Mar '22 Project Status Update: Spring 2022 Mission Trip
This past March was a very special month for Vera Aqua Vera Vita; for the first time since 2019, VAVV got to send a team of missionaries from DFW into the rural communities of Piura, Peru to bring True Water True Life through service, education and camaraderie! In fact, this was the first time ever that VAVV had organized a volunteer group mission trip of this magnitude. In addition to 7 other missionaries both Jacob Niemeier, VAVV Founder & Executive Director, and Ricardo Arbulu Guerra, Peru Projects & Programs Director, traveled with the team and throughout the trip the VAVV staff got to meet with various partners and sub-consultants to advance various aspects of project & program work in Peru. With the group of missionaries on the ground in Piura, huge progress was made on the two active projects and in the community of Monte Castillo, where the water treatment facility that VAVV helped to put into operation has been running for 2 years!
Spring ‘22 Missionaries arrive in Peru (left to right): Mary Geddie, Prince Obegolu, Jacob Niemeier, Jonathan Hebert, Daniel Hux, Ricardo Guerra, Joseph Percy-Allen, Dalayna Marji, Kieran Teh. (March 10, 2022)
Stemming from VAVV’s corporate partnership with the University of Dallas (UD) and leveraging the passion and energy of the UD student club on campus, the Mission trip was composed of 5 undergraduates and 2 alumni of the University along with the two VAVV staff members mentioned above. A large majority of the missionaries had never been to Peru before, and though most were aware of the environmental, infrastructural and hygienic issues, actually seeing the harsh living conditions rural Peruvians were forced to survive in with their own two eyes was a whole different story. Visiting a few homes and their communities was an incredibly moving and humbling experience. The impact of the Mission’s work was truly realized when the Missionaries saw that without VAAV’s clean water system in Monte Castillo which started operations up in 2019, the community would be drinking water primarily from the irrigation canal which contains dirty, brown water with floating trash, animal debris, and to be sure many other unseen hazards and contaminants.
Spring ‘22 Missionaries walk alongside the irrigtation canal in Monte Castillo which was the community’s primary water source prior to the clean water system that VAVV helped to put into operation in 2019. (March 12, 2022)
This realization of the desperate need for clean water made the subsequent manual labor the missionaries did become so much more important - the Missionaries joined together with the community leaders and members of Las Mercedes KM11 and Cerro de Leones to break ground on construction for the two new water systems in those communities! Using pickaxes and shovels, working alongside and learning from their Peruvian brothers and sisters, the Missionaries dug through 1.5 ft of dirt, sand and rock to make way for a firm building foundation for the water treatment facility buildings for these two different communities. Back on the domestic side, the Planning and Engineering team has continued work on developing the detailed design & computer aided design construction plans in order to hire a contractor and fully commence construction in the coming months.
Missionaries, VAVV and staff volunteers, and community members and leaders get excited before breaking ground on construction in Cerro de Leones. (March 15, 2022)
Niemeier and Guerra, in addition to aiding in breaking ground on construction, got the chance to solidify additional planning efforts for various aspects of the project through meetings with the community leaders and local engineers, as well as held meetings to better understand necessary intermediary steps towards construction.
With Luis Solis, the topographic surveyor consultant VAVV has hired, they discussed the second phase of the staking process for both communities, which will entail marking particular points and boundaries to layout in the field the intended design. With R&G Consultants, they discussed the sustainability of using Drain Pajaritos as source water and how the ANA (National Water Authority) was likely to be quick in giving the project the green light with the help of the Piura Regional Government. With a few select engineers from the University of Piura, they discussed the feasibility of placing solar panels as means of powering the pressure main line and treatment facility in Cerro de Leones and concluded that solar panel energy supplementation would be less expensive in the long term.
Jacob Niemeier and Ricardo Arbulu Guerra meeting with engineers from the International Cooperation Agency within the Piura Regional Government to discuss strategic partnership efforts and funding plans for the two current projects. (March 11, 2022)
The Spring ‘22 Missionaries implemented Vera Aqua Vera Vita’s first ever Water and Sanitation Hygiene (W.A.S.H.) workshop for the community of Monte Castillo. This was done in Monte Castillo as a pilot implementation because of the established presence and level of trust made possible by the clean water system that VAVV helped put into operation having been in operation since 2019. This provided fertile ground for the community to already clearly understand the health benefits and value of accessible clean water leading increased receptivity and excitement about all the aspects of improved W.A.S.H. best management practices. Ricardo Arbulu Guerra, a native of Lima, Peru himself, led the 3-halfday workshop with help of the mission team. Various activities were used to enaged the community members from example of Solar Disinfection to clean cloth filtration to various waste management principals to the exciting Multi-Barrier Approach activity all of which helped reinforce the lessons being taught. The missionaries also had great fun playing and bonding with the many children present while their parents were learning important W.A.S.H. principals. The community was very engaged with each other, working together to understand the issues, and problem solving along the way!
See VAVV’s full program approach and more specifically view a complete version of the W.A.S.H. education workshop right here.
Ricardo Guerra leads the sanitation ranking activity during Monte Castillo’s W.A.S.H Workshop. (March 16, 2022)
The Mission Trip was so important not only for project progress, but also to provide for the rural communities of Peru the tools, support, and empowerment they need to both combat the global water crisis in their everyday lives, as well as to teach those principals to their children for generations to come. Vera Aqua Vera Vita is so excited for the progress made towards the eventual commencement of operations for two clean water systems in Cerro de Leones and Las Mercedes KM11 hopefully by the end of fall this year while at the same seeing W.A.S.H. education teaching & reinforcing best practices in Monte Castillo. Much has been accomplished but much work is still to be done because the need is far bigger than just a few communities, and yet, by serving diligently one community at a time we can slowly but surely bring about lasting, sustainable change!
