Our Sanitation Tank in Rio Azul, Guatemala is about to be used…for the first time.
The last few weeks have seen the people in Rio Azul working hard to complete the piping of the sewage from about half of the homes in the town to the sanitation tank we helped them build 2 years ago.
The tank has been finished for a number of years but has been left unused because the government hadn’t followed through with their promise to pay for the piping to tie the individual homes to the sanitation tank at the bottom of the town. Finally, that money was released and the piping project has been started.
And like all the projects we are a part of in Guatemala, the community of Rio Azul has skin in the game. They are hand digging much of the piping (I’m kinda glad we are not down there “helping” which really means watching 60 year old great grandmothers digging faster than we can <grin>) and doing much of the assembly work.
It’s great to see this project start moving forward after being stalled by the government for the last 2 years.
We are just in the final negotiations for the building of the second sanitation tank to serve the other half of the town and will keep you updated as that gets finalized. We have raised enough money to cover our part of the project, Rio Azul is eagerly waiting to do their part, we are just waiting to make sure everyone else (read the Guatemalan government) will do their part.
