A day off in D.F.

WOW. it is Sunday and we have a day off!  It seems like whenever we are in Mexico we work 7 days a week so to have most of a Sunday off is GREAT.  We got up and had to search for breakfast as our usual weekend place doesn't open until 10 am.  We found a good place not too far from our hotel:  "Hotel Casa Blanca".  We then had a few hours of work to do.  We then went on a subway- walking adventure to the Frida Kahlo museum.  The subway in D.F. is great and it only costs 3 pesos!.  After 2 rides  we came to street level.  Then the guess was which way to walk, as the sun was directly overhead (hard to tell what was north).  We got our bearings and after a 20 minute walk we arrived, to stand in line for 45 minutes.


We spent a good 2+ hours there.  It was great but, most of her famous art was not on display there.  It was great to walk through her life and house.

This is part of her studio with her painting holder so she could paint in her wheelchair and lying on her back in bed!










Then, upon getting to the subway station (a new line) we had to buy smart cards to get our fair! $10 pesos.  Now I feel like I need to ride the subway a lot to amortize the cost. :)  Anyway we got our smart cards and were back at our stop (General Hospital) in no time.  It was well after 4pm and way past lunch time so we then ate a GREAT meal at this roadside cafe.

Jacob takes off tomorrow (Monday back to DC as there is no point for him to stay as his scheduled return was on 20 July and if we go go back to Tenango to finish the stove he would have only had 1-2 days there.

PLU Talk "Suffering from water in Oaxaca"

From the talk Rick gave at PLU late last month.

"We all need water, said Rick McKenney, executive director of Water for Humans.

McKenney kicked off the second day of the Wang Center’s Water Symposium with a talk about the challenges and opportunities with water and sanitation in Oaxaca.

“Suffering from water – this is what Mexicans say when they are dealing with a lack of water,” McKenney said. “Mexico considers water a public right but there’s a juxtaposition and some tension there. How do you equitably charge people for this asset?”

By By Katie Scaff '13

SAVE THE DATE Feb 9th!!!

SAVE DATE THURSDAY FEBRUARY 9th 7-9PM

Celebrate
The gift of safe water

February 9th
7:00-9:00 pm
Seattle University Student center

Live music, silent & live auction, and key note speakers with

Easy parking on James just across the street

Tickets: $25 (includes a raffle ticket)

Water for Humans is a 501 3(c) non-profit
supporting sustainable water & sanitation projects.

For more information: www.WaterForHumans.org

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.

Great Interview with Jorge Castaneda and Charlie Rose

This is a great interview with Jorge Castaneda talking about his new book "Manana Forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans'
 http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11839

Please take a few minutes and watch this video about the interconnections between Mexico and the US.

Saludos (Hi) from all of us at Water for Humans!

The families of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla and Victor Bravo Ahuja district of Oaxaca City have come to Water for Humans for assistance in securing clean safe water access.

Today, we are calling for your action to make a difference!

Imagine your child having to drink Coke in place of safe water.

That's what many Oaxacan families resort to.

The primary school in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla has foregone buying school supplies in favor of providing expensive bottled water for its students.

They've come to us to ask for help to install a water filtration system instead.

Meet the students of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla and Prof. Rosendo Barragan Mendoza

Professor Rosendo Barragan Mendoza teaches grade 6 at Valentin Gomez Farias Elementary School located in the village. Prof. Mendoza said, "Sometimes when we run out of water jugs and children are still thirsty, they have to drink water from the tap and this causes many diseases." He tells us that clean filtered water would allow the school to stop buying expensive bottled water - and spend the money instead on school supplies.

How is Water for Humans helping the children, and the school?
In continuing collaboration with INSO, Water for Humans will install a water filtration-purification system on the elementary school's water tank.

Estimated Project Cost: $500

How to Help

1) Spread the word about our efforts:

via our new site. Invite your Facebook friends and email contacts to join in our funding efforts (by clicking the icons to the left of the "Donate" button on the crowdrise webpage).

