Location
Caserio Toreras, Department of La Union, El Salvador
Community Description
Caserío Toreras is a small community in the northeastern corner of El Salvador located on the Honduran border. It is made up of 40 houses with a population of 225, and is very rural and isolated. Only vehicles with four-wheel drive can enter the community when the road is dry.
The economy is made up of subsistence farming and cattle raising. 36% of the population are adults over the age of 24, 23% are adolescents between ages 15-24, 30% are children between ages 5-15, and 11% are children under 5 years old. The population is 46% male and 54% female.
One third of households still do not have electricity, and more than half do not have their own source of water.
Within the community there is a school, Centro Escolar Caserío Toreras. The school runs from kindergarten through sixth grade. There are three teachers and currently there are 54 students attending, all residents of Caserío Toreras.
The school currently has six flushable toilets. However, they are not serviceable due to poor conditions in the piping. Generally, water falls for several hours each morning, filling a tank, located next to the bathrooms. That water comes from a natural source and is carried by 550 meters of plastic tubes. There are then metal pipes that carry the water from the tank to each of the six toilets as well as two sink spigots.
The plastic tubes and pipes are currently in such poor condition that, because of leaks, hardly any water gets to the toilets. Almost all of the water is wasted, and within a few hours the tank is empty.
Project Description
This project is to replace the tubes that carry the water from the source to the school’s tank, as well as to buy several barrels in which to keep the water for flushing the toilets.
With this project, 550 meters of plastic tubes will be replaced with more reliable PVC pipes. With the PVC pipes the water will arrive from the source to the tank without leaks.
Two plastic barrels will be purchased and placed by the bathrooms. Instead of trying to fix all of the metal piping that runs underneath the bathrooms, the barrels will be filled with the water from the tank. This will allow the toilets to be flushed by pouring water into the toilets using buckets. It is a much simpler solution and the people are accustomed to flushing toilets in this manner.
A local community development organization, the ADESCO Crismo, will be in charge of the project. The members will install the tubes and supervise the project along with the teachers from the school.
Project Impact
The project will directly benefit the 54 students and 3 teachers at the Centro Escolar Caserío Toreras. In addition, it will serve the 168 remaining inhabitants of the community, as the school is used for all community meetings and events.
Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Tyler Dato
Comments
This problem resolves the critical problem of providing water for use in the bathrooms by utilizing the functional parts of the existing infrastructure, and replacing the segments necessary to make the system functional. Water in the bathrooms will have a significant positive effect on the hygiene and health of the students, teachers, and community.
Dollar Amount of Project
$555.00
Donations Collected to Date
$555.00
Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 – This project now has been fully funded through the generosity of The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.
We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Tyler Dato of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Tyler 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.