Programs / Water / Communities / Los Liquidambos «

 

About Los Liquidambos

Los Liquidambos is a community of roughly 100 houses in the mountains

of the municipality of Morocelí.  Community members in Los Liquidmbos

suffer from a lack of clean water, personal hygiene and sanitation

infrastructure, healthcare, and education.  Common colds, parasites, and

diarrheal disease are common.  Few homes have concrete floors, proper

functioning latrines, proper water storage, or efficient stoves with

chimneys.  School is offered until 6th grade.  After finishing primary school,

few children from Los Liquidambos walk to the middle school in the

nearby community of Buena Vista to attend 7th, 8th, and 9th grade classes. 

However, most children begin to work in agriculture to support their

families as the majority farm corn and beans for subsistence and harvest

coffee for commercial purposes.  The closest health center is also in

Buena Vista, which is a half hour walk away, and it is not consistently

staffed or stocked with medicines.

 

Los Liquidambos's Water Challenge

Los Liquidambos never had a centralized water system that provided

access to the entire community. Some community members built wells

to supply the water needs of the community, while the majority of the

families walked to the nearest sources to bathe, wash clothes, and

collect and carry water for household use.  During the dry season, some of

these cources dried up, and people had to travel farther away from their

homes to access water.  There were also two wells with hand pumps installed in Los Liquidambos, but one of the wells had a defunct hand pump and the other was said to access water of bad quality.  Regardless of how

they accessed water, there was no central treatment and few families treat their drinking water within their homes, increasing the risk of contracting waterborne sicknesses caused by the bacteria and parasites present in untreated water.

 

The community of Los Liquidambos is very well organized, with a recently formed 8-member Water Council that was sworn in by the local mayor.  However, there is no established water fee nor a plumber trained to maintain the water system.

 

 

The Water Solution for Los Liquidambos

Water Brigaders from 15 different universities worked in Los Liquidambos

from May 2013 to August 2013. During that time, these volunteers worked

with community members to:
     •  Install a dam and intake infrastructure with a filter
     •  Build a 10,000 gallon storage tank with chlorinator
     •  Redesign and construct an entire distribution network
     •  Connect all houses and churches to the system
     •  Provide educational seminars to children in the community on water 
        and health related topics

 

To ensure the sustainability of the project, a new seven member Water Council was established and trained by Water Brigades in addition to a Basic Sanitation Committee also trained by Water Brigades.

 

Since the moment that Water Brigades first entered the  community of Los Liquidambos, the community has  demonstrated their willingness and desire to work with Global  Brigades and construct a water system in their community.   Community members recognized the positive impact that the water systems in Buena Vista and El Retiro had on the   quality-of-life of their neighbors in these nearby communities. Thus, they asked Global Brigades for their support and have proved to be extremely dedicated to the project.

                                                                                           

 

Water Brigades Chapters that Worked in Los Liquidambos
Water Brigades Chapter	Month	Volunteers
University of Michigan	May 2013	14
Loyola University	May 2013	5
University of Illinois UC	May 2013	7
Boston University	May 2013	10
Pittsburgh University	May 2013	19
UNC Wilmington	May 2013	6
Arizona State University	May 2013	15
UT Arlington	May 2013	6
Centenary College	May 2013	3
University of Minnesota-Duluth	May 2013	6
University of Missouri	May 2013	4
Soka University	May 2013	2
University of Chicago	June 2013	7
UC Riverside	June 2013	4
UC Santa Barbara	June 2013	12
Rutgers University	August 2013	17

 

 

Current Status

Last Visit: November 2013
After several pipes on the water system burst in the fall of 2013, community members installed an iron pipe connecting the pump and the chlorination tank. This eliminated the problem and the system has functioned well since November 2013.

 

Project Photos

 

 

Visit Other Programs in Los Liquidambos

Global Brigades strives to implement a model of Holistic Development in communities through a system of collectively implementing health, economic, and education initiatives to strategically meet a community's development goals. Learn more about the other programs being implemented in Los Liquidambos:

Medical Dental   CHW  Engineering  Microfinance Public Health  Business Architecture