This project seeks to provide 2,160 people living in a rural Honduran community with access to safe drinking water. The project is a partnership between Agua Para el Pueblo (APP) and AguaClara, which seeks to improve drinking water quality in Honduran communities. The AguaClara team includes volunteers from Cornell University who produced the designs for water treatment plants. APP produces the structural designs, oversees the labor to build the plant, and trains the community water board.

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Construction of AgaClara water treatment plant

1) Construct a water treatment plant in Agualteca.
2) Enable 2,160 people to have access to safe drinking water.
3) Provide technical training to treatment plant operators as well as the community water board.
4) Train community members about the advantages of safe drinking water and how the technology works.
5) Promote community ownership of the plant.
6) Ensure that the plant is well maintained and that the project is sustainable.

APP is committed to ensuring economic and institutional sustainability. Technical training, capacity building, and community participation are essential to its model. To this end, APP provides comprehensive training to community water boards and plant operators to ensure that they can operate the water treatment plant efficiently, monitor and document performance of the system and the water quality, and provide maintenance as necessary.

Institutional Sustainability: The planning and preparation for the construction phase of the project involved a number of parties including the municipal government, the health center, the educational system, the community council and other for community development organizations. APP provides training for these stakeholders on the following topics: 1) water and local development, 2) Water contamination and its effects on health, 3) The water supply system, 4) AguaClara technology, 4) Management and operation of the treatment plant, 5) Rise in the tariff, 6) Accounting records of the water board, 7) The law regarding water and sanitation and the rules governing the water board and 8) Appropriate use of water-quality monitoring.

Economic Sustainability: The operation of a treatment plant incurs additional expenses that must be paid by the users. The most significant expenses are the salaries of a day operator and a night operator, the purchase of aluminum sulfate and chlorine (chemicals that the plant requires to function). To cover these costs, the water board must raise the water tariff that the users are currently paying to $3.00 per month. In addition to aluminum sulfate and the operator, savings for repair and maintenance costs and money to pay for technical support are included. In the future, AguaClara hopes to form an association of communities with treatment plants that will employ a technician to provide tong-term technical support to each community.

To ensure economic sustainability, the community must commit to raising the tariff once construction is finished. The commitment is made through an agreement between APP, the water board and all of the users at a general community assembly. The written agreement includes a monthly operating budget that the water board uses to operate and maintain the entire water system.

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