The group that went to Ecuador in January 2009. Left to Right: Emily, Nicole, Fatima, Kendra, Dorothy.
The treatment center in Santa Ana, consisting of a slow sand filter, valve chamber, pump house, chlorinator, and underground storage tank.
Saul, Ramario, and Christian climb their way around the slow sand filter while Inoc and I work to fill it from the bottom to release air binding.
Fifteen year old operator Inoc Guatatoca inside the valve chamber for the slow sand filter.
Inoc and Kendra fix a minor leak in a hose in Santa Ana.
The river intake, in a small stream called Santander, about 2 km from the commmunity center. Notice the slightly crooked wall in the background (the wall we built in 2006) and the water escaping in the foreground -- this is what we closed off at the end of January.
Walter Rodas and Maria Zabala. Walter Rodas is one of the men who founded Santa Ana over forty years ago with his wife Maria Zabala.
A typical kitchen with a thatch roof and a house with a metal roof behind.
Dorothy fills up her water bottle in our host family's home. The water system in Santa Ana finally delivers water 24 hours a day -- and what a luxury it is to wash our hands, wash dishes, and fill up water bottles right in the kitchen.
Jumping over the New Year's Eve bonfire in Santa Ana. (photo credit: Nicole Koulisis)
Noe with a large moth. (photo credit: Nicole Koulisis)
Dorothy, Samira, and Shirla.
The team that was responsible for the house to house survey and water quality testing comparing the community water to individual rain water systems. Left to right: Galo, Nicole, Walter, Fatima, Franco.
Fatima and Nicole train Galo, Walter and Franco how to test water for coliform bacteria.
Walter places the filter paper in its petri dish for coliform testing. (photo credit: Nicole Koulisis)
Basilio's rainwater tank setup. We used it as the model for the installations in La Encañada due to his excellent test result.
Basilio even gets water to arrive at his bathroom sink from his rainwater tank.
Basilio's rainwater tank coliform test result. If families keep their rainwater tanks elevated and covered and wash them regularly, the water has little to no coliform bacteria.
However, as in this example, if the family keeps the tank on the ground and dips water out with buckets and cups, it becomes very contaminated.
Noe, Fatima, Franco, and Nicole celebrate the completion of the device they made to test how much water makes an appropriate first flush for rainwater systems.
Inoc brings the CPU for the computer donated by TecsChange to La Encañada on horseback. (photo credit: Nicole Koulisis)
Crossing the river with the computer and monitor. To get from Santa Ana to La Encañada, one must cross a branch of the Pastaza River in canoe. (photo credit: Nicole Koulisis)
La Encañada's spring protection box. This box was constructed as part of the community water system project, but it has never successfully been pumped into the distribution system. (photo credit: Nicole Koulisis)
La Encañada's abandoned pump. The pump was damaged in La Encañada and never replaced, so people come and haul water from the spout of the spring protection box. (photo credit: Nicole Koulisis)
Inoc and Kendra measure the flow rate of the spring water spout in La Encañada. (photo credit: Nicole Koulisis)
Inoc uses a sterile bag to collect a water sample from La Encañada to analyze for coliform bacteria back in Santa Ana.
Byron and Leticia test the drinking water from different families in La Encañada.
Three replicates of Encañada's spring water, each showing few to no coliform colonies.
This is water from the rather clean spring in La Encañada, but kept in an open bucket such that it becomes very contaminated.
The moon rises over the community of La Encañada.
Two girls from La Enañada. (photo credit: Nicole Koulisis)
Emily and Dorothy haul a chonta log from the forest to the community. The first step in the construction process in La Encañada is to cut 3-meter-long chonta logs for the vertical posts.
Platform construction.
A finished platform for a rainwater tank.
Felix and Elias split bamboo for rainwater gutters as Fatima looks on.
Byron secures a bamboo gutter in place.
Byron 'hombre araña' secures a rainwater gutter. 'Hombre araña,' meaning spider man, is Byron's self-declared nickname. He did most of the climbing around on the outside of houses to install the gutters. (photo credit: Dorothy Brown)
Dorothy stands with Elias and his family in front of one of the nine completed rainwater systems we installed in La Encañada.
The laminated guide to the raintanks and secure storage container, which we put up in all nine houses in la Encañada.
Melida leads a group discussion on water and health.
Another angle on Melida's group discussion on water and health. She and Esteban took the lead in planning and giving a one hour workshop on how to obtain clean water and keep it clean, along with reinforcement of basic hygiene and health knowledge.
In the workshop, they used actual coliform results, like this one, to make their point. This groundwater seep from Santa Ana has over two thousand coliform colonies in 100 ml (!)
The same groundwater seep water, boiled for three minutes, shows zero colonies. These results are powerful tools for our technical team to teach others about water treatment, enabling community members to see with their own eyes that boiling and chlorination really work.
Kendra demonstrates how 16 drops of chlorine plus 30 minutes of wait time can effectively disinfect water, which the families can keep safe in the 8-liter storage containers with taps that we provided. (photo credit: Dorothy Brown)
As part of the water and health workshop that Esteban and Melida conducted they showed this test result to community members and taught them how to chlorinate water effectively.
The elementary school children of La Encañada with their new safe storage container.
Sinchi Warmi means 'strong women' in Kichwa. These women are hauling rocks and sand through a swamp and up to the river intake for the dam construction.
The temporary dam of sticks and plastic we used to hold back the water for construction.
Starting to pour dry mix concrete to mix with the existing water in the formwork.
Constructing the new dam in Santa Ana.
Jesus Moya finished off the concrete wall we built in the river intake.
We finished the dam on literally our last day of the trip!
