Wetlands continue to reduce nitrates

Wetlands created 20 years ago between tile-drained agricultural fields and the Embarras River were recently revisited for a new two-year research project. Results show an overall 62 percent nitrate removal rate and little emission of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.(more)

Water 4.0

Water 4.0:  The Past, Present, and Future of the World’sMost Vital Resource is a new (2014) book by David Sedlak.   In it he details “(t)he little-known story of the systems that bring us our drinking water, how they were developed, the problems they are facing, and how they will be reinvented in the near future.”  Water 1.0 is what he calls the gravity-powered aqueducts engineered and built by the ancient Romans.  “…(T)he addition of filtration and chlorine disinfection on the front end of water distribution systems…” he refers to as Water 2.0.  “…(T)he installation of biological wastewater treatment on the sewer end…” is Water 3.0.  And, solutions to the challenges we now face will bring Water 3.x – Water 4.0 to our communities.  These solutions may be centralized, decentralized or some combination of both.  Sedlak does a good job of recounting the history and explaining the options we have as we move forward.  For anyone interested in an overview of the past, present and future of urban water, this book is well worth reading.

Meeting with the Oaxaca Finance Minister

Juan Jose (the director of INSO) met with the Finance Minister of Oaxaca on Monday night to discuss our proposal to help the State with some of its water and sanitation challenges. We have been working on this proposal for many months now and working hard to secure a discussion with Mr Cagija after we were hosted by him in earlier last Fall.

Our proposal is a four part plan to help the Minister better understand the water and sanitation situation in Oaxaca and proved him with sustainable solutions. Our proposal covers:

• Develop a strategy for water and sanitation for the central valley
• Review the existing wastewater treatment plants and determine if they can be brought up to federal standards.
• Provide the Minister with a framework (technical, economic, environmental, sustainability) to evaluate new water and sanitation projects.
• Plan the implementation of pilot projects to demonstrate the technology innovations outlined in our strategy.

Like many things in Mexico they move much slower than here in the US. Thus, we are cautiously optimistic that we can secure this contact within the next few months.

Upcoming Trip to Oaxaca Mexico

Upcoming Mexico Trip
Finally, after more than nine months, we have had a major breakthrough with the state government.

Water for Humans (WFH) will be traveling to Oaxaca to meet with Senor Cajiga, the Oaxaca State Finance Minister, on Oct 10th. The minister has agreed to meet with us (paying our travel) to discuss working on a strategy for water and sanitation, first for the central valley and hopefully for the entire state. This work will be divided between WFH and our partner NGO: Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca INSO. WFH will be bringing Dr. Firdaus Jhabvala (from Natural Systems International/Biohabitats) to help with contracting and municipal sanitation.

Our goals for the finance minister are to do the following:

• Secure a contract to develop a strategy for water and sanitation projects.
• Secure commitments/funding for pilot projects.

We will be in Oaxaca for two weeks working with the Senor Cajiga and following up on our other projects: school water filer and rain catchment.

Global Washington: Changemaker- Rick McKenney

Clean water, social justice, and sustainable business: Rick McKenney of Water for Humans

By Anamika Ved;;;A
social entrepreneur, mechanical engineer, a physicist, material scientist and a keen advocate of social and economic justice are few words that describe RicMcKenneyey, thcofounderer of Water for Humans. Having started his career as a budding entrepreneur during his high school days, Rick’s passion for implementing social change eventually gave birth to the non profit social venture enterprise that is called “Water for Humans”.

In 2006, while traveling in Mexico during the summer, Rick noticed the elderly struggling with water jugs, people getting drinking water out of five-gallon jugs and trucks carrying jugs of clean water. He realized that people understand the value of clean water; they recognize that drinking tap water can potentially lead to serious medical problems and even death. With multinational companies and other private enterprise mushrooming in the profitable business of potable water sales and distribution, Rick saw people spending 25% of their income on buying expensive bottled water. Those with less financial means were drinking water that was insufficiently treated and not safe for human consumption.

