Jaslin talked about her day Tuesday, but my day started a
little differently. Rather than meeting up to visit the pumps at 8 AM, my team,
consisting of me, Sandy, and Martin headed up to the Head Tank to start a
study. Sam wanted to come too, but didn’t feel too good, so we sent her back to
sleep. The team was supposed to meet the fontañero (water system technician),
Manual, at 7 AM but was running a little late. At about 7:20 AM, the fontañero came
and grabbed us from Angel’s house to point out that the tank was overflowing
and the water was flowing all the way down to Angel’s street. We ran up to the
Head Tank and immediately started our study.
The point of the study was to try to calculate flow and
demand usage of each major pipeline in the community. We could then compare
these calculations to the population of the sector to try to figure out if one
sector was using an abnormally large amount of water. This would indicate the
leak we were trying to find. To simplify flow rate data calculations, we asked
Manual if we could open one valve at a time. The valves control which section
of pipeline the water of the Head Tank flows through. When we first asked
Manual to open Valve 4, the amount of water started decreasing. However, Manual
then asked us if he should turn on the pump from the Intermediate Tank. We said
yes, thinking it would give us a greater potential flow into the tank, but soon
discovered that the out-flow from Valve 4 was too low compared to in-flow from
all the combined sources. Basically, the water level started increasing and
flooding where we were standing; we had to jump off the Head Tank with laptops
in our hands to prevent anything from getting damaged.
The head tank tests involve using a tape measure to measure the level of water from the top of the tank. A measurement is taken every minute and entered into an excel file until the flow rate of the particular test appears linear, or steady.
We called Manual back and asked him to please open a
different valve and close the Intermediate Tank Pump. He came back and opened
valve 6 and then closed the pump, but no longer seemed too willing to go with
our idea of opening one valve at our time. Thus, valve 6 and 4 were now open.
After about an hour of taking measurements, we had Manual open Valve 2. Thus
our day continued until about 12 PM when all of Manual’s valves for the day
were tested. We took a break for lunch and agreed to meet the water committee
at 1 PM to do water meter readings of the ten water meters installed the day
before.
At about 1:30 PM the Water Committee took us from house to
house where the ten water meters were installed to do readings. Martin and I
had a lot of fun teaching the Water Committee members and fontañero how to read
the water meters. The team from the pump stations met up with us at the last
water meter reading.
After finishing the water meter readings, we headed back to
the Head Tank, which was now empty, to measure flow rates of each of the
incoming sources. To measure flow rate of the incoming sources, we bought a
red “5-gallon” bucket from a local store
in NSCI. We then used an empty gallon water jug to measure where five gallons
of water actually hit, and marked the line with sharpie and white-out. Then,
one pipe-source at a time, we time how long it takes the bucket to fill up to
the line. Thus, we have five gallons per a measured time, or volume per time =
flow rate!
A picture of the flow rate bucket test with Martin pictured next to our red bucket and a Water Committee member helping. Also notice vials full of water testing samples in Sam's hands on the left.
We also took the opportunity of the isolated input sources to
grab some water samples in vials for bacteria testing.
After finishing the flow rate testing, the team headed back
to Angel’s house, and Sam and Austin prepared the gels for the water samples we
took. After finishing, the students split into two teams, divied up the map of
NSCI, and went out to try to collect surveys. Team Ericka, consisting of me,
Jaslin, and Ericka, headed out to Chuicho, and Team Martin, consisting of
Austin, Sam, and Martin, headed out to Paxocol and Chuacruz. Giving out surveys
was difficult, as many shop owners said they did not live in NSCI, many
families would not open their doors, and some members of the community were not
very good at Spanish. We found it much more effective to offer to leave the
survey with the family and to come back to the following day to pick it up.
Team Ericka also accidentally stumbled upon Wendy’s house! Wendy is Angel’s
oldest daughter and got married and moved out last year.
The team headed back to Angel’s house only to notice that a
huge crowd and a lot of loud music was coming from the Municipality. The
community was celebrating its 15th anniversary of being in their new
location of Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan! At first, the team decided to try
to get some work done, but when actual fireworks started hitting the sky,
Martin called all the students out. Why are actual fireworks so amazing? Most
of the time in Guatemala the fireworks, or “bombs”, as they are literally
translated to, are kind of just rockets that go up into the air, make a gunshot
noises, and leave a cloud of smoke. To see colored flashes in the sky was
amazing. The fireworks drew us out of the house and toward the town center,
where a band consisting of 6 brothers and 6 cousins was playing. The band was
not local, and the locals did not seem to know how to react. Most of the town
just stood there staring, eating the free bread and coffee provided by the
municipality. However, our team found the music and the dancing to be fun and
enjoyable, and we had a good time that night, even if our grooving to the music
attracted some sideways glances from the locals.
Sandy and Dave found us at the concert, and after the band
finished we headed back to Angel’s for dinner. The team worked on calculations
and report work that night, before heading to sleep, with half the team
promised to meet Manual at the Head Tank at 5:30 AM the following morning.
~Neha