Los Planes, Honduras

From EWBNEU_Wiki

The Los Planes Story

To read more about this project please see the most recent report from June 2007. PDF

Los Planes is a village located in the Yoro District of Honduras. Many of the 116 people living in this village are descendants of the indigenous Toulupans Indians. The village is located 35 minutes by truck outside of El Rosario, a larger village with population of approximately 900 people. The families in Los Planes currently get the majority of their water from streams located below the village. They also have a source in the hills above the village, which is connected to a distribution system that serves some of the houses. However, this source is insufficient and provides only a trickle of water for a few hours each morning. Both of these sources have also been found to be contaminated.

The people of Los Planes are facing many problems stemming from a lack of clean water. Without enough water to irrigate their crops many of the villagers cannot provide enough food for their family. As a result many villagers report going without food two to three days a week. Malnourishment is the source of many other health problems in the village. Agriculture is normally the main source of income in this area, so without healthy crops the villagers also cannot afford medicines.

Many years ago, the Honduran government hired engineers to build a water supply line that connected Los Planes to the neighboring village of La Reinada. According to many of the villagers in Los Planes this system did not supply a sufficient amount of water. Since then, the supply line has been severed by one of the communities over Los Planes refusal to pay a tax to the non-indigenous people of La Reinada for the upkeep of the water system, although the details of this incident are not clear.

Agreements between the two communities about sharing a water system have since been reached with the help of the local non-profit organization Americans Caring Teaching and Sharing (ACTS), which has been working in this area for over 20 years. With this agreement, the Northeastern University chapter of Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-NEU) began collecting data for the design of the new system.

EWB-NEU has been working in this area since 2005 when they first met the people of Los Planes. On their next trip to the area EWB-NEU acquired data necessary to design a water distribution system for Los Planes.

After acquiring the necessary data and interviewing the villagers, the team concluded that the source used by La Reinada to be the only viable option. This source is about two miles from Los Planes with a maximum vertical distance of 1090ft. The terrain in this area is very steep and rocky at times. Pictures from 2006 Los Planes site assessment

With the data collected during the assessment trip the EWB-NEU design committee worked throughout the 2006-2007 academic year. Based on hydraulic calculations the committee decided that the system installed by the Honduran government could not be salvaged. The major reason for this was due to the amount of head loss caused by the small diameter of the pipe. EWB-NEU calculated the diameter of the pipe needed to be 1-1/2 in., whereas the old system used 1/4 in. pipe.

Due to the size of this project, the construction was separated into two major phases. The first phase was to install the pipeline from the source to the village. In the village a single community tap will be used until the next phase is implemented. In the second phase, a distribution system will be built in the village to supply each house with an individual water tap. In each phase the majority of construction will be done by the people of Los Planes, although EWB-NEU will hire a mason to lead construction of the tanks.

Due to the drastic difference in elevation along the route multiple pressure break tanks (rompacargas) must be installed to keep a safe working pressure in the pipe. At two points along the route the pipeline crosses a ravine, each about 30ft deep and 100ft across. At these points a suspension bridge is used to elevate the pipeline. In the village the community tap will be used for drinking water as well as doing laundry.

During the second phase of this project the team plans to build a reservoir tank in the village. A distribution system will be installed from this point to supply the houses with their own tap.

Files

Assessment Report

Phase 1 Implementation