He also saw raw sewage flowing directly into the sea and onto farmers’ fields polluting the ocean and human consumption crops. With fields getting flooded by raw sewage, farmers could only grow animal feed commodity, which has less financial value than human consumption crops. His exposure to this socioeconomic reality made him decide to work towards saving people from the deleterious effects of these unsafe water and sanitation practices.
Born in Southern California, Rick was imbued with both the business and engineering skills to start a private enterprise. While in high school he started and successfully operated his own business, a small manufacturing outfit, before he sold it to pursue his undergraduate degree in Solid State Physics and Mechanical Engineering.

After working in military industrial complex where he was “conflicted by the lure of science and the application of technology,” he joined Boeing as physicist and materials scientist. During his eighteen years at Boeing, he worked on many classified projects; however, he wanted to do something in line with his core values. He wanted to give back to the society. As a first step, he went to Vancouver, B.C. and for four years worked at Ballard Power Systems developing hydrogen fuel cell technologies.

Rick was interested in social entrepreneurship from social justice perspective. He wanted to use his engineering and business skills for environmental, economic and social causes. He wanted to do, as he says, “Business for good.” With that thought in mind, he joineBainbridgeBainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) in the fall of 2004 to get his MBA in Sustainable Business Practices in June 2007.

and unemployment. He also studied social justice and business and started lBainbridge some ideas relating to it.

In his effort to start a social enterprise for safe drinking water and sewage, Rick was greatly supported and encouraged by Gifford Pinchot, the co-founder of Bainbridge Graduate Institute. Gifford connected him to Paul Hudnut, a social entrepreneur and founder of Envirofit, an enterprise-based model that represents a more sustainable approach to tackling the global IAP/cook stoves problem.

Rick also drew inspiration from Fabio Rosa, a Brazilian social entrepreneur whose initiatives focused on rural electrification and the use oPinchotinable energy resourBainbridgear to Rosa’s “The Sunshines for All,” which delivHudnutow cost electricity to millions of ruraEnvirofitans, Rick decided to come up with what he calls “a reliable, low cost, culturally acceptable technical solution that could provide sustainable sewage treatment systems, and access to clean water.” This, he thought, would reduce pollution for people of all economic classes. He also understood the importance of proviSunshinesnancial mechanism via a social venture enterprise. A social venture enterprise, according to him, was important to ensure that infrastructure, such as sewage treatment systems, have adequate financial resources to provide continuous operations and maintenance for areas where local governments do not have the capacity to deliver such services. This led to the birth of Water for Humans, a social enterprise that strives to insure local public control of water resources and the deployment of low cost water purification systems to the 1.1 billion people in the world who lack safe drinking water.

According to Rick, “the strength and vitality of a community is based on its ability to provide food security and economic vitality to its citizens.” In order to accomplish his vision to bring about social and economic justice, Rick wants to ensure the safety and quality of the local food sources and help local economies thrive.

Rick also stresses on the importance of collaborative working model, which resonates with one of Global Washington’s four principles of aid effectiveness i.e, local ownership. According to Rick, collaboration or partnership with the local communities, NGOs, and government has been the mainstay of their organization’s success. “Strong and deep connections to key community partners have allowed us to grow and increase our impact,” he says. Their most recent project, aimed at designing and building a constructed wetland for sewage treatment in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla, is an example of such collaboration. In this endeavor, Water for Humans isNGOstnering with a local internationally-recognized NGO, Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca (INSO). The goal is to develop this watershed project 20Km NNE of Oaxaca City, as a model that communities throughout the world can study and emulate. In addition, they are also working onSantoinwater catchmenBajodEtlaer treatment, and composting latrine program within Oaxaca City. There many sections of Oaxaca City that do not have adequate water aInstitutotden sNaturalezand theSociedadrdeng hard with the community to implement a cost effective solution to this chronic water shortage issue.

Rick emphasizes partnerships between small non-profit organizations and agencies like USAID and thinks that Global Washington can help make such connections. He appreciates the role played by Global Washington in increasing the “visibility of the member organizations.”

