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September 2012
Dear BPD Friends,
Using cisterns to collect rainwater is old technology used by Mayans hundreds of years ago and still potentially useful for communities that don’t have access to an underground water source. In 2007, we built a rainwater harvesting system in Pacoxpon, constructing collection tanks for every home. String pumps (pictured here) manufactured by a local NGO out of recycled bicycle parts pump the water from the cistern to a tap. Although successful, this system was expensive to construct. Recently, Mike Barbee a graduate environmental engineering student from the University of Colorado worked with our staff to build a prototype of a new, less expensive collection tank. His skills and knowledge allowed us to reduce the construction costs from $1,100 to $770 (a 32% decrease) even though the tanks are five cubic meters bigger than the old design. His design makes it economically feasible to construct more rainwater harvesting systems in communities where no other water sources are available. With careful conservation, the water should last through the five-month dry season. The prototype is working well and will be monitored for several months to ensure it doesn’t leak. We hope to build similar cisterns in other homes and expand to several other communities without access to any water source. Your help would be greatly appreciated…each cistern costs about $770 to build and can make a huge difference to these families.
I’d like to thank all of you who responded to the plight of the people of Chichoy Alto that I described in my email letter a few weeks ago. Thanks in part to your donations they are going to be able to have enough to eat until the upcoming harvest.
If you would like to make a donation online, click on the “Donate” link below, or send a check payable to Behrhorst Partners for Development, 2411 S. Superior St., Milwaukee, WI 53207
Thank you,
Victoria WardPresident
Behrhorst Partners for Development
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