Sustainable Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation for Rural Communities in the Municipality of Machacamarca

State : Completed | Number of beneficiaries : 40 families, ie 280 people

Duration : 2019/2020, 12 months

Location : Toraca Baja, Tres Pozos and Alantanita Caravi Communities, Machacamarca Municipality, Pantaleon Dalence Province, Bolivia

Local partner

SERVITIHUM (Servicio Tecnico Integral Humanitario) is a non-governmental organization created in 2001. Its mission as a non-profit association is to help the most vulnerable populations through the execution of projects for the benefit of the populations. In particular, the association provides support to marginalized regions or regions that face basic needs such as health, education, housing, environment, food security.

The problem

El Nino Godzilla’s drought in 2016 has dried up Lake Poopo and has reduced the living conditions of Machacamarca communities who do not have access to safe drinking water. These populations must make 2 to 5 km to dispose of it. This deficiency implies a lack of hygiene and health and impacts the education of children who spend a lot of time traveling, sometimes on non-passable and unsecured paths, instead of going to school.
Moreover, the houses do not have sanitary facilities and the inhabitants are obliged to do their needs in nature on the ground. This contaminates the groundwater and disseminates diseases.
Providing drinking water through well construction is therefore a priority for these populations to address health and food security issues. Also, the establishment of latrines is an alternative in terms of treatment of human excrement that will allow the reduction of infectious diseases.

Objectives/Activities carried out

The overall objective is to improve the living conditions of the 280 beneficiaries of the rural communities of Toraca Baja, Tres Pozos and Alantañita Caravi.
The specific objective is the establishment of a sustainable drinking water service and a sanitation system and the dissemination of good hygiene and environmental protection practices.

  • Construction of 30 wells equipped with 30 hand pumps in the communities of Tres Pozos, Toraca Baja and Alantañita Caravi.
  • Construction of 10 family ecological latrines in the community of Toraca Baja.
  • Training of beneficiaries for the proper use and maintenance of pumps, wells and latrines, and creation of a Management Committee composed of members from each of the communities. It will ensure good infrastructure management and minor repairs if necessary.
  • Training of beneficiaries for good food, health and environmental practices.

Beneficiaries

The number of beneficiaries is divided according to the two components of the project:

1) Construction of wells with manual pumps:
– 30 Aymara families from different communities will benefit from wells, about 210 people (men, women and children combined)

2) Construction of latrines:
– 10 families, about 70 people will benefit from these latrines. The latrine construction project is located only in the community of Toraca