Pasochoa Water Project - Ecuador

The project as designed and presented by the board is a gravity flow system that would provide potable water and irrigation for three communities, approximately 350 families or 1500 individuals.  Currently the Santa Rosa de Cuendina community has no access to a sufficient and reliable water supply and therefore needs to rely on water that is trucked into the community during the dry season.  The San Luis community needs additional water to meet its potable water and agricultural needs and the Recinto Pasochoa community needs to enhance or extend the current water collection and distribution systems.   Although the primary need is for reliable potable water, hydrological and soil studies and the resourcefulness of the communities suggest that taking better advantage of the water resources available will make possible a variety of new agricultural and business opportunities and will greatly enhance the economic capacity of these communities.  Moreover the new national water law encourages communities to maximize the effective use of water resources through diversification of water allocations.

Part 1  Santa Rosa de Cuendina and San Luis

The Pasochoa Water Project consists of two parts.  The first part of the project will bring high quality water to the Santa Rosa de Cuendina community and augment the water supply to the San Luis community.  The plan is to bring water from an existing 4-inch supply line. (1) This line, which provides more than enough water to meet their needs, brings water from a source 17 kilometers away and was installed a few years ago through a collaborative effort of the two communities.   The first step of the project is to lay 500 meters of 4-inch pipe (2) to connect the water source to a new 150 cubic meter storage tank (3) that will be located above the San Luis community. This tank will store water for both communities.  The second step will be to build a smaller 60 cubic meter storage and distribution tank (4) above the Santa Rosa de Cuendina community and connect it to the large tank with 2.5 kilometers of 2-inch pipe (5).  The third step will be to lay the Santa Rosa de Cuendina water distribution system with approximately 7,000 meters of pipe (6) and three pressure release tanks (7); install the water purification system (8) and build three small collection tanks(9) to capture the rainy season spring water.  The estimated cost for this part of the project is $85,250.