Choquechampi Water Reservoir

Choquechampi

• Choquechampi is a small rural community located 30 miles south of Mano a Mano-Nuevo Mundo’s headquarters in Cochabamba

• Families generally own 1-2 acre plots of land to raise crops and a few animals

Choquechampi

Having lunch at the home of a community leader

Choquechampi

“Without Water We Have Nothing”

• The area has 2 seasons – a rainy and dry. Rain falls everyday for 3-4 months but the rest of the year there is none.

• The reservoir is designed to capture the excess water during the rainy season for use during the year for irrigating crops, watering livestock and household use.

• Difference in crop size when there is water available (corn on left received water; corn on right did not)

Reservoir Design

• The design essentially is building a levee to create a natural ravine with the surrounding mountains, which captures rainwater and snowmelt

• Over 1,000 loads of 12 cubic-yards of fill material was compacted to make the earthen levee

Dumping dirt into the ravine (left); the mounds of dirt are each 12 cubic yards of fill material (bottom photo)

Community participation• During the planning stage, more than

300 community residents attended public meetings that included Mano a Mano representatives from both the US and Bolivia, government officials from the municipality of Sacaba, and Choquechampi residents.

• They voted strongly in favor to construct the reservoir and agreed to contribute 8-10 volunteer laborers every day for the duration of the project

• Mano a Mano provided majority of funding, skilled labor, and heavy equipment

• Local municipality provided partial funding

Community ParticipationResidents contributed 32,000+ volunteer hours to the project!

Reservoir completed and dedicated June 2010

Reservoir completed and dedicated June 2010

• Supporters from the US, Choquechampi residents, Mano a Mano staff, and Municipality officials took part in the dedication ceremony to celebrate the completion of a true collaborative effort

Results

• When full, the reservoir can hold 700,000 cubic meters of water

• 1,600 acres of land can be irrigated

• 4,800 people benefit from the project

• With access to water, crop harvests double or triple, which in turn doubles or triples most families income

Here the reservoir is only at 1-2% of total capacity, yet residents were still overjoyed, saying there’s already enough for their fields