We are moving forward with the drinking water and irrigation projects in Bolivia. The project application has been submitted and we expect it to be approved any day now. Earlier this month we received notice about a possible grant opportunity for water related projects in Latin America. This was discussed during our first Bolivia Project Team meeting and a consensus was obtained that we should apply.
Our thoughts are simply this; if we can get the money to conduct the site assessment trip in January or February then it might be possible to complete the design activities in time for a Summer 2009 implementation. This would accelerate the project timeline a full year!
Another bit of good news. The $500 gift from ITT Corporation was delayed in getting here. Now that does not sound like good news but in reality it was. Boeing has recently announced a 2-times matching grant for donations. Our $500 will thus garner another $1,000 for EWB. Exactly how much of that we will get is unknown at the moment.
The grant application has been completed and submitted. We put together a one-page summary of the project which may be accessed here: Zuncallo Summary and we actually have some pictures too! Mike Keyse from our partners in Bolivia, Engineers In Actions, sent me some pictures that he had taken earlier. These pictures are in the same valley as Zuncallo but they were not able to get all the way to the community which is apparently a little further up (down?) the valley. They are however, very representative of the conditions we will encounter in Zuncallo.
