Chincha Background / History / and Needs:
Chincha is a community of farmers that have never had a very high standard of living. There have never been hospitals, proper schools, plumbing, or well maintained roads in the community. However, they were able to grow crops and band together to sell them at a reasonable price and bring money into the community. For a while, things were getting better and the community was slowly seeing their standard of living raised. However, shortly after they had built houses for everyone in the community a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck southern Peru in August of 2007 and destroyed nearly all of the homes in the community. Residents now reside in huts provided by USAID.

Also destroyed were 90% of the water holding tanks that the community used to store water in. Because there is no water distribution system in the community (and many places in Peru) the community buys water from water trucks and stores it in these tanks to be used later. The tanks are quite large and typically serve a couple households. However, with most of these destroyed, families buy water from the trucks and leave it in 55 gallon barrels on the roadside. Each family is limited to 2 barrels per week for drinking, washing and bathing though (if they can afford it.)

After the August ’07 earthquake there was also a decrease in groundwater quality due to a geological shift. A natural spring that community children used to swim in dried up and the water they use to irrigate their crops changed from fresh to brackish. Now every time farmers water their crops they are also putting small amounts of salt in the soil and ruining the quality of it.

EWB-UH Involvement:
We are still in the application phase for this project but we expect to have approval for a project in this area before summer so that we can include Peru in our Nicaragua site assessment this summer. After speaking with village elders during last winter break we decided that the highest priority for EWB-UH is to help to provide a continuous, dependable source of drinking water for the community and second to help to provide acceptable irrigation water for the farmers.

For the first task it may be possible to repair the destroyed storage tanks or, depending on funds, to drill a new well and install solar powered pumps to draw up water to distribute to the community. For the second task, both the community and EWB-UH would like to be able to use wastewater from the community to irrigate their crops. Of course, there are many projects beyond these first two and we envision many trips over the years and the development of a very strong and long-lasting relationship with the people of La Garita del Carmen.

There are several way to get involved in this project. To find out more, or get involved, contact or to get involved!!