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El Ojochal Rainwater Harvesting Project

Following on from the highly successful Catching the Rain project, Nuevas Esperanzas embarked on a new challenge to construct a rainwater harvesting system at a makeshift school building in the community of El Ojochal del Listón, high up on the slopes of Volcán Telica.  

The concept was the same as for the previous rainwater harvesting project in San Jacinto, but this time it was not possible to deliver the materials to the site by truck. Instead, the community hauled bags of cement, steel, sand, timber and bricks up the mountainside by horses and oxen.  Even the water for construction had to be carried the two hour journey up the hillside from San Jacinto.  Work on the system was completed in August 2006 and use of the water collected has been carefully rationed to last as far as possible into the dry season.  The 76 people living in this community previously survived on an average of 13 litres per person per day for all their needs including drinking, cooking and washing.  

Some of those involved in building this rainwater harvesting tank are already asking for help in building their own systems and an expansion of rainwater harvesting is now being planned for other communities on the slopes of the Maribios volcanoes as part of the Mountain Rain project

A year on, the community are once again embarking on a building project at the school. In order to maximise the effectiveness of the rainwater harvesting tank and improve the current school facilities, an extension to the school building could be built. This extension coupled with improvements to the existing school structure will almost double the roof area which can collect rainwater to fill the tank.  The current school building is in a poor state of repair and has no sanitation facilities for the children at all.

This new phase of the project in El Ojochal will see the existing building repaired and improved, an annex will be added to create additional space for the children, two latrines will be constructed to improve sanitation and the additional roof space will be used to increase the area available for rainwater harvesting in the existing tank.

This phase of the project is being funded by New Hope, Llantwit Major.