Excited about launching the first watershed project in the Oaxaca Valley, Rick continues to work towards implementing social change, using his scientific skills and strong belief in social and economic justice. Let’s wish him success in this laudable objective as he fulfills his dream to “affect people in the most positive way.”

Joint working agreement with UABJO Oaxaca

I am pleased to announce a new joint working agreement with Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca (INSO) Water for Humans and Universidad Autonoma Benito Juarez de Oaxaca (UABJO).  Professor Erik  Martinez Torres of the Chemical Engineering Department will formally join our efforts to help educate the community and government on the need and technology for natural waste-water treatment.  Erik's laboratory will be more involved with our ongoing water analysis of both drinking water and black-water.

We look forward to working more closely with UABJO as our plans for the design and construction of a natural waste-water treatment plant in Villa De Etla, and Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla.

Maria Soledad Diaz Gonzalez Reelected as the Agency Head of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla

Maria Soledad Diaz Gonzalez was reelected as the  Agency Head of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla. This election took several months to resolve as there was said to be irregularities, and the opposition was disputing the results. Just last week the election was certified fair and complete.  Maria has been the Agency Head for several years and her reelection is very important to our work in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla.Maria has been spearheading most of the environmental efforts in the community and with her support and the Community of Elders we have built strong community support to replace the derelict wastewater treatment plant with a sustainable natural treatment system.

On Wednesday Maria and the new Mayor of Villa De Etla met with our partner NGO

Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca (INSO) to discuss the strategy for our upcoming meeting with the Governor to present our solution to the derelict wastewater treatment plant. This derelict treatment plant floods several houses in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla when ever there is a big rain storm, and the raw sewage continuously floods farmers fields.

The new governor of Oaxaca announces a joint agreement with the IADB

Water for Humans has been in contact with the Inter American Development Bank via our connections with the Mexico Federal Ministry of Economy.  Throught our discussions we learned for this joint agreement. The full statement (press release) is several pages long.  This is an excerpt from it.

"In joint press conference with the governor of the state, representative of the I.A.D.B. eri Mexico, Ellis J. Juan, explained that one of the high-priority areas of action of this agreement is to add to the efforts of Latin America and the Caribbean to reduce to the poverty and the inequality,· aiming at a sustainable development and respectful with the climate. In the case of Mexico, he added, he tries himself to support to the states and municipalities in order close a breach of existing economic development. In as much, the vice-president of the sector deprived in the I.A.D.B., Steven J. Puig, indicated that they have worked in Oaxaca and other states, diverse projects, mainly in the matter of infrastructure, that is essential for the competitiveness."

This agreement will help both INSO and WFH implement several larger projects including our black water treatment plant in Santo Domingo Barro Bajo Etla. 

 

Gabino Cué, the new governor of Oaxaca state in Mexico

Gabino Cué officially took office as the new Governor of Oaxaca on December 1st 2010 (which seems like a long time ago already).  Please see the attached link. This election has come at a critical time for us and INSO as there will be a significant power shift in our favor.  Grabino is committed to sustainable development and is very concerned about water and sanitation in the face of climate change.  He understands the importance or water productivity and some of the potential challenges Oaxaca faces in the coming years. INSO has already held several key meetings with the new ministers, and INSO is working hard to secure a personal meeting with Grabino and several of his ministers. The goal of this upcoming meeting is to help the new government formulate a sustainable strategy for water resources.  We (Water for Humans) and INSO will hopefully be able to help formulate an overarching strategy that will allow us (WFH & INSO) will work closely with the new government and implement many new projects

Co-founder Rick McKenney to speak at the upcoming Global WA Conference Nov 15-16

Global WA is hosting its second major conference here at the Microsoft Campus
Redmond, WA on November 15-16.

