: it is actually a pilot project in Peru, filtering the sewage by growing lentils.

The first (of many) pools of lentils that the waste water gets cycled through