Crowdrise is a fast growing engagement tool/network that is helping many great causes fund the work that needs doing. If you have any question about how to join or set up a Team on Crowdrise, please Contact Us.

2) Give to Water for Humans directly at our site.

Thank you!
You are a person who cares about the world we live in and you have demonstrated that by supporting Water for Humans. Our new friends in Oaxaca's Central Valley say, "Muchas gracias!"

PS: Learn how your generous support will impact lives in Oaxaca and elsewhere by following the Water for Humans' Blog, our You Tube Channel and looking for updates on Facebook. We invite you to join the nearly 300 people who are "Followers" of Water for Humans on Facebook!

You can always donate directly at

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.

The GUELAGUTZA in Seattle Saturday June 18th 2-6 PM

Please join our friends from Oaxaca in a special cultural celebration on Saturday June 18th from 2-6pm.  The GUELAGUTZA  will be held at the Dr. blanche Lavizzo Park  2100 S Jackson St in Seattle.

The closes entrance is behind (south) of the Odessa Brown Children's clinic at 22nd & Yesler.

There will be a traditional dance pretensions with the Grupo Guelaguetza, the Grupo Cultural Oaxaqueno and special guests GRUPO AMISTAD directly from Oaxaca

For more information please call 206.723.1986

Seattle University Students in Free Enterprise join our efforts

I am pleased to announce that the student group from Seattle University Students in Free Enterprise have joined our team.  This student team will help us in a wide range of activities, including social venture enterprise business plan development, expanding our impact in Oaxaca by helping build more Family Ecosystems.  Over the next few months we will work together to develop a joint strategy to both maximize their learning opportunities and increase our delivery of services in Oaxaca.

Over the coming weeks we will introduce these fine dedicated students and outline their area of focus.

Water testing at the School in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla

MARCH 22, 2011.
By Our Oaxaca staff  Nelly Fernandez Tellez
I made a visit to the school in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla meet with the head master; Valentin Gomez Farias to test the water quality, receiving the parameters measured were: pH, hardness, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, iron, manganese, salmonella, E. coli, Aeromonas and other coliforms.

 
These tests were made because "Water for Humans", aims to get to install filters at school, and thus the school can stop buying jugs of water. The children will be able to drink water straight from the tap and the money save will be used to invest in material for children or school improvement in general.

 
The results were quite favorable and we can say that although the water is clean, We do not feel nor do the children & staff feel safe drinking untreated water. This is because none of the incoming well water is treated or inspected on a regular basis.  Thus we hope to install a water purifying filter to ensure the greater safety of the children and staff.

IT's World Water Day :)

March 22 is World Water Day.  Please swing by Seattle City Hall, as we will be there as part of the cities and county's efforts to support Water awareness.  We will have an information table setup to help us spread the word about our work.

Robert Glennon keynote speaker at Chief Sealth International High School’s World Water Week Event

Robert Glennon keynote speaker at Chief Sealth International High School’s World Water Week Event

www.westseattleherald.com

Robert Glennon, author of NYT bestseller “Unquenchable” and a U. of Arizona Professor of Law and Public Policy, will be among the featured speakers during World Water Week, presented by Chief Sealth International High School students at the school March 21-25.

Mexican Farms Need a Water Revolution - IPS ipsnews.net

Mexican Farms Need a Water Revolution - IPS ipsnews.net

Mexican Farms Need a Water Revolution
By Emilio Godoy*

An irrigation pond in rural Chiapas, Mexico. Credit:Mauricio Ramos/IPS

MEXICO CITY, Nov 17, 2010 (Tierramérica) - Without financing, many Mexican farmers cannot improve their ageing irrigation systems, which are essential if Mexico is to withstand the effects of climate change and reduce its emissions of greenhouse-effect gases.

Pressurised and drip irrigation are two leading-edge options that also make relatively efficient use of water and electricity, reducing power fossil fuel burning and greenhouse gases emissions.