Rick McKenney has been invited to join a distinguished group of experts to discuss:

Ensuring Environmental Sustainability: Stories of Successful
partnerships  November 15, 2010

Other panelists for this session include:

• Kari Vigerstol (kvigerstol@tnc.org).  Kari can talk about the 'water funds' they've set up in Latin America to fund conservation of watershed lands - also an example of public/private partnership also. 
• Marla Smith-Nilson, Executive Director , Water 1st International sustainability issues, specifically as they relate to water and sanitation projects MarlaSmith@water1st.org

To register please see this link Global WA Conference

Global Washington Conference--Bridges to Breakthroughs: How partnerships and innovation are changing the world November 15-16

Bridges to Breakthroughs: How partnerships and innovation are changing the world

Click here to register

November 15-16, 2010
Microsoft Campus
Redmond, WA

With one of the most diverse and vibrant development communities in the world, Washington State is uniquely positioned to lead global development efforts that foster sustainability, innovation, and collaboration. Bridges to Breakthroughs is a forum to engage and strengthen cross-sector partnerships, promote scientific and technological breakthroughs, and harness the collective leadership of our region’s scholars, entrepreneurs, business leaders, scientists, philanthropists, and advocates.

Following 2009’s Blueprint for Action, Global Washington brings together innovators and thought leaders in Washington State’s global development community to set actionable goals towards establishing effective partnerships. By fostering these partnerships, we build bridges that lead to breakthroughs.

Keynote Speaker: Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.
President Barack Obama appointed Melanne Verveer as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. The President’s decision to create a position of Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues is unprecedented, and reflects the elevated importance of these issues to the President and his entire Administration.
Click here to read Ambassador Verveer’s Bio.


Register today!
Sponsorship packages are available; if you are interested in being a sponsor, please contact Bookda Gheisar at 206.547.9332 or bookda@globalwa.org.

Weekly working update 8 June 2010

 Weekly working update 8 June 2010

Stan submitted our grant application for All People Be Happy Foundation.  They have responded with questions to clarify the proposal.  Rick and Stan are working hard on the next grant from Ashoka Change-makers.

The next step in this process is to send letters to the Governor and newly announced candidates in the Oaxaca State government to formally announce the project and design of the constructed wetland/treatment plant for Villa de Etla and Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla.

We have a great opportunity right now we need to take advantage of.  We need to have a full bid proposal ready to submit by Jan 2011, and we need to move rather quickly to meet this deadline.  In support of this we have finally secured our second set of blackwater testing. The Instituto Tecnológico del Valle de Oaxaca (ITO) will be analyzing the samples, and Maria and folks from Santo Domingo will be collecting them along with our staff person Nelly. This test will entail taking 6 samples over a 24 hour period for 5 days in a row.  Along with the blackwater samples they will be measuring the flow rate. The flow rate and water analysis are critical steps to refine the design of the treatment system.

We are planning to launch a fund raising campaign to support the initial design effort.  Part of this fund-raising includes a broadening of the circle of folks and engaging other organizations in or efforts.  Last month, Rick was the panel monitor for the Spring Fulbright Conference held in Seattle.  Rick moderated a panel discussion about social entrepreneurship with three other social entrepreneurs from the Seattle area.  I was fortunate to share the stage with a fellow panelists from the PATH Foundation. PATH supports technology projects for the developing world.  From this event Stan and I have been invited to meet with PATH’s Water and Sanitation group later this week.  

Collaboration with BOFISH

Over the past several months we have been researching potential partners for one of our social venture enterprises; aquaculture and hydroponics. This research has led us to the premiere provider of this technology in Mexico BOFISH. Our goal is to incorporate aquaculture and hydroponics into our sustainable sewage treatment system such that these enterprises will help generate revenue for the operations and maintenance of the treatment plant, high-value agricultural products, and local employment.

We are pleased to have this collaboration is this helps move our vision forward of making a truly sustainable wastewater treatment system, and turns a public health hazard into a major public asset.

Board meeting notes 22 May 2010

We held a Board meeting on Saturday afternoon May 22 to bring everyone in the organization up to speed on our progress and our challenges.  We had several members joined in person and a few more on the conference call.  Stan and I went over the history of the past year, including an overview of our two trips to Oaxaca.  We then spoke about the challenges and opportunities we are currently facing in trying to implement our sustainable sewage treatment system.  We hope to have a major announcement about this project in a month or so.

