[fsf60k] Nuevo Amanecer Agua Update - 2-28-07
- From: "George Pardo" <pardo123@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: fsf60k@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:48:28 -0500
Dear friends,
I will try to issue an update on the water project once a month, as it is
taking a lot longer than we anticipated. This project is definately on Nica
time.
2-28-07
Following is a status of where we are with the water project in Nuevo
Amanecer:
We have secured a quotation from Puritec for a reverse osmosis system that
can produce 1 cubic meter of water per hour. The cost is $24,000 without a
pump to pump the water out of the ground, power and water holding tanks.
The monthly cost of consumables (filters and chemicals) comes to about $6
per family. This would produce about 18 gallons per person per day. Only
60% of the water filtered would be usable the remaining 40% would have to be
discarded.
Concerns: The initial price of the system is high. The $6 cost per family
is too high as they now pay $2 per month. What do we do with the rejected
water? Can the inhabitants of the town maintain the system? This method of
treatment seems too expensive to be used for irrigation.
Responses to concerns follow:
1. By limiting the production of water to 2 gallons per day per person
we can limit the cost of consumables to $2 per month per family. The water
that they are buying now exceeds the current arsenic allowable levels (10
ppm) so having the 2 gallons per day of potable water for drinking and
cooking would be a benefit. The old allowable arsenic standard is 50 ppm.
We have contacted the Pan American Health Organization in Nicaragua (a UN
sponsored organization) to determine if the untreated water can be used for
bathing, animals and irrigation. We are hopeful because the only worrisome
chemical is arsenic which exceeds the current standards for drinking water
but it does not exceed the previous standard that was changed about a year
ago. Remember that the standard is for drinking water only. We have as yet
been able to locate a standard for farm use water. The goal is not only to
provide the Nuevo community with potable water at an affordable cost, that
is under their control, but to also provide them with affordable water for
irrigation. Affordable water for irrigation will allow them to farm year
round and create a viable local economy that will provide them with a
living, and incentive for the men to stay at home and farm the adjacent
land, instead of leaving the family for migrant farm work.
2. Another suggestion to cut costs has been to cut the capacity of the
system in half to reduce initial costs of all systems involved.
3. We checked with SCWA (Suffolk County Water Authority) and their
engineer told us that the rejected water could be directed to a recharge
basin and it could leach back into the ground where the arsenic would be
reabsorbed in different levels of the soil.
4. We checked with Puritec regarding the maintenance of the system.
They said that the system can be maintained by a lay person and that they
would train several people in the village on how to change filters and add
chemicals.
5. The system design was reviewd by SCWA engineers and they agreed
that Puritec is a well knonw company and the system proposed is a sound
design.
6. We intend on getting additional proposals from other companies to
aid in determining if the price we have received is fair but we need to wait
until we have agreed on the water production quantity.
Other work to be done:
1. We need to do a maximum production test for the well which means,
"what is the maximum gallons per minute the well can produce". We have
asked Puritec to coordinate this effort and give us a price for how much it
would cost. The difficulty is locating a pump that is of a suitable size
and can handle the hot water. The pump used for the test will probably
exceed the production of the well so a different one will have to be
purchased to be put in service. Although the hot water observed in Nuevo is
not rare it is also not usual so there are not many hot water pumps in the
country.
2. Select and price the pump and water tank(s). We need to determine
what is the capability of the well and how much water we want to extract.
3. Design and price the solar power system. The design depends on the
size of the pump and water purification system and we do not have those
components pinned down yet.
4. According to SCWA engineers that reviewed the water analysis in the
Puritec proposal, the only chemical to be concerned with is arsenic.
Arsenic contamination of water is a world wide problem and much research
has been done in the past few years into less expensive methods of
purification. We have located a few websites with information. If anyone
has the time to follow up on some or one of these alternate methods please
contact me so I can forward our research to date. My email is
pardo123@xxxxxxxxxx
Thank you all for your interest and support.
George Pardo
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