May Project Status Update: A Landmark Recognition, a Proven Aquifer, and the Road to Construction
Some months, the work of bringing clean water to rural Peru looks like concrete and pipe. Other months, it looks like meetings, paperwork, and persistent knocking on doors. May was both — and in one community, it was something worth celebrating outright. Across VAVV's four active clean water projects in the Piura region, our Peru Projects and Programs Director, Ricardo Arbulu Guerra, along with our in-country team kept pushing, negotiating, testing, and organizing. The results are tangible: we are closer to construction in Las Mercedes KM11 than we have ever been, the aquifer in Las Mercedes has passed a rigorous 72-hour test with flying colors, La Merced continues its steady advocacy, and Totoral Bajo keeps building the data foundation its future system will need. Read on for the full picture.
A Historic Recognition and Final Steps Before Construction
Las Mercedes KM11 (approx. 1,200 people) — ON TRACK
This month, something happened in Las Mercedes KM11 that the community has been working toward for a long time: on May 29, the Municipality of Piura officially issued the Recognition Resolution for the JASS — the community's Water and Sanitation Service Management Committee. This isn't a bureaucratic footnote. Official recognition by the municipality is the legal foundation that allows the community to own, operate, and sustain their own water system for generations. It is the moment a community stops being a recipient of aid and becomes the rightful steward of its own infrastructure.
Getting here required persistence. Throughout May, VAVV met with the Municipality of Piura multiple times to resolve outstanding questions about the official recognition process — meetings that weren't glamorous but were absolutely necessary. At the same time, the Water Committee continued its weekly coordination sessions with VAVV, refining maintenance and operations procedures, system management practices, and the financial controls that will keep the system running long after the ribbon is cut.
On the engineering side, VAVV spent the month addressing and fully complying with the design observations submitted by the Regional Government of Piura, incorporating their architectural and technical recommendations into the project design. This is the kind of detailed, unglamorous work that construction depends on.
Looking ahead: In the first week of June, VAVV will deliver the finalized design adjustments to the Regional Government, and the JASS will complete its formal registration in Public Records — the last administrative step before bid-phase services can formally launch. In the fourth week of June, VAVV and the Regional Government will meet to finalize bid-phase logistics and the plan for contracting a construction team, and the community will purchase a GPS and alarm system for the Water Tanker Truck to strengthen security and accountability. Construction is no longer a distant goal — it is the next chapter.
The Aquifer Has Spoken — the Answer Is Yes
Las Mercedes (approx. 1,200 people) — ON TRACK
In Las Mercedes, May delivered one of the most important technical milestones this project has seen: a 72-hour pump test, conducted by a local contracted hydrogeologist, confirmed that the aquifer beneath the community has the volume and recharge capacity needed to support a community well — sustainably, for generations to come. That's not a small thing. Before you drill a well that 1,200 people will depend on, you need to know the earth beneath you can deliver. Now, we know it can.
Alongside the pump test, community leaders continued gathering signatures throughout May to finalize the incorporation request submitted to Public Records — the legal step that will allow the community to formally receive the easement and hold the project in their own name.
These two tracks — technical validation and legal incorporation — are the twin pillars that everything else rests on, and the month of May held advances for both.
Looking ahead: In the first week of June, VAVV will conduct a topographic survey to gather the elevation and ground data needed to engineer the well and associated infrastructure precisely. In the second week of June, the formal engineering design process kicks off. The community will simultaneously follow up with Public Records to receive their Incorporation Record and register the easement, completing the legal groundwork. For a project that began with geoelectrical surveys and a blank page, June marks the start of true engineering.
Steady Advocacy in the Face of a Long Road
La Merced (approx. 200 people) — DELAYED
La Merced remains delayed by land rights challenges, and we won't pretend otherwise. But delayed does not mean dormant. Throughout May, village leaders visited the offices of both the Regional Government of Piura and PECHP — the regional hydraulic and irrigation authority — to press their case for the allocation of private lands and property rights in favor of the community. This advocacy work is slow, but it is the only path forward that leads to a durable, legally secure water system.
We want to be honest with our supporters about why La Merced takes longer: the community's future water infrastructure requires passing through land that isn't theirs yet. Securing those rights through proper legal channels — rather than shortcuts — is what VAVV's approach demands, and it's what makes our projects last.
Looking ahead: Throughout all of June, village leaders and Regional Government officers — including the Deputy Manager of International Technical Cooperation — will advocate together before PECHP for the formal adjudication of private property rights in the community's favor. The community will continue meeting with PECHP, the Regional Government, and the Ministry of Agriculture, while working in parallel to incorporate as a private legal entity capable of receiving easements and signing legal agreements. VAVV will coordinate each of these meetings. The work is slow but it matters nonetheless.
Building the Picture, Piece by Piece
Totoral Bajo (approx. 800 people) — ON TRACK
Totoral Bajo is the youngest of our four active projects, and May was a month of continued, careful groundwork. Community leaders kept providing VAVV with detailed information about the demographics and geography of the community's six distinct, unconnected sectors — data that is essential for designing a river-based surface water system that actually serves each part of this geographically complex community. Unlike our other projects, Totoral Bajo has no viable underground water source, which means the eventual system must draw from the river and be designed around the community's real terrain, demand, and future growth.
This month, VAVV also continued conversations with local volunteer engineers who may support the data collection process — a potential partnership that would deepen technical capacity and local ownership from the very beginning.
Looking ahead: Throughout all of June, community leaders will continue providing maps, population demographics, land rights information, and long-term community development plans. VAVV will soon lead efforts for deeper data collection on water use demand and river capacity — the two variables that will ultimately determine the size, location, and design of the future system. Every data point gathered now is a decision made wisely later.
Looking Ahead and a Moment to Be Part of It
May reminded us that progress is rarely linear, but it is always cumulative. A Recognition Resolution signed on May 29. A 72-hour pump test that confirmed an aquifer is ready. Village leaders walking into government offices, again, because their community deserves clean water. Data being patiently collected in a community that doesn't yet know what its system will look like, but trusts that VAVV will help them figure it out.
This work requires engineers — people who understand hydrology, community systems, and how to turn field data into infrastructure that lasts. Right now, VAVV is just about $5,000 away from a $100,000 fundraising milestone that will allow us to hire the engineering support needed to bring 2 to 3 communities like these across the finish line. If you've been watching this work unfold month after month and wondering when the right moment is to give — this is it!
And if you want to see this work with your own eyes, consider joining us on our upcoming Mission Trip and Pilgrimage to Peru — a chance to walk alongside these communities and witness True Water, True Life becoming real.
