Amulunco Water Project – El Salvador

Cantón Amulunco, Municipality Santiago Nonualco, Department La Paz, El Salvador

Community Description
Amulunco is a small, rural community located in the foothills of active Volcano San Vicente, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, 80 kilometers southeast of the country’s capital, San Salvador.

About four hundred people make up the town and its surrounding areas. Like many rural Salvadoran communities, the majority of people live very modestly, working in agriculture. The main subsistence is the cultivation of corn, kidney beans, sorghum, fruit and livestock.

Although the community is very small, the school boasts an enrollment of around two hundred fifty students, most of whom walk or bus in from nearby towns. Fifteen years ago a highway was built right outside of Amulunco which led to a huge spike in population. The population growth has been vital to the town’s development, but has put a lot of stress on its natural resources.

Amulunco, ironically signifying “water source” in the Mayan language Nauhatl, shares a water source with two other, similarly-sized communities.

Each town is divided in two or three sectors, each receiving running water one day a week for a few hours. This is often not a sufficient amount of water to sustain the average Salvadoran family for an entire week. Most people are forced to haul water or wash their clothes in a river a few kilometers away.

There are two, three-room schools in the community. (One was added after the population increase to house all of the students). Like the rest of the community, the schools only have running water once a week.

Each school had a water tank, but with the record-breaking rains that flooded El Salvador in October 2011, one of the water storage tanks fell and broke during the storms. The water tanks are/were connected to the pipeline, but are unable to fill up or store any water for later use. As they are the only source of water in the schools, water is used quickly to drink and wash hands.

Project Description
This project is to renovate the water system providing water to Centro Escolar Cantón Amulunco.

The broken water tank in one of the schools will be replaced. Filters will be installed in both tanks. Gutters will be installed to collect water from the roof and pipe it to the tanks, enabling the tanks to fill up with rainwater during the monsoon season.

The project will be implemented under the direction of the Asociacion de Desarrollo Comunitario, Cantón Amulunco.

Project Impact
This project will benefit the 250 students, 7 teachers, and 3 school cooks.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Mariel Frankl

Comments
With new filters and tanks full of rainwater, students will be able to wash their hands and have potable drinking water every day during the school year. In addition, the school “cafeteria” will have an ample supply of safe water to be used for cooking.

Dollar Amount of Project
$555.00

Donations Collected to Date
$555.00 + additional amounts.

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 – This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Rachel Rajput, of San Francisco, CA, USA, with the help of friends and family of Peace Corps Volunteer Mariel Frankl, with additional amounts for future projects.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Mariel of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Mariel and/or those of other PCVs in the country of service.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.