Over and Out, for now..

Having never actually brought this blog to a close, it was brought to my attention last week whilst interviewing for this year's volunteers that I should really give a finishing summary of how things ended up.  So here I am, back in Scotland in April 2010, again tasked with the challenges of consultancy engineering and now four months on from the end of the PRODECI placement.

In the past months I have given interviews to magazines and written some reports for my various sponsors about my time in Ecuador, so now for any online readers still out there, I now aim to provide a concise debrief from a very enjoyable and successful six months!

Community Footbridge, Pamplona, Intag
Article from Bridge Design and Engineering (March 2010) click here

In 1997, the El Niño weather phenomenon caused massive floods throughout Ecuador. In Pamplona, Intag, an important footbridge was washed away: separating the community in two halves. The community quickly rebuilt a structure in its place from felled tree logs and local timber, which after twelve years had deteriorated and become unstable.

After some years of requests for funding, the community secured funds for a new footbridge from the Inter American Development Bank. The community sought help from the NGO PRODECI, who provided the president with a design of a standard footbridge that had been produced by Ecuadorian engineers some years earlier. Without the engineering capabilities, PRODECI could offer only very limited help.

In the summer months (April-October) the Rio Pamplona has shallow parts where it is possible to cross by wading. The majority of the children who attend the community school live on the other side of the river, and crossed each day in this manner. In winter (November-March) the river becomes a torrent, and children were too frightened to cross, so school attendance was dramatically down.

"We cross by going through the water. The bridge has a lot of broken parts on the deck, and we are scared to cross. In winter, we have to use the bridge. Some of us help each other by holding hands"
Child of Pamplona's Primary School

A secondary motive to replace the bridge was to improve links for agriculture, which is essential to the community in Pamplona. In the winter months cattle cannot cross the river, and produce can’t easily be brought over the river.

Mountainous Landscape and Tropical Climate of Pamplona, Intag

Mules are commonly used for transportation in the steep terrain,

in this case to bring deck timbers down from the mountainside

Over the course of three months, I took on the project management of the footbridge, first reviewing and modifying the standard bridge design to suit the site conditions, then producing construction drawings, and buying the remaining materials and tools needed. I contracted a skilled labourer to oversee the construction of footings and concrete columns, and to teach the local community basic construction methods. This proved beneficial in later stages where the men of the community constructed all of the remaining bridge works: gabion baskets, concreting and earthworks to stabilize river embankments, then installation of the cable and deck.

The successful completion of the bridge has given the community a secure crossing over the Rio Pamplona. The provision of this bridge should result in improved education levels with higher primary school attendance and a betterment of the local economy, especially due to the ability of farmers to cross with produce.


"The solidarity shown by EWB-UK has made the people from Pamplona gain incentive and promote themselves. As well as the technical aspects, the volunteers have considered the human aspects. The people are sharing the communal work, they are taking their children to see what is being built, and they are seeing that the whole scene is changing completely. More than anything the children are happy to have a safe place to cross, after being abandoned for so many years"

Ruth Almeida, Coordinator of Intag Area for PRODECI

Community members "test-load" their new suspension footbridge

September in a BLOG

After a September free of blog posts, it should come as no surprise that it was a busy month out here in the subtropics. I spent the most part of the time in Intag, driving between our various project sites and making good progress working with the Inteñan Communites. I also found time to get some motorbiking in, struggle up a volcano of 4630m, advance with the Spanish subjunctive tense, and get invited to various parties with the locals.

Let me try and fill in the blanks and share what is going on in a few of our projects.

Water Studies, Selva Alegre, Intag

Selva Alegre is one of the hotter and tropical parts of Intag whose mountains wear out the best hiking boots and quickly get the fitness levels up on a post weekend Monday morning. Typically we drive our 4x4 as close as we can to a community, and hike to their homes which can often take a few hours. Accompanied by the president of Selva Alegre, Don Vladimir, we speak to the families about where they currently get their water, the problems associated, and how contaminated water may be affecting the health of their children.

During the past weeks we undertook social studies of the water use and technical studies of the topography, then planned how nearby streams could provide a water capture point, discussed where the necessary sedimentation and treatment tanks could be sited, and then how a network can be distributed throughout the community.

We are now preparing a report to apply for funding from the local government, for the system to be constructed in due course. Next year´s EWB volunteers may well find themselves going over our tracks and realising our studies with the construction of these systems.

HidroIntag - HydroPower as an alternative to Mining

When I arrived here and PRODECI learned that I had studied plenty about Hydroelectic Power in my Master´s year at Glasgow, they were quick to introduce me to Denis Laporta, founder and coordinator of Hidrointag. At the moment, Ecuador´s energy demand is 2750MW, and due to its production shortfall, I am told that all of the energy in the North of Ecuador is imported from Colombia. Intag is an area ideally suited to hydroelectric development, with its sparse population, mountainous valleys, and plentiful rainfall.