The conversation then moved to how to reshape our board and acquire more board members who are more experienced in nonprofit management and fundraising, along with more representation from the Hispanic community.  In addition, we are working on an overall marketing strategy, and a strategy to increase our sphere of influence with our donors and their friends.  Our goal is help our current donors to help us expand our network of supporters.
 

The first of many weekly updates

This is a new feature for Water for Humans.

I wish to introduce Michael Hughes.  He is helping us with marketing and writing grant proposals.  He lives in Stanwood and is excited to be part of the team.  Welcome Michael! 

An update on what’s happening in Mexico:  Nelly is in touch with a lab to do the water testing and to measure the flow rate.  Rick would like to get an extended flow rate for a month before and during the rainy season. Maria, the current mayor of Santo Domingo, is in the midst of an election campaign.  By May 25th, Nelly should have information on property ownership of the area around the perimeter of the dump.

Let me also introduce Fernando Bonilla and Carlos Leon Ramos of BOFISH, a company in Mexico which engages in fish-farming and hydroponics (aquaponics). They have a great website, Acuaponia.com 

Rick and Stan are working on a formal budget to support the emerging fundraising strategy.

Rick will host a Water for Humans Board meeting Saturday, May 22, 2010 at his home NE in Seattle starting at 4 pm. 

8 March 2010 ---“Gathering for an autonomous life”

Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca (INSO)--(Major sponsor) and Water for Humans shared a table at this event (see image of the poster in a post below)

From the Oaxaca news.

To combat the crisis of negatives impacts to nature and society, it’s urgent to make transformations, and to mark these transformations the “Gathering for an autonomous life” begins on the 8th of April in EL Llano Park.

In accordance with the call to combat the changes in nature and society leading to repercussions in health, it’s necessary to adopt new attitudes and practices.

Through round tables, interactive games, projections and technology exhibitions for treatment of waste, organizers are looking to raise people’s consciousness so they will change the attitudes that harm the environment.

“Beginning with the autonomous action of people and groups, propelled by the dire necessity of survival, or due to old ideals, we can convert the disasters that overwhelm us into opportunities to reverse the phenomena that they create,” say the Center of Support of the Popular Movement Oaxaca.
   
More than the fact that these new attitudes and practices can enrich daily life, they create natural and social harmony, and stimulate forms of dignified life.

Teemed with the ensemble of these actions is the goal to exemplify another way of life that doesn’t affect the natural environment.

Organizations and communities of Oaxaca and of the country will participate in this gathering to share their experiences, knowledge, attitudes and various capacities to work on the construction of an economically feasible, ecologically sensible and socially just world.

Other events taking place are the 6th Congressional Expo -“Towards a holistic vision of health”, the 5th Expo Ecology Fair - “The sun comes out for everyone”, dialogue and climate conventions in the towns, Tianguis indigenous multicultural, Seminary “Rethink water from civil society” and the second national forum of 

Fears That a Lush Land May Lose a Foul Fertilizer--Mixquiahuala Journal

 Fears That a Lush Land May Lose a Foul Fertilizer--Mixquiahuala Journal

From the New York Times 

Published: May 4, 2010

By ELISABETH MALKIN

MIXQUIAHUALA, Mexico — Night and day, Marcelo Mera Bárcenas slops the fetid water that has coursed 60 miles downhill from the sewers of Mexico City and spreads it over the corn and alfalfa fields of this once arid land.

The New York Times

Mexico City's sewage irrigates Hidalgo State's farmland.

From the roads here in the Mezquital Valley, fields stretch to the hills in a panoply of green, graced by willow trees. But up close, where Mr. Mera is paid for every acre of field he irrigates, the smell and look of the water that feeds this lushness chokes the senses.

With only rubber boots for protection, he does not buy into the general belief here that the water does no harm, that a scrub with detergent each night will cure whatever ills it brings. Itchy boils break out on his hands, he said. He is often sick with colds and the flu.