These new systems are expensive, but "they would allow us to grow crops year-round and have more jobs and better incomes," farmer Oseas Espino told Tierramérica. He grows sorghum on about 30 hectares in the Yecapixtla municipality in the southwestern state of Morelos.

Espino is one example of the thousands of small and medium farmers who are unable to modernise their irrigation systems.

The most widely-used system is based on gravity, with electrical pumping equipment. But it "generates inefficiency in the use of water and electricity," Nemecio Castillo, an advisor with the National Institute of Forestry and Agricultural Research, told Tierramérica.

Seventy-seven percent of Mexico's piped water goes to agricultural use. There are some 118,000 wells for farming, but the authorities have rehabilitated just 6,000 of them.

Annually, operation of an inefficient well consumes about 200,000 cubic metres of water and generates 350 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the main greenhouse gases.

A well operated using modern technologies requires half the water and reduces greenhouse emissions to 98 tonnes of CO2, according to calculations by the non-governmental organisations El Barzón and Oxfam Mexico, which are promoting a plan to update the country's farm irrigation systems.

According to these organisations, inefficient water use in agriculture means that more than 80 percent of Mexico's 180 largest aquifers are overexploited and it is already difficult to sustain the total irrigated area.

The total farmed area in Mexico is more than 20 million hectares, with irrigation for 5.3 to 5.5 million hectares, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography. The most abundant crops are maize, beans and sorghum, which require a great deal of water to grow.

Maize -- used to make the tortilla, a staple in the Mexican diet -- requires 1,700 cubic metres of water per tonne produced, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. One tonne of sorghum needs 1,200 cubic metres of water per tonne.

Of the 630,000 registered farms in Mexico, just 16 percent have irrigation and 12 percent utilise unconventional techniques, report El Barzón and Oxfam.

There are 85 irrigation districts that cover 3.5 million hectares in hands of 583,000 users, particularly in central and northern Mexico, states the National Water Commission.

Those districts demand 30 billion cubic metres of water per year, 90 percent of which comes from reservoirs and 10 percent from underground sources.

From 2000 to 2009, agricultural electrical consumption jumped 17 percent. Government subsidies for energy purchases for farming -- about 50 cents on the dollar per kilowatt -- have cost 640 million dollars in public funds this year.

A traditional gravity-based system "irrigates one hectare in 24 hours, while a drip system does it in three or four hours," irrigation engineer José de Santos told Tierramérica.

According to Oxfam and El Barzón, the combination of an efficient well and modernised irrigation would be the equivalent of reducing CO2 emissions by 36 percent, energy consumption 40 percent and water use 50 percent.

Mexico emits 715.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year, six percent originating from agriculture.

Drip irrigation, which directs the water to the plant roots through soaker hoses, and pressurised irrigation, which uses closed pipes and sprinklers to create a directed precipitation, are the main alternatives to irrigation channels.

But their costs are quite prohibitive for small and medium farmers: 2,250 to 2,500 dollars to set up a system, according to figures from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

An additional obstacle is the government's slow action on the problem. The Ministry of Agriculture launched the Strategic Project for Irrigation Modernisation, with a budget of 52 million dollars for this year and the goal to update 22,000 hectares, benefitting 1,500 farmers. But the farmers have to put up another four million dollars to obtain the equipment.

"The cost is very high. The problem is that many farmers rent their land, and the owners aren't interested in adding the technology," said irrigation expert De Santos.

Since 2006, the National Water Commission has modernised irrigation on 599,000 hectares, with financing of 240 million dollars. The goal for 2012 is to reach 1.2 million hectares with irrigation.

In addition, "we have to move towards crops that require less water," like garbanzo beans, vegetables, fruits and oil crops. "The farmers need to be aware that water is a finite resource," said farming advisor Castillo.

In any case, there is no alternative to modernisation: one hectare yields 27.3 tonnes if it is irrigated, compared to just 7.8 tonnes without irrigation. And climate change will only intensify the droughts that are already taking a toll on Mexican farming, warns the National Institute of Ecology.

