SHI: Safe Drinking Water for 20,000 Rural Families

Clean and safe drinking water is more important than ever, especially during the COVID-19 global pandemic as articulated by this IFPRI article. Self-Help International has been working to provide safer drinking water to rural Nicaraguan communities by way of CTI-8 chlorinators, which add chlorination to existing water sources with chlorine tablets. The chlorine kills a lot of the waterborne bacteria that can cause acute diarrhea, significantly reducing the incidence of acute diarrheal disease so families can lead healthier, more productive lives.

Until 2019, Self-Help supplied sodium-based chlorine tablets to communities; however, in 2019 the Nicaraguan government required a switch from sodium hypochlorite tablets to calcium hypochlorite tablets. Unfortunately, sodium hypochlorite tablets are three times the cost of calcium hypochlorite tablets, and as Self-Help began making the switch in chlorine, communities served by Self-Help expressed that the cost was a barrier to chlorination. 

Communities’ cries for more inexpensive chlorine were exacerbated by the global pandemic, especially for those communities that wanted to acquire more chlorine tablets in advance to stock up in case of emergencies. Program Officer Orlando Montiel reported that approximately 50% of the consistently chlorinating communities reported having trouble affording the new tablets. Whereas sodium-based tablets cost 300 cordobas ($8.61 USD) per month per community, the new calcium-based tablets would cost a community 1000 cordobas ($28.71 USD) per month - more than triple the former cost.

Recognizing that social safety nets are critical more than ever during the ever-present global pandemic, Self-Help agreed to implement a 20% subsidy for chlorine tablets for all communities requesting chlorine.

The decision was made for two key reasons: first, because as Orlando explains, the local Water and Sanitation Committees (CAPS) that manage the chlorinators are “passers-by in their management positions and this happens a lot in rural communities. The finances of the [water committees] depend on the users - that is, on the payment made by people living in the community for the water service received. This payment can vary greatly and become delinquent. If the service level indicators of the water are deficient, the user population complains and refuses to pay for the received water service.” 

He adds, “If the rate (cost) for water service is high in relation to the economic conditions of the community's population, the CAPS will probably have trouble raising enough money to manage and maintain the aqueduct. The default gradually increases until it becomes unable to maintain the aqueduct and therefore its collapse.” 

It is important to Self-Help that the communities continue chlorinating their water especially during a crisis, so the subsidy was offered as a way to show communities the importance of continued chlorination. 

The second reason for offering the subsidy was simply to help communities offset the cost of chlorination. Of the 99 chlorinators installed by Self-Help and serving communities (as opposed to businesses or other entities), the number of households per community ranges from 17 to 1491. In total, those 99 chlorinators serve 14,488 households, averaging 146 households, with a median of 92 households. Using the median number of 92 families, the former tablets’ cost of 300 cordobas per month is 3.26 cordobas per family per month, or about US $0.10, which does only increase to about US 0.32$ per month (1000 cordobas per month is 10.9 cordobas per family per month). While this is a large percentage increase, a 22-cents-per-month cost may seem insignificant.

However, it’s important to note that, as Orlando explained, “We must consider that families will not only pay for the chlorinator and the payment of chlorine tablets every month, but they must also pay for the operation, maintenance and administration of the community water system.”

“This includes the following: stationery, receipt book, office supplies, etc.; payment for electric energy, if the pipeline is a MABE (well with electric pumping); the plumber's salary; cleaning materials and supplies; tools; the purchase of pipes and pipe repairs; gasoline if they use a power plant to pump the water to the battery; payment of cleaning of catchments; purchase of chlorine; purchase or repair of a submersible pump; payment of transportation; and above all, create an available fund for the replacement of the hydraulic infrastructure when its operational life is over. In many rural Nicaraguan pipelines, its operational useful life has ended,” Orlando said.

Ultimately, both Self-Help and communities are happy for the 20% chlorine tablet subsidy being offered during the pandemic. Not only is it saving the average community nearly $6 USD per month, it is, more importantly, a clear message to communities that clean water is critical and that Self-Help will support communities in whatever way possible to ensure they continue chlorinating their water.

64-year-old Guillermo serves as the Water and Sanitation Committee (CAPS) maintenance technician for his community, Cruz Verde, which is 25 km (approx. 15 mi) from the Self-Help International Nicaragua office.

Guillermito (“Little Guillermo,” as he’s known throughout the community) has eight children with his wife, Alejandra. They also have three grandchildren. Guillermito and Alejandra have lived in Cruz Verde for more than 20 years, and their entire family drinks and uses the water that comes from a gravity aqueduct that the non-profit Water, Sanitation, and Community Organization Programme (PASOC) built in 1999. 

Guillermito served seven years directing and organizing Cruz Verde’s CAPS. The committee mainly consisted of women, including his wife Alejandra, who elected him to serve as the committee coordinator responsible for representing the CAPS and community to the project engineers who were installing the aqueduct.

On a recent visit to Cruz Verde, Guillermito and Alejandra wanted to tell Self-Help's Clean Water Program staff the story of their commitment to the work of their community’s CAPS:

“I always accompanied the engineers and technicians who were carrying out the aqueduct project. I worked with a group of mostly women from the community because the women worried the most about having water access in their homes,” Guillermito said. “Women bear most of the burden of limited water access because they are the ones who have to travel long distances to bring water to the house or to wash clothes in a creek or river.

“When the truck arrived carrying the PVC pipe to build the aqueduct, I remember that the women and their older children unloaded the truck first. The men in the Cruz Verde were reluctant to collaborate in unloading the truck with the materials, so the women had to do it,” Guillermito added.

“Us women formed three groups to go house by house at night to try to convince the men to help lower the pipes out of the truck,” Alejandra said. “But the men hid quietly from us, and they left for their farms very early the next morning because they did not want to help. 

“The women were in the meetings with the engineers for the project because the men were absent,” Alejandra said. “We agreed that we would be in charge of collaborating on the project, which irritated the men. In the end, that motivated the men to get involved with us and the project.”

“For seven years, there was no need to formally charge community members for the water fees. If a problem arose or the water system needed maintenance, the CAPS visited house by house to ask community members for help and voluntary financial contribution,” Guillermito said.

“After seven years, we needed to find another natural source of water to attach to the catchment and conduction pipe to the water distribution tank,” Guillermito said. “This was when we had to start charging a fee for the water service that reached the homes of people in the community. 

“Currently, the rate for water service is C $ 30 cordobas ($1 USD) per month for each house. There are 150 houses that have water service in the community. The service is divided into 4 sectors so that we all have water at different times of the day,” Guillermito said. 

“I am not a CAPS manager - I just do the plumbing and maintenance,” Guillermito said. “The people and the members of the CAPS leadership look for me when any problems arise in the water system. I never refuse, because I am committed to helping to keep the water available in this community.

“Every time a pipeline failure happens, I repair it. If water isn’t reaching people’s houses, I check the chlorinator, the chlorine tablets, the catchment, and the water source. I almost always participate in all CAPS activities and the trainings provided by Orlando, Self-Help’s Water Program Officer,” Guillermito said.

“I am always at the service of the community so that we all have water,” Guillermito said.

Guillermito and Alejandra are natural leaders and committed to the Cruz Verde community. This community has been using the CTI-8 chlorinator and chlorine tablets since 2011, which were supplied by Self-Help International’s Clean Water Program.

Guillermito is always open to Self-Help’s advice and technical monitoring, he is the contact with the people of this community, and he and his wife are water heroes.