Potable Water Expansion Project in Lemoa
UMR Students Travel to Guatemala
Hogar Del Ninos
The village of San Sebastian del Lemoa is also
home to the U.S. based humanitarian organization, Samaritan Hands, Inc.
supported orphanage called Hogar del Ninos. The orphanage is currently
home to 17 children ranging in age from 1 month to 18 years of age. The
orphanage is run by a staff of four individuals that care for the children
providing meals, schooling and lots of love.
The only utility the orphanage has is electricity.
Prior to the installation of a drilled well in March of 2002, the orphanage
used rainwater collected during the rainy season in cisterns for drinking
water and washing. During the dry season, water had to be delivered via
a tanker truck and placed in the cisterns. Due to the expensive nature
of the delivered water, the orphanage needed an alternative water supply.
Samaritan Hands provided funding, grants and aid for the installation
of a deep well, installation of a submersible pump and related piping
on the orphanage property in the Spring of 2002 which Dr. Elmore provided
assistance on. The well was drilled to approximately 800 feet below the
ground surface. The well water was piped to a large cistern at the orphanage
and now is the sole source of domestic water for the orphanage. Details
regarding the March 2002 work are presented at www.umr.edu/~elmoreac
The new water system provides a safe and sustainable supply of drinking water to the people of Lemoa. Samaritan Hands, EMAX Laboratories, Van Blarcom Foundation, Geoprobe, and UMR supported the work done on this trip.
Children of Lemoa with UMR student
Expansion of Hogar del Ninos water system
The expansion of the Hogar del Ninos water system
for use of the surrounding people of Lemoa took approximately 3 days to
complete and required the aid of local labor and the staff of the orphanage.
The expansion project began with the placement of a submersible pump in
the 9,000-gallon cistern that holds the water from the deep well, which
is located at the back of the orphanage. Once the submersible pump was
in place, a piping system needed to be installed to extend from the back
of the orphanage to the front where the public water spigot would be placed.
Local laborers built a cement-block pad and the students dug a trench
to the spigot to bury the water line.
Once the electrical was connected and the piping
was checked the system was ready for testing. As the local people and
children of the orphanage gathered around the children took the first
sips from the new water supply.
Construction in progress
For more information concerning this project, please contact:
Dr. Curt Elmore
Department of Geological EngineeringUniversity of Missouri-Rolla
1870 Miner Circle,
129 McNutt HallRolla,
MO 65409
Phone: (573) 341-6784
E-Mail: elmoreac@umr.edu
or
Samaritan Hands: Samaritanhands.org
Field testing and off-site laboratory samples were collected from the various drinking water sources (Lake Lemoa, springs and shallow wells) and analyzed for bacteria (field analysis), pesticides, PCBs, metals, volatile organic compounds (off-site laboratory) and several water quality parameters (pH, nitrate, ammonia).
· Bacteria were the only concern from the samples collected though
· Bacteria was not detected in the deep well that was part of the
expansion project.
