» El Salvador - Colonia Esmeralda

Overview

Colonia Esmeralda is a community of approximately 300 residents. It is located on the southeast edge of San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador. Many of the current residents relocated there during the Salvadoran Civil War. Over time, the community developed from a hillside squatter town to a permanent neighborhood. Due to its history, this community never obtained the civil infrastructure that would normally be provided by a municipality. As a very appropriate piece of symbolic evidence, the paved road access ends just before the main road starts to enter the upper half of the community.

When community members first contacted Engineers Without Borders, they had several infrastructure needs. First was the current community well. Its shallow depth and low output during the dry season made a new well a necessity. Second was the main road into the upper half of the community, which was slowly eroding away each rainy season. Third was the lack of sanitation services in the lower third of the community. Working together with the community, the local municipality, and Rotary Clubs in both San Salvador and Houston, EWB-Central Houston was able to help the community obtain each of these critical pieces of infrastructure.

Community Well

The existing community well was hand dug and 38 meters deep. It had experienced problems of low output since the earthquake of 2001. During the dry season of 2005, the community had to ration water because the well could not produce on a daily basis. Previous attempts had been made to dig the well deeper, but there was a large rock at the bottom, halting further progress. The possibility of dynamiting the rock was turned down by the community directive board, for fear of collapsing the well and creating greater problems.

Initially, there was a failed drilling attempt in the summer of 2006 that resulted in no costs incurred. Afterward, the Rotary Club of San Salvador Sur helped the EWB-Central Houston project team locate another driller that could finish the well. In the winter of 2006, the well drilling was completed successfully. The final drilling depth was over 80 meters and the well drilling operator commented that there was no need to drill further, because they had essentially reached “a giant underground lake”. This well is currently connected to the existing piping network and it has replaced the old well as the community’s main water supply.

Erosion Control Wall

Since its inception, the main road in the hillside community of Colonia Esmeralda had suffered from erosion problems. Each year during the rainy season a little bit more of the roadway would erode away. In addition, during the rainy season the road was often treacherous to vehicular traffic. Some cars had previously fallen off the roadway, landing close to a home below. The community had placed various grasses and plants at the edge of the road, hoping the roots would prevent erosion, but they had unsatisfactory results.

After completion of the community well, construction work began on the erosion control wall. This wall was created with local construction materials and practices in mind. The overall length of the wall is approximately 25 meters long and it is almost 5 meters high at one end. With assistance and oversight from local engineers, this section of the project was completed on schedule. In addition to the wall, a concrete staircase was also constructed. This staircase allows community members a safer alternative to the often muddy and slippery footpaths. It also allows children in the upper part of the community safe access to their elementary school in the lower part of the community.

Sanitation Pipeline

The lowest third of the community of Colonia Esmeralda had never had access to sewer services. This resulted in community members dumping waste in the street for it to runnoff downhill. With an elevation below the existing local sewer connections, the only hope was to connect to another sewer line several hundred yards down a ravine. Previously, the community had petitioned the local municipality on several occasions, but had not seen any resulting construction.

Due to the magnitude of the project, a separate EWB-Central Houston project team was formed. This team made an assessment trip to visit the community and began working on initial plans for a sewer pipeline. It seemed clear that given the proper time to plan and implement, this project team would be successful. During this time, the community directive president approached an EWB-Central Houston member asking for help in writing a new letter to petition the municipality. This new letter was successful and the municipality completed the project independent of EWB-Central Houston. Afterward, several community members expressed their belief that the presence of an outside NGO had helped in motivating the municipality to action.