[fsf60k] Re: Telica/NA water

  • From: michael cipoletti <ikecip@xxxxxxx>
  • To: Peter White <pedro831@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 17:08:57 -0500

***This is a message from a member of Friends of Students for 60,000***

hey all i suppose i will comment on these various points below..
On Nov 6, 2009, at 11:28 AM, Peter White wrote:

Hola George and Others,
Great to have a good discussion on the current proposal to bring water to NA community through the efforts of Telica municipality. I'm sure that all who are close with this project over the past months/years want this done, and all have important questions about it. Bill already emailed with a few
of his immediate concerns. One thing we agreed on last night was that
Conchita could rely on some of the $6500 she has for water to keep the
deliveries going past Nov. 30 to Dec. 31. Here are a few of the concerns
which I made note of last night:

i think that 6500 should be used to get all the studies done (as detailed in the detail lacking proposal).. the studies will cost about 3000 dollars... so that still leaves 3500 for water..
should we increase trucks beginning in december?

. need for specifics/hard data/estimates/costs, much of what is in the
proposal is general.

the proposal is general and specifics will be laid out in my november meetings... they have done projects like this before in other communities in the municipality of telica and i plan on visiting at least one of those in november...

. design questions i.e. gallons per day, cleanliness of the water, testing
results, temperature, any contaminents, etc.

the results of the study will dictate the design (from what i have been told) the water is clean and the temperature is cool (i will come back with a specific #) again this is in the budget and we have only had two meetings in regards to this project (one in august one last monday)

. need to bring in graft prevention/oversight. i.e. Seeing if Elmer Zelaya or other recognized hydrologist would become involved as an expert, provide his opinion, oversee things since Chac. water project got done under such
watchfulness and not by amateurs. We could pay him if nec.

i would not be in favor of zelaya being in charge of oversight.. i think that the chacraseca project has been poorly managed (mostly because he allowed juan enrique too much control) he travels a lot and has a great deal on his plate with his own work.. please do not misunderstand elmer is an intelligent man but i think we would be better served with somebody else monitoring the project for us...
i can find somebody through UNAN that will be reliable..

. timetable for all this.

the testing should be done asap... the project will commence in february...

. Joanne's question regarding "Would this get done if we didn't kick in?" Is
it rare that a private group like ours is teaming up with a Nica gov't
entity to do this, and for how many towns, and are the townspeople kicking in? because if they are, the NA people are penniless. Is our $25000 THIER
portion?

the project probably would not get done if vision mundial and fs60k did not kick in.. it is a huge undertaking in the second poorest country in the hemisphere.. keep in mind that the government kicked 0 into the chac water project... the people will be kicking in by paying monthly (small amounts were discussed in last weeks meeting but i will get more specifics in the next meeting)... to make the 25000 dollar amount clearer... i had dinner with the telica mayors office and vision mundial in august with conchita.. we discussed the possibility of this project being done like this.. vision mundial said they could probably kick in 20-30k and i said friends has a limit of 25k on this project.. then the mayor went to NA and they put a 1+ million cord line item into the budget for this project.. we kick 25k VM kicks 30k and we have a project..
. Will the recipients of the water have a monthly bill? If so, how much? Can
the NA people pay?
this was answered to some degree in the last bullet.. they have money for beer and cigarettes they will have money for water.. (most of the families had money for the half assed system we had and some of the families that did not pay had money but would not pay do to the poor administration and bs associated with that diesel generator)

. Are the Telica people experienced in this type of work?
yes they have done projects like this.. marlons job is like a director of public works kind of thing.. these are the kinds of projects they execute on a regular basis...

. What's Vision Mundial's take on all this?
they are very much in favor of it..

. Where did the sum of $25000 come from, the exact amount we have for water?
answered above...

One thing almost all agreed to was that if all our questions are answered to our satisfaction, and if it's good water and we're dealing with trustworthy people, then it seems, in George's words "the perfect thing to do." But we've all seen corruption, big and small, over the years. So things must be done exactly right. We cannot just turn over all our money to an entity we
don't know without being certain, and being partners with checks and
balances/oversight, etc.
i agree that we need to be on top of this.. i have a good feeling about this project.. more importantly conchita has a good feeling about the project.. if she smelled a fish she would say something to me... i will be continuing my monthly trips and will stay on top of the execution of this project.. while i realize i am not a technical expert i do have a good business mind and a lot of current experience dealing with projects in nicaragua.. i think we have the potential "perfect solution" and this solution could represent (in conjunction with the work Vision Mundial is doing and a proposed Pulperia" in Nuevo (in conjunction with Pro Mujer) the beginning of a change in Nuevo... Conchita Rita Leyla and Rosa are running a successful literacy campaign with a dozen plus 18-25 year olds and they have a nice crop of corn and sorghum (3 manzanas) coming in.. a new dawn is coming in nuevo and we need to put the power in the hands of these young people... but first we as an organization must provide the foundation for life WATER!!





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