Children from the community of Puerto Pobre next to their water well and project personnel after having drunk water and washed their hair.
Eight families from the Community of Puerto Pobre in the Municipality of Bella Flor in the Department of Pando now have safe water for daily consumption
History:
Don Nicolás Chau, 45 years old, lives in the community of Puerto Pobre, in the Municipality of Bella Flor, located in the Province of Nicolás Suárez in the Department of Pando. In 1999, along with his family, he decided to move to a town called Puerto Rico in the Department of Pando, known in Bolivia as a place where politicians from the regimens of de facto governments were confined between 1971 and 1982.
After much effort and work Don Nicolás acquired a wooden shed in which t olive along with his family of five. Currently, he is a leader of the “Puerto Pobre” community where, along with other members of the board of directors, he has been working to improve the community which, during this year lost its crops to floods which also contaminated the lake from which they obtained their drinking water.
The Pando Post Emergency Project implemented by CARE in Bolivia works in coordination with the Municipal Governments of Cobija, Bella Flor, Santa Rosa de Abuná, San Lorenzo, Puerto Gonzalo Moreno, and the families of the communities affected by the floods this year. To date, along with these families, the organization has implemented activities in the community of Puerto Pobre, know better known as Puerto Alegre.
The 8 families that live in the community of Puerto Pobre, where Don Nicolás was born, were drinking water from the river and a small lake and neither is adequate for human consumption. In order to obtain relatively clean water they had to wait 12 hours for the mud and dirt to settle on the bottom of their water vessels which are generally 3 to 5 centimeters (ojo el documento en español dice centímetros, es correcto?) high. Currently they have a well which the families and project together have built, excavated and lined with brick and they are now drinking safe, easily obtained water. This well was built on community land; however, the owner of the wooden shed in which Don Nicolás lives appeared and complained the excavation was taking place on his land and threatened to destroy it with dynamite, which worried and upset the community. After a meeting between the families, the man claiming to own the land (Barranquero ) and project personnel, it was made clear that the well was situated on community, not private, land and that the water was to be consumed by the families in the community. Because Don Nicolás complained in defense of the community, the Barranquero has evicted him. However, he indicates that something positive can be found even in negative situations and now he is building a home on land assigned to him by the community and remains firmly committed to working to benefit his community and support projects such as those implemented by CARE in Bolivia because they ensure progress. Likewise, he expressed that he will continue to work on an application to change the community’s name from Puerto Pobre to Puerto Alegre.
What we are doing with the project:
• We support up to 400 families by supplying two supplemental food rations to cover deficiencies in their food security. These were delivered during the first week of October 2006.
• We have provided vegetable seeds, beans, corn and strips of plantain as well as technical assistance during planning to a total of 220 families whose gardens are currently growing.
• We are still working drilling wells, building protection for springs, constructing latrines, improving water systems and constructing another system.
Eight families from the Community of Puerto Pobre in the Municipality of Bella Flor in the Department of Pando now have safe water for daily consumption