“Of course it affects us because the water is so dirty,” said Mr. Mera, a laborer who has worked in the muck of these fields for 38 years, since he was 15. “But there’s nothing else to do.”
For 100 years, Mexico City has flushed its wastewater north to irrigate the farmland of Hidalgo State. This foul cascade, which the farmers call “the black waters,” flows through a latticework of canals and then trickles over the fields.

So when word got out that the government was finally going to build a giant wastewater treatment plant, one might have expected the farmers around here to be excited. Instead, they were suspicious.
“Without that water, there is no life, “ said Gregorio Cruz Alamilla, 60, who has worked his family’s 12-acre farm since he was a boy.

Mr. Cruz knows the water is loaded with toxic substances, including chemicals dumped by factories, and he tires of clearing his field of plastic bottles and wrappings every time he irrigates.
But like many others here, he worries that treating the water, though it may remove harmful contaminants, will also strip away some of the natural fertilizers that even the authorities here say have helped make this valley so productive. And despite the government’s assurances, the farmers here suspect the worst: that once the water is treated, it will be pumped back to Mexico City, leaving the farms dry.

“If they take away the black waters we will die of hunger,” Mr. Cruz said. “We don’t know how to do anything else.”


Farmers irrigate crops with wastewater across the developing world, but nowhere else on the scale of Mezquital Valley, researchers say. The 350 square miles of the valley’s irrigated fields lie at the end of a crisscross of tunnels, rivers, lakes, dams and reservoirs that date from the 14th century, when the Aztecs settled on an island amid lakes and engineered the first network of dikes and dams to control the floodwaters.
Mexico City has never managed to keep those waters at bay. When they break loose, as they do most every year during the rainy season, the wastewater gushes into the streets and swamps the patios of working-class neighborhoods in the city’s low-lying eastern suburbs.

It has been almost 40 years since Mexico City has built a new tunnel to drain the city’s wastewater, and it now needs constant maintenance. Since then, the population of the metropolitan area has doubled to almost 20 million people.

“It was a predictable problem, but we never paid enough attention to it,” said Ernesto E. Espino de la O, who manages the treatment and water supply project for the National Water Commission. A collapse of the crumbling system, warned one study from Mexico’s National Autonomous University of Mexico, would be catastrophic, flooding large parts of the city.

To stop the flooding, the federal government is building a 38.5-mile tunnel to drain all the wastewater north at a rate of 40,000 gallons a second. “In July, August and September, we need the whole system to work well,” said Rafael Carmona Paredes, who is in charge of the tunnel project for the commission, known as Conagua.
Engineers have begun to drill a series of giant shafts going down as far as almost 500 feet. Below, enormous circular boring machines cut through the rock and lay down the tunnel’s concrete casing. At the tunnel’s end, near the town of Atotonilco, is the site of the planned water treatment plant, now just a sloping hillside and a sign with a promise.

“It is a disgrace that Mexico City doesn’t treat its wastewater,” said José Ramón Ardavín, the deputy director of Conagua.

The plant, which is budgeted to cost $1 billion and will begin operating in 2012, will clean 60 percent of the city’s wastewater. The water commission’s measurements show that the water is laced with heavy metals like lead and arsenic, filled with high levels of pathogens and parasites, and weighed down by grease.
But the farmers “are worried that the treatment plant will take out the nutrients, that the water will go back to Mexico City and that it will be privatized,” said Filemón Rodríguez Castillo, the director of the main irrigation district here. “The water is very much appreciated here, independent of the fact that it smells so ugly, that it stinks.”

One of his jobs is to persuade local residents that even though the residents of Mexico City will have to pay to have their water treated, they will not get it back.


The main benefit of irrigating with clean water, he has told them, is that they will be able to grow many kinds of vegetables, which are now restricted to protect consumers from illness.

Officials here now direct farmers not to grow crops in which the edible part comes into contact with the irrigation water and is eaten raw, ruling out vegetables like lettuce, carrots or beets. Alfalfa is permitted because it is used as animal feed. But enforcement is spotty and the farmers abide by an elastic interpretation of the regulations, planting broccoli and cauliflower, for example.