This is a real opportunity for Ecuador to become fully energy independent with a clean alternative energy source. It is the intention of Hidrointag to develop 9 hydro systems varying in scale from 5MW to 60MW over the next ten years. Mariam and I are assisting Hidrointag with topographical and geological site studies of the CHALGUAYACO site, advising on the optimisation of the dam and ancillary works, and undertaking preliminary technical design, costing and drawings.

Advancing their technical design in my remaining months here will allow them to apply to the EU for funding, with the aim of construction starting in 2010. The communities of Intag are optimistic that Hidrointag´s projects will give them a real alternative to the exploitative mining industry as a road to their betterment. In the coming weeks we aim to get some technical designs down on paper and then we are due to present our ideas to El Ministerio de Obras Publicas (Ministry of Public Works).

Suspense in the Bridge Construction

Currently, the school children in Pamplona, Selva Alegre, cross the Río Pamplona (River Pamplona) by a makeshift bridge structure (felled tree logs with timber boards for a deck) or those too scared, wade through the river. November to April in Ecuador sees an entire change in the climate with heavy rains akin to those in my native land of Scotland. The river becomes impassable by foot, communities are cut off and school attendance drops.

With a budget of $10,000 and some rough drawings from the local government, I visited the site, and set out to create an improved design, contract a reliable Maestro (Building Contractor), and oversee the construction. Two weeks later and with $3 of my budget spent on a copy of AutoCad 2010, I had designed, drawn and costed the bridge and was ready to get our workers onto site.

The bridge is currently in the process of being built, and progress is going well. Mariam and I have organised for a Minga (a collective community work, in exchange for a free lunch) to be undertaken next week to gather stones and for us to teach them how to construct Gabions to protect their bridge foundations. As it happens Rafael Correa´s government is also on a bit of a construction splurge and have snapped up all the gabion mesh in the country. We are really keen to finish the bridge before the big rains arrive, but it looks like this material shortage will give us a delay of at least a week.

Signing Off...

So in brief, work is going grand out here, and Intag is making the most of our skills for the projects they have prioritised. There are still challenges and frustrations, the main one being the complete lack of mobile phone coverage in the mountains here, which can result in a four hour drive to convey a message that in the UK would take four minutes. Working in a foreign language that I hardly spoke prior to arrival has not given me the problems I thought it might.

Most importantly I am learning about the social aspects of engineering. On a daily basis, I see the motivations of people to take responsibility for their own destiny, and to take their community development projects into their own hands. An example of this can be found in the lack of machinery for construction projects, which is unavailable both for reasons of cost and impractibility of transport. On the construction of the suspension bridge in Pamplona, I had programmed ten days for the foundation excavations. The community completed it in a day and a half, with the most advanced tool between them a mere shovel. Subsequently I was worried that struggling to find a scaffold platform would delay the construction of 4m tall concrete columns, and was frantically calling my contacts in the city to search for anyone willing to transport a platform to Intag. After visiting the site twice to apologise to the Maesto, he told me not to worry, and went ahead and built some platforms of his own, using local materials, and completed the concreting of the columns with the help of a chain of community members passing buckets between each other.

Hope everyone else is grand in their work, their life and their adventures. Photos to follow. Chat soon x

Progress by the Barrel Load..?

The economy of Ecuador is heavily reliant on petroleum, along with agriculture and tourism. The petroleum reserves are located in the vast Amazonian rainforest extents east of the central Sierra, known as the Orient. This is the region of the country where you will find sparsely populated indigenous groups, speaking traditional native languages, and living off the land as they have done for centuries.

These communities are having some real problems maintaining their livelihoods in the face of the bulldozers and oil drilling machines working their way through the rainforest. It is becoming clear that Ecuador is finding it difficult to strike a balance between accelerating its economic growth and maintaining progress in social and human development.

Physical Map of Ecuador. Three distinct regions run North to South: The Coast, The Sierra, The Amazon/Orient.

Spillages of crude oil are common in the Orient. In recent years there have been some twenty incidents each year, mostly attributed to technical faults and human negligence on the part of PetroEcuador. June this year saw one of the worst incidents of recent times where a leak of heavy metal liquid contaminated the underground aquifer. What was, until recently, a rich supply of geologically filtered water to the communities, could now require decades to return to a safe level of toxicity.

Newscutting from El Comercio, Quito and Ecuador national paper.

Rafael Correa , the first indigenous president of Ecuador, was recently voted in for a second four-year term. Despite the right wing propaganda in private mainstream media, he remains popular with both the city middle classes, and the remote poorer communities, who await his promises of social reforms.

