Titiri
Family Latrines, Health Education, and Community Potable Water System
Project Summary
Titiri is located in the Bolivian Altiplano, four hours drive from the small city of Oruro. For the past seven years, the town has maintained a cooperative artisan business that hand weaves traditional Altiplano textiles. Artesania Oruro predominantly sells rugs and clothes to tourists in Oruro and Bolivia's capital, La Paz (link to textile photos).
The cooperative
has improved Titiri's economy. The majority of the women are employed
and their earnings supplement potato crop and livestock income. The
community, however, is still impoverished- average annual income is
less than $1000. Even with the added profits, Titiri has been unable to
overcome the high costs of improving their basic sanitation
infrastructure and unreliable, unsafe drinking water. Currently,
Titiri's bathrooms are the fields and their drinking water is obtained
from a contaminated river whose flow dries during droughts.
By virtue of forming an artisan business, Titiri has demonstrated town organization and created an environment where families have incentive to stay in the country. These two qualities are primarily why TERRA has agreed to help Titiri- they intermix and generate greater social improvement on financial aid. TERRA Resource Development International will work with Titiri to help finance and build family latrines and a potable water system. Family latrines and clean, year-round drinking water will perpetuate the community organization, improve health conditions, and give residents more of an incentive to stay in Titiri. TERRA emphasizes the final point as a developmental strategy because recent migration to the crowded, crime-ridden cities is a leading cause of increased poverty (link to success story).
Titiri
Titiri is a
remote village near the Chilean border where approximately 300 people
have traditionally relied on subsistence farming. At 13,000 feet above
sea level, the area is not ideal for farming. Where as toughs of sharp,
straw-like grass and small woody shrubs do thrive, the high elevation,
cold temperatures, and long dry season limit agricultural diversity and
yields.
The high Andean
region is origin of the potato plant and the farmers base their diet
and income on this crop. However, the climate limits production to one
harvest. To preserve food, potatoes are placed in a river where the
cold water leaches the moisture. A third of the potato yield is freeze
dried in this manner to provide food when fresh supplies wane. For half
the year, families eat tuntas- small, dull white, tasteless
once-potatoes that fill soups and become doused in numerous sauces.
Tuntas are a staple of Titiri, they are part of the Altiplano culture. What shouldn't be part of the culture is preparing and eating tuntas with hands contaminated with feces and water swimming with amoebas and Guardia.
Titiri's Problems: Though Titiri's panorama includes Montana-like big sky views, grazing llamas marked with colorful ribbon, and a massive glaciated volcano that stirs the air with an icy westerly breeze, Titiri's ugly side is overpowering.
Titiri lacks latrines. As a result, ravines, dried arroyos, and even the sides of streets are bathrooms. This has a magnifying effect. Pigs can become infected with trichinosis; flies land on both human waste and human food transmitting parasites; and children wander without footwear further increasing their chances of getting sick. It's hard to understand why this occurs, especially when diarrhea and stomach pains afflict everyone and every child has a runny nose. It's also difficult to comprehend how a community can survive in a dry environment without reliable drinking water. Titiri obtains its water from a river. Though people understand that drinking unboiled river water is dangerous, a person is subjected to amoebas, worms, and other parasites simply by washing a glass in unsafe water and then drinking from it before it has completely dried. Unsanitary conditions are not the only health risk. Drought also poses is serious a threat. In a normal dry season, the river is a trickle (photo link if we have it), barely sufficient to provide water. In times of minor droughts, Titiri's livestock have been decimated and the people have been forced to flee to the cities.
Solutions
The Bolivian government, influenced by international monetary fund policies, grants money to towns commensurate with their population. Titiri annually receives $3000 to fund community projects. This allotment, however, is insufficient to address the community's sanitation and water needs. By augmenting Titiri's annual budget, for each family a dry compost latrines can be built and basic sanitation and health education can be addressed. In addition, a potable water system can be build thereby providing clean and year-round drinking water.
TERRA proposes two stages to improving Titiri's sanitation and water resources. Phase one concerns building eighty dry compost latrines, one per family. Dry compost latrines are more sustainable than typical pit latrine. Pit latrines fill up and require the construction of a new latrine in a different location. Dry compost latrines are permant because, with minor inputs, the waste decomposes and can be shoveled out and used as fertilizer (link to a schematic of a dry compost latrine).
Phase two involves improving the quality and reliability of Titiri's water resources. Although Titiri is subjected to a cold and dry climate, the runoff from the near-by glaciated Sajama volcano has created extensive aquifers. Wells in surrounding towns tap water sources 90 meters below the surfacee. Since Titiri's local geology is similar to these towns, it is probable that clean, reliable drinking water will also be found in Titiri at this depth.
There are three options to pump the water to the surface. The first option powers the pump with electric energy. This solution necessitates connecting Titiri with the nearest power lines. It has the added benefit of bringing electricity to the town. The second and third options harness solar and wind power. Both of these energy sources are bountiful, though the technology introduces additional maintenance and longevity concerns. Option one is the preferred choice. However, its the most expensive (link to budget). The decision on how to power the well pump will ultimately be made by the community.
Conclusion
Bolivia is South America's poorest country. Understanding why is lesson in history that includes Spanish conquest, mineral exploitation, cultural differences, modern wars, and a web of other variables. This history has set in course an inability for many Bolivian towns to climb out of impoverished conditions.
The goal of international development is aid communities in changing their future. And although history can entrench disagreeable conditions, they are not reversible. By collaborating with Titiri and building family latrines, health education, and a community potable water system, Titiri will suffer less from illness borne from improper sanitation and contaminated drinking water, and will be resistant to the grave effects of droughts. The social benefits of improved health conditions trickle down. The fundamental impact is better health. This in turn improves the artisan worker's productivity, the children's ability to be educated, and gives incentive for many Titiri residents not to move to the cities where living conditions are often unknowingly worse.
In addition to needs, Titiri's artisan cooperative provides valuable community infrastructure. This circumstance creates an opportunity that favors long-lasting improvements to Titir's living conditions.
- Project Brief
- Title:
- Project Titiri: Latrine Building and Well Drilling
- Status:
- Not Funded
- Location:
- Community of Titiri, Provincio Sajama, Oruro, Bolivia
- Participants:
- TERRA Resource Development International, Artesanal Oruro, and the Community of Titiri
- Cost:
- $17,300 - 35,500 USD