Experiences of improving water access in rural areas in Guatemala

Abstract

The GESAAF Department of the UNIFI has been involved in the project “Gestione ambientale e del rischio nel dipartimento di Sololà” in the period 2011-’12 aiming at guaranteeing water access to people leaving in rural areas in the Sololà Department in Guatemala, in collaboration with the two NGOs Movimento Africa ’70 and Oxfam Italia. Appropriate technologies, such as EMAS pump and well drilled with the Baptista- Boliviana technique, have been proposed and utilized for improving water access in areas where lack of water represented a limiting factor for the human development. They can be both considered compatible with local, cultural and economic conditions: in fact locally available materials are used and the tools can be maintained and operationally controlled by the local users. At the end of the project, 52 EMAS pumps have been installed and 19 wells drilled, 33 pumps have been installed in already existing wells tank. Formation activities of local people played an important role: diffusion actions of the methodology started from schools, 20 workers participated to an in class course and more than 100 participated in the field work. Monitoring activities on the 52 installed pumps have been carried out in order to check the performances of the pumps and the knowledge level acquired by the users. After some months of operation, more than 80% of the pumps were correctly functioning and the required maintenance activities have been carried out in collaboration with the local users. In order to analyze the project results, a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) has been carried out for developing a strategy able to tackle the weaknesses and threats of the procedure. The application of the SWOT analysis showed to be an useful tool to analyse the current situation coming from the ended project. It has been helpful to gauge how the project performed. The analysis results may be also utilized for exploring strengths and weaknesses of a possible transferring of the methodology to other sites.