It seems justified that his government is making the most of their natural resources in order to fuel economic development. This is essential to fulfill the social reforms that were promised. The problem as I see it, as is often the case in developing nations with natural resources, is the lack of supervision and control over the activities of self interested private firms such as PetroEcuador.

PetroEcuador Flag over La Mariscal, Quito

A large part of my work here involves the design and installation of small scale community water systems in Intag. Not only does potable water provision form a crucial part of the development of rural communities, it is also a basic human right, and a fundamental part of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

It is disappointing and frustrating that despite the work we are undertaking to further the quality of life of communities in Intag, in a neighbouring province just over 100 km away things are going in completely the other direction.

There seems little justification that this sustainable lifestyle, formed by the Amazonians over centuries, is the sacrifice that is being paid for the barrels of oil that may allow the government to fulfill its electoral promises.

Intag´s Water: In-Depth

The following is a summary of my notes that were taken during meetings and site visits in my first week working in Intag. I was accompanied by my project manager, Ian, and our skilled agronomist & off road driver, Paul, during the four day trip. Each community has an elected president who joined us in the meetings with the residents, where the purpose was to discuss the successes and failures of water supply systems that were installed over the past years by various contracted engineers.

San Luis, 28 July 2009
The first community meeting, held in the local school, was a positive one. After introductions the residents informed us how their water system was functioning well, they were chlorinating the reservoir tank regularly, and they were effectively managing the maintenance of the system. Each household in this community contributes $1.50 per month which is shared between the maintenance operator, and a contingency kitty for materials and repairs.

The residents told how they had noticed an improvement in health in their children, who had previously consumed water contaminated with parasites. School attendance was up and an improvement in general health was noted.

The main obstacle facing the continued success of the San Luis water system centres on preserving the land surrounding the spring capture. At present a 400 sq.m perimeter protects the spring, within which no deforestation is permitted. The community has agreed to purchase a larger area of land above the spring in order that the landowner cannot cut down the trees that are crucial to the longevity of the water spring.

Don Carlos, the landowner, has agreed to the purchase... subject to the condition he can cut down his one last prize tree that towers over the slopes below. How to attach a cash value to a tree, considering its massive value to the community, is a discussion that will continue.

Santa Rosa, 29 July 2009
On the drive from Nangulvi Ian noted the development that has taken place even since this time last year. Santa Rosa is no longer a 6 hour walk from the nearest parking place, with the construction of a new road allowing us to reach far closer and take a 1 hour walk in. New electricity lines have been constructed over recent years and it seems clear that quality of life here is improving with these advances.

The water system in Santa Rosa is functioning reasonably well, save that sedimentation and blockage from leaves seems to be an issue during winter. We suggested some improvements at the spring capture point that should improve things.

Barrio Nuevo, 30 July 2009
A small meeting in the primary school with the teachers and the system operator highlighted some problems. Whilst there was adequate flow entering the system, those households upsteam found themselves without water for long periods during each day. Word had got to the school that one downsteam household was leaving the tap open for entire days at a time in order to water the crops and the cattle.

In a system that is designed specifically for treated water for human consumption, the social side to engineering solutions is key. To ensure shared responsibility and accountability, each household´s use is metered. We visited the accused household and were welcomed in to have a look around.

After a bit of a chat Ian demonstrated that leaving the downsteam tap open, due to its higher pressure, meant that households upsteam would be without water. After we checked their meter and did some quick calculations the household were surprised to find they had used 8 years worth of water in 1 year. Encouraging monthly monitoring by the system operator should ensure that this does not happen in future, and that households are collectively responsible for the water they consume.

Quinde Km 18, 31st July 2009
There are two systems installed at Quinde but only one currently in operation. With its higher altitude of 9000ft the climate here is cooler and the cloudforest means that little sunlight gets through during the day. After a meeting in a chilly local hall with Don Aurelio and Don Segundo we visited the systems and noted the main issues they were having.

Some resistance to chlorinating was evident, which meant that the water quality was not much better than had been supplied previously. Part of the reason for this was the misunderstanding that white bubbles in their water was, in fact, due to turbulence and dissolved air, not as a result of treating with chlorine. It was pointed out to the residents that swimming pools are clear as crystal, and that chlorinating in other villages had resulted in a marked improvement in health.

The second system was capturing sufficient water at its inlet but delivered next to nothing to its reservoir tank. This was a result of the construction of a new autopista highway, whose construction had caused ruptures and leaks in the pipe at various locations.

Back in the Office...
The plan for the coming weeks will involve further studies on these water systems and the design and construction of improvements where necessary. What is encouraging is the dedication of the maintenance operators and the committment of each of the communities to understand how their system functions, and the processes they need to put in place to ensure their sustainability.