La Gloria

The school is just as neat and landscaped as the rest of the village

My second water system evaluation was in La Gloria, another pristinely scenic village of about 600 tucked back off the main highway from Changuinola to Almirante. The only shuttle service is a mini van from Chang to La Gloria. I had a nice chat with Daryl, who owns the van and has a surprising sense of keeping a regular schedule – every 2 hours to the minute.

Pro sized grass futball (soccer) field at town center

This village has a HUGE grass soccer field at its center. I couldn’t help but think of all the food crops that could be grown there, but that’s my priority, not theirs. I met Ventura, the Water Committee Fiscal (auditor) at his house across from the beautifully landscaped school. Lots of 

Almost postcard material - a very clean village

civic pride in this village – not a hint of trash anywhere. His wife had made some hush-puppy-like balls,  with bits of meat inside and boiled some water for me – very sweet.

The Grand Plan - right now only the small tank and
one spring are operational

He showed me the Grand Plan for a greatly expanded water system. They are certainly looking years ahead. They have barely enough water for the 110 homes now on the system, but there are many other folks who would like to get service. In actuality , most are already getting water from a neighbor with a connection. This combined with several small leaks in the supply line and wasteful usage practices puts a strain on their existing infrastructure. I did water tests, which showed almost bottled water quality at his tap, though I can’t test for bacteria or parasites – unlikely since the system is well sealed.

We hiked up to the 5,000 gallon tank, which acts more like a conduit 

They cut me a hiking stick which is really helpful
on steep inclines and jumping stones in rivers

than storage, as water is used as fast as it comes in, except at night. Even then, he says water flows in the middle of the night. Likely due to open taps and leaks. The tank was clean, except for some gravel in the tank bottom, accumulated from years since the last cleaning. Then a brisk climb on a steep uphill trek to the spring that feeds the system. I measured the flow at about 10 – 12 GPM, which should be more than adequate for 110 homes.

I’ll be back to do some training of the Committee, but left him some homework – fixing all the small leaks and finding out just how many folks are really using the system. We may wind up tapping an additional spring (they have 3 nearby), if they need it. But, then again, they may not need the extra water for now.

The only nasty item is that the drainage ditches also double
as open sewers - not nice, Though after a heavy rain they
flush everything to the river

I’m beginning to feel the uncomfortable position I’m in for the moment. Usually, I find a project and work on it until it’s done. But here, I need to wait until all the site visits are done to figure where to “best” spend my time. I certainly won’t be able to do construction in all 17 sites, so I’ll be disappointing some folks. I’ve tried to be clear about that. But, they see a very interest old Gringo and figure help is guaranteed.