* This IPS story is part of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network http://www.cdkn.org (END)

Another reason to attend the Global Washington Annual Conference: Dean Karlan, Yale University Economics Professor,

Global Washington

Conference 2010

November 15 & 16

Microsoft Campus, Redmond

 

Check out the conference agenda, submission and selection criteria for the Video Showcase, and register here!

 

CLICK HERE to access the social networking site connecting members of the development community! (If you'd like to join, but haven't received an invitation, email megan@glboalwa.org)

 

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We are pleased to welcome Yale Professor of Economics Dean Karlan as a guest speaker at our upcoming conference!  

In 2007, The New York Times listed Karlan as one of 13 young “Economists to Watch” for his work in microfinance.  Times blogger Steven D. Levitt described Karlan as an economist who “has been doing important and innovative work, often using field experiments to answer questions related to financial decisions in developing countries.”  Karlan is an expert in economic issues relating to charitable giving and global development methodologies—especially microfinance. He is President of Innovations for Poverty Action; serves on the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab; and is Founder and President of stickK.com. He also received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2007.

At the conference, Dr. Karlan will share his thoughts on the challenges and successes in evaluation and impact assessment for global development work. He will provide an economist’s perspective on these solutions, particularly:

1) Evaluation matters. Wins and losses are not always where you expect them.

2) Methodology matters: Studying impact means answering a simple but elusive question: how have lives changed compared to how lives would have changed had the program not existed?  

3) Design matters.  The way products and processes are offered can have big effects on decisions people make.  

 

4) The impact of mobile technology on development, highlighting examples and successful partnerships.

Sources:

Steven J. Levitt, “Congratulations to Dean Karlan”, December 5, 2007, http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/congratulations-to-dean-karlan/?pagemode=print

“Economists to Watch,” The New York Times, January 10, 2007, available from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/10leonhardt.html?_r=2&ex=1169096400&en=be93236a9e2a3a7f&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

 

 

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Speaker Spotlight   Dean Karlan Professor of Economics Yale University   Dean Karlan is a Professor of Economics at Yale University.  Karlan is President of Innovations for Poverty Action, a non-profit organization that creates and evaluates solutions to social and development problems, and works to scale-up successful ideas through implementation and dissemination to policymakers, practitioners, investors and donors.  Karlan is on the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab.  As a social entrepreneur, He is Founder and President of stickK.com, a website that uses lessons from behavioral economics to help people reach personal goals, such as weight loss and smoking cessation, through commitment contracts.  Karlan received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and was named an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.  His research focuses on microeconomic issues of financial decision-making, specifically employing experimental methodologies to examine what works, what does not, and why in interventions in microfinance, health, behavioral economics and charitable giving.  In microfinance, he has studied credit impact, interest rate policy, savings product design, credit scoring policies, entrepreneurship training, and group versus individual liability.  Karlan received a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T., an M.B.A. and an M.P.P. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Mexican farmers battle erosion and drought -- PRI the world

On PRI's show the World today (Wed Oct 20th).  Our partner NGO in Oaxaca founder Juan Jose gave an interview about the work his team is doing at their pedregal (permaculture) site in Oaxaca Mexico. The story is here  this link includes down-loadable MP3 and other information about the great work INSO is doing can be found here

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.

Help in understanding your city's water quality

You may have recieved a reprot from your local city water department about the quality of your water service.

Below is a link to a great report and guide to help you understand what it all means to you.

Food and water watch tap water guide

EXAMPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THE WORLD.

KOREA.
South Korea is, in many ways, a model of reforestation for the rest of the world.  When the Korean War ended, half a

century ago, the mountainous country was quite deforested.  Since 1960, under the dedicated direction of President Park

Chung Hee, the South Korean government put into effect a national reforestation effort.  Basing itself on the formation of

rural cooperatives, hundreds of thousands of people mobilized themselves to dig irrigation ditches and create terraces to

help the trees in the arid mountains.  Today, the forests cover 65 percent of the country, an area that comes to

approximately 6 million hectares.  When I drove through South Korea in November of 2000, I found it gratifying to see the

abundance of trees covering the mountains, which a generation ago were naked. 
www.ecogaia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=306:recuperar-los-bosques-con-elcambio-de-habitos&catid=3:noticias-y-articulos&Itemid=4

NIGERIA.

