| Location: | Potrero de Olla, Remedios, Chiriqui, Panama, Panama |
|---|---|
| Category: | Food Security & Agriculture |
| Published: | 28 August 2008 |
| Progress: | |
| Donors resident in Germany receive a donation receipt for this project. | |
| Rating: |
|---|
The small community Potrero de Olla in the southwest of Panama has neither electricity nor a functioning watersystem. Especially the lack of water has an extremely negativ impact on the life of the inhabitants. Several times a day they have to collect the water from springs which are quite far away. This work is often done by children and the paths are very hard to pass during the rainy season. The tiring and timeconsuming process of collecting the water from the springs is a crucial obstacle to the personal and economical development of the inhabitants of Potrero de Olla.
The community approached our partnerorganisation „Puente del Mundo“ (www.puentedelmundo.org) with this problem. The community is also actively involved in the process of planing and realizing the project. For this reason it is important to choose a technology which can be build and maintained by the villagers. This includes the availability of the needed material, resp. spare parts, and a simple, solid construction. Therefore, out of the possibilities available at present, the choice is to use the rainwater by building cisterns. This technology for providing a water supply has been successful in many regions. It is cost-effective and easy to maintain. The rainwater is collected in the cisterns and the cisterns are designed to provide enough water through the dry season. Together with the inhabitants of Potrero de Olla we want to build cisterns made out of bricks and concrete in December and January.
The community approached our partnerorganisation „Puente del Mundo“ (www.puentedelmundo.org) with this problem. The community is also actively involved in the process of planing and realizing the project. For this reason it is important to choose a technology which can be build and maintained by the villagers. This includes the availability of the needed material, resp. spare parts, and a simple, solid construction. Therefore, out of the possibilities available at present, the choice is to use the rainwater by building cisterns. This technology for providing a water supply has been successful in many regions. It is cost-effective and easy to maintain. The rainwater is collected in the cisterns and the cisterns are designed to provide enough water through the dry season. Together with the inhabitants of Potrero de Olla we want to build cisterns made out of bricks and concrete in December and January.