To the farmers here, whose sturdy opinions match their surprisingly good health, the proof that their water is good is in what they see around them. “Plants won’t absorb poison; they would die,” said Jesús Aldana Ángeles, a 75-year-old fifth-generation farmer, who was watching his small flock of sheep munch on the remains of his harvested alfalfa field. “There is no better laboratory than the ground. The earth absorbs everything. It purifies it, it treats it.”

As the sun set, he brought the sheep in, crossing a footpath over an irrigation ditch that curls around his house like a black moat. “Bad water would never make anything green,” he said. “But here the black waters turn everything green.”

 

Life Autanoma Conference Oaxaca April 2010

Water for Humans was represented via Nelly (our staff person working for INSO).  This is the poster Nelly had to present us to this growing community.

We are back in the USA

Our second trip to Oaxaca has come to an end.  Susan, arrived back in Bay area (CA) on 9 Feb. Stan arrived in Seattle on 17 Feb, and I arrived back in Seattle on 24 Feb, after getting some much needed R&R in la Manzanilla.  Judith and I got to stay with our friends Dan and Heidi (who are building a house there, and donated a weeks stay at our Day for the Dead Auction last Oct).

We are now getting back in the swing of working remotely, and following up on all  the loose ends from our time in Oaxaca.  We are had at work researching funding opportunities, coordinating with our partner NGO INSO and our 1/2 time staff person Nelly.  We are focusing our efforts on formalizing our relationship with INSO (formal contract) and opening a "case" with Instituto Estatal de Ecologia (IEE) [State Institute of Ecology] which will then trigger a case with the Federal Water commission.  We are building political support for our black water solution to pressure Etla to step up to the plate and embrace a community wide solution.

February 7, 2010, Sunday—Breakfast at the SD Market
This morning we made our way via bus and taxi to Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla for a fabulous breakfast at the Sunday market. 

The townspeople set up a weekly market in a field adjacent to a soccer field.  It was a great morning with the sun out and not too hot.  There were several kinds of tamales (green, sweet, and mole), memelitas with chorizo and chicharron, salsas, fruit, vegetables, tacos, café and hot chocolate oaxaqueno, a drink made from corn, and pan dulce.  Needless to say, none of us were hungry after that.  Maria set up a table & chairs for us to enjoy the sitting and talk. We sat around the table for awhile and talked about our two cultures, our presidents, where we live, etc. After a while 2 sisters, Ittai and Karla Perez, about 11-13 years old came and wanted to practice English with us.  They learned English in school, starting in kindergarten, and spoke without accents.  In the group setting they were very shy and we tried to make small talk with them.  They were great!

The group broke up when Maria invited us back to the municipio for a meeting. She and two council members sat at the table to discuss a meeting she had with an engineer last Friday (February 5) who had presented a plan for a treatment plant (that we all think is totally inadequate), and go over some of our agreements and discussion from Thursday night.  It quickly became apparent we needed more help with translation.  The 2 girls were called.  These girls did a fantastic job of interpreting the conversation and once they got going they brought themselves into the discussion with their own perspectives and ideas.  It was a truly amazing thing to see these young girls using their fledgling English skills and describing the situation in their community.  At the meeting we discussed the need for a solution to treat 100% of the waste-water with a plant that is easy and inexpensive to maintain.  This is an alternative to that which the engineer proposed which treats 50% of the water. The meeting ended with everyone looking forwarded to the Water Forum (sponsored by INSO) on Friday the 12th.

Camerino Santiago gave us a ride to the taxi stand in Etla where we said “hasta la vista” and not good-bye.  We caught a community taxi back to Oaxaca with the typical capacity of 6 passengers and the driver.

It was such a lovely day I (Susan) decided to take a long walk in search of streets without construction.  I followed Pino Suarez to the end.  The street name changes when crossing the highway to San Felipe.  It was a very pleasant way to spend an hour.  I (Susan) went to church and got lost in the ritual associated with communion.  I was about a half a step behind but did get to say good-bye. I came home to find Rick and Stan gone to dinner.  Francine and I went for gelato down at the Zocalo.