Club Member Darrell Choate visits Honduras Again a

Posted by Victor Ray

After another visit to Honduras, club member Darrell Choate submitted the following article about his visit:

14 September 2007

Just a few weeks after I conducted the side session on "water" at the District Conference in Big Sky, I returned to Honduras for more water work.

I attended the Rotary Club of Danli evening meeting where I met with the president of the Danli, Honduras Rotary Club, Mr Jose' Espinal. We discussed the possibility of doing another community sand filtration system and they were very supportive.

I also met with the country director for Pure Water for the World (PWW) and she expressed an interest in cooperating on additional community water filtration systems. She has recently volunteered to supply the project manager for the construction at the expense of PWW.

We are in the process of applying for several grants to cover expenses.

We are pleased with the engineering the Honduras University has done for us concerning selection of the next community water filtration system. We hope to select the next community later this year.

I visited the Los Arcos community sand filter site and was pleased to see the villagers have constructed a new water tank. It has not been connected but the old one was in need of repair. The water source for the system remains polluted but water tests after the filter produced excellent results as the system is producing drinkable water. The Rotary Club of Danli will continue to test and monitor the water.

We are in the process of selecting a project manager and engineering support for the next community sand filter project.

Twenty people from the United States and two from Honduras participated in this trip. John Fenley, the new Honduras Water Ministry coordinator in Honduras, did an awesome job of staying ahead of the plan to keep us on task each and every day, including a last minute change to drill in a different village!

Sand Filtration and Water Testing

During the August trip, visits were made to the Los Arcos sand filtration project. Water testing showed the system is working. Mac Biggs coordinated efforts with our Rotary contacts in Honduras to insure ongoing testing and reporting from wells and the sand filtration projects. Darrel Choate coordinated the visits up to Los Arcos as well as setting up new community sand filtration projects in four new villages.

Work at Galpon included refurbishment on the well drilling rig we purchase earlier this year.

Health and Hygiene Promotores (Honduran's trained in health and hygiene) from last year's class in El Pescador conducted the training for sixteen new candidates in the community.

Drilling

Drilling was originally scheduled for the village of Agua Morado. Due to a disagreement with the landlord, the drill site was modified two days prior to our arrival. Special thanks to Louis Manz and John Fenley for lining out our work in El Pescador.

A new well, El Pescador #2, was dug to 135', led by head driller Art Meier and drillers Jack Martin, John Martin, Bill Fischer, Terry Hayes, Speedy Hart, and Paco Torres. The drill team hit water at 20', a solid production well, with more than a 110' column of water.

El Pescador #1, dug in May 2006, was completed this trip, a hand pump added to the productive, 65-gallon/minute, hole.

Author: Darrel Choate is a member of the Bozeman Noon Club and can be contacted at: gallatingm@bresnan.net