September 9, 2024 • 46 mins
This episode of The Current discusses the work of Safe Water in Ecuador (SWIE), a partnership between the Michigan section of the American Waterworks Association (MiAWWA) and local organizations in Ecuador. Our hosts Jamie Fleming and Matt Lane talk with Colin McCorkle and Mark DeHaan, who are involved in SWE's efforts to provide clean, sustainable water systems to rural communities in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome to the Current, the official podcast
for the Michigan section of theAmerican Waterworks Association.
I'm your Eastside host, MattLane.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
And I'm Jamie Fleming , your host from the West Side.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Join us as we dive into water and wastewater topics
from across Michigan, fromacross Michigan.
Welcome to the Currenteverybody.
I'm Matt Blaine, your Eastsidehost.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
And I'm Jamie Fleming , your Westside host.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And today we are talking with Colin McCorkle and
Mark DeHaan about what does SWEstand for?
Safe water in Ecuador.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Nailed it.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Okay, so why don't you guys introduce yourselves,
and then we'll get into thequestions.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We'll start with you, colin.
Yeah, so my name is ColinMcQuirkle, one of the co-chairs
on the Safe Water in Ecuadorcommittee, kind of recently
minted co-chair, but I've beenpart of the committee for a long
time.
You know, mark and I went downin 2019.
We went down again this lastMarch and April.
So I've been down to Ecuadortwice, been part of the
committee for a long time.
You know I have a background inthis sort of international I
(01:19):
guess volunteerism work.
I was actually in Peace Corpsfrom 2012 to 2014.
It took me a little bit toremember that In Sierra Leone
and West Africa.
So I have a whole this is realclose to my heart kind of work.
So you know my job.
I work at Fishbeck over inGrand Rapids and do water
wastewater design, but we'rehere to talk about safe water in
(01:41):
Ecuador.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I'll hop in real quick to give a shout out to
Colin.
Him and his band are theartists for our theme song,
which is just awesome.
It's a great little jingle.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
It is, it's fantastic .
Thank you.
So Mark you're up.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Yeah, and I'm Mark DeHaan.
I currently live and work inEcuador, south America, so I'll
be your South American guesttoday.
Firm in Grand Rapids, pridaNewhoff, during that time, was
(02:28):
involved in Safe Water inEcuador and actually became
involved in the work in Ecuadorwhen I was at Calvin University
in 2015.
That was my first trip here.
So, while I was working at PNNin Grand Rapids, traveled down
to Ecuador with SWE in 2018 andthen again with Colin in 2019.
And, like many of you, had a lotof time to think during COVID,
(02:52):
decided to make the life changeto come down here to Ecuador and
work full-time, and so,essentially, I work with Safe
Water in Ecuador as, I guess,the in-country contact.
So if we have needs that wewould like addressed by
engineers in the US, if we havequestions about certain products
(03:13):
or just processes or thingslike that, then I'm the one that
sends an email off to Colin andsays, hey, we need assistance
with this.
How can you guys help?
Do you know somebody that canhelp?
And says, hey, we needassistance with this.
How can you guys help?
Do you know somebody that canhelp?
Also, yeah, during the tripthat Colin was on in April, I
was kind of the guy on theground in country so I was doing
(03:33):
the driving and doing thetranslating and that kind of
thing.
So that's kind of my currentrole with Safe Water in Ecuador
right now.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That's awesome.
Let's level set a little bit,because there might be some
listeners who don't know exactlywhat Safe Water in Ecuador is.
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat it is and why Ecuador,
whoever wants to take it.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Yeah, I guess I can kind of give you a brief history
on Safe Water in Ecuador andhow it all started.
It started with a student atwhat was then Calvin College and
the student Scott Zastrow.
He got connected to MichiganAWWA, gordon Jones at the time
and said, hey, I'm doing thiswork in Ecuador with these folks
(04:19):
from my church.
Would the Michigan AWWA sectionbe interested in helping out?
And so Gordon Jones gotconnected.
And then Scott Zastrow, once hegraduated from Calvin and
joined industry my understandingis that he got connected to
Michigan AWWA.
And then at the time, what wasWater for People?
(04:42):
The Michigan section had a lotof enthusiastic members of that
Water for People chapter andjust ended up raising incredible
amounts of money for theprojects staying connected to
the work that was happening inEcuador, connecting at that time
to Bruce Ridbeck who was thedirector of community
(05:05):
development ministry here inEcuador.
And so, just as time went on,the money continued to flow
through the Michigan Water forPeople chapter and there were
some disagreements between thenational group and then the
Michigan group, especially withhow the funds were being used
and considering Michigan wasraising more money than some
(05:25):
other chapters.
The folks in Michigan I'll namea couple that were really
heavily involved Janice Skatzand Mike Ruhn, paul Siegert,
john O'Malley, I believe weresome of the other big names that
were connected with Rotary andother organizations to raise
funds.
They really wanted to be theones that