Sustainable Clean Water via Rainwater Harvesting in El Progreso

Sustainable clean drinking water is one of the most impactful changes that can be brought to a community. With the assistance of our student volunteers from Delf University (Netherlands), we have brought a rainwater collection based freshwater supply system featuring 11 ferrocement cisterns to supply the 80 Emberá people of El Progreso with clean drinking water through renewable means. 

PROJECT: INSTALLATION OF UPGRADES TO THE WATER SYSTEM IN AN EMBERÁ VILLAGE

The Emberá tribe is one of the biggest indigenous group in Panama. In the province of Colon, Panama, we work with a village called El Progreso, which consists of approximately 80 members from the Emberá tribe and is located on Panama’s Caribbean coast. For the last year, we have been working hand in hand with the community in order to help them improve their living conditions, while working to preserve their cultural identity, all while respecting the environment.

A few years ago, the members of the Emberá community installed a gravity-fed water system to bring water from a river directly to the village (a distance of 5 km), avoiding exhausting daily trips for them to collect water. Due to the fact that the river being in the middle of the jungle, the pipes often get clogged with each storm. Also, since this system does not treat the water for bacteria and parasites, the village members must boil it before each use, which often does not happen, so many villagers are sick often.

This project of installing a new system that is better suited for their environment will not only get rid of the issue of having to unclog the pipes after every storm, it will bring clean water to the people of the village.

THE WATER SYSTEM WILL BE REALIZED IN FOUR PHASES:

1. We will build ferro-cement water tanks with capacity of 3000 liters for each house in the community.

2. Installing rain water collection system for their roofs leading into new water tanks.

3. Once the water tanks are constructed, we will work on the installation of an efficient water filter for the water tanks, to have a second filtration system for more potable water.For many years, technologies in terms of water filters haven’t stop improving and we opted for a three stages filtration system. The first one holds the dirt and the sand, the second one the smallest particles, and the third eliminates bacteria and parasites.

4. Testing quality of collected water daily with specialized equipment.

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