In Nigeria, the farmers who encountered a serious drought and the desertification of the 1980s, began, while they were

preparing the land for their crops, to allow some acacia shoots that grew in their fields to emerge.  When those trees

matured, they reduced the wind velocity, and with that, soil erosion.  Acacia, a pulse, fixes enriched nitrogen into the soil

and contributes to increased crop yield.  During the dry season, the leaves and the pods supply forage for livestock.  The

trees also provide the farmers with firewood.  This act of allowing 20-150 shoots per hectare to grow to maturity over

about 3 million hectares has revitalized the agricultural community of Nigeria.


DIFFERENT PLACES IN THE USA.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/las-10-tendencias-mas-prometedoras/1480

ONE-EYED ARGENTINE DEER.

COSTA RICA AND THE IRIS.
www.tendencias21.net/innovacion/Papel-de-lirio-un-ejemplo-de-innovacion-para-la-sostenibilidadosustentabilidad_a16.html

USING THE IRIS
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/10/18/index.php?section=sociedad&article=045n1soc


www.pym.org/.../ewg/ gaviotas/200506image001b.jpg
www.yesmagazine.org/.../ 33/6_Gaviotas_wind.jpg
www.revistavirtualpro.com/.../ ejemplo.jpg
www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/espanol/buildings/gbsstoc.shtml
www.encolombia.com/medicina/materialdeconsulta/Admon_Salud/Hospital_Autosuficiente.htm

Thirty Years of Government Irresponsibility Brought this Crisis

Gustavo Esteva:

Thirty years of irresponsibility by the Mexican government has provoked the crisis and made it even worse, and because of this an immediate solution from the society itself is required, assured Gustavo Esteva, director of the University of the Earth (Unitierra).

After learning about the activities during the “Gathering for an Autonomous Life”, he indicated that the crisis has a clear origin and corresponds to a series of political choices by the government itself, where decisions were left in the hands of private corporations.

He says it is obvious that this strategy, in which the government renounced its responsibility, hasn’t worked and now we are living the consequences of the State’s abandonment.

The investigator said that people have tried reacting “but are confronted with a combination of State and commerce that has not only caused the economic disaster, but also environmental degradation, contamination and lack of human development.”

He commented that this isn’t just a Mexican problem; it is a global problem, but in Mexico, there are exact dates: “for 30 years the government has not assumed its responsibilities, and instead, has sunk us.” 

Because of this, the crisis must be faced head on before it gets worse, before we face further problems. Now, people are fighting to survive. They can begin acting and using practices to resolve this critical situation.

Along these lines, this Thursday at 4:30 in the afternoon the “Gathering for an Autonomous Life” will begin. It will end the 11th of April in the Juarez El Llano park and will have demonstrated that families to individuals can begin to act with a goal of achieving a satisfactory and autonomous life, meaning not being dependent on commerce or State politics.

“The concrete experience of those who have decided to change their lives or view them in another way drives these activities because we want to recuperate what we have lost.”

He reported that this isn’t something complicated. It doesn’t require a large investment, only an effort and decision.

He added that implementing these actions, in the case of water, has become a grave problem. “We should establish new relations because climate change should also be analyzed from this point of view.”

“We need to begin using concrete practices ourselves, like cultivating food on our patios in order to become less dependent on others,” he said. He commented that the tradition was to do things ourselves “and they  [the government] took us down an inappropriate road.” Because of this, it is necessary to recuperate this tradition. “We can’t keep waiting… change is today. The solution comes from below, what we have to do is at the core. We have to be reasonable, no one ‘over there’ can fix this problem,” the investigator emphasized.

He reaffirmed that it is the people who must assume responsibility for the changes and not wait for the government or functionaries. “We are the base.”