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Roadworks

There are often a lot of complaints when roadworks are taking place; traffic is held up, there are delays and diversions and it is all rather inconvenient.  For people from the communities of San Jacinto and El Ojochal del Listón it is a rather different story. 

For the seven remote hillside communities which are participating in the Mountain Rain project, access is one of the greatest concerns.  The livelihoods of these communities depend on getting farmers’ produce to market while it is still fresh.  At present access between El Ojochal del Listón and San Jacinto at the bottom of the hill is only possible by horse.  If access by ox and cart were possible, the amount of produce the farmers could bring down on each journey would be five times as much. 

Nuevas Esperanzas’ Mountain Rain project will see fourteen rainwater harvesting tanks built in El Ojochal over the next year, as well as building an extension to the school.  All of this construction work requires the transport of building materials, including water, which cannot be found in the community itself.  In order to help the construction phase of the project run as smoothly as possible the decision was taken with the community to prioritise work on the track, a decision which was welcomed by more than just the residents of El Ojochal as this route is also used by farmers who work the land on the slopes but live in San Jacinto at the foot of the volcano.

To recruit some extra help, Nuevas Esperanzas project staff and El Ojochal residents stopped people on the track to tell them about the project, request their support and encourage them to get involved with work.  Many different groups have signed up to help and the level of enthusiasm and commitment has been so great that Nuevas Esperanzas has had to work extra hard to keep the work teams supplied with enough materials. 

Work has begun at both ends with the group from El Ojochal tackling one of the worst sections of the track at the top whilst the farmers from San Jacinto start at the bottom.  After only a few weeks of work, it is now possible to get Nuevas Esperanzas’ new Toyota Landcruiser three kilometres further up the track than before and everyone is excited by the progress.  The farmers are already looking at the vehicle and working out how much of their produce could be carried down in the back!

Harvest time is beginning so all the men working on the track also need to tend their crops.  In order not to lose momentum on the track they have agreed to carry on working one day a week on the track even throughout the busy harvest time, a real sign of the level of their commitment.  The roadworks could take another couple of months to complete but everyone agrees it is well worth all the effort.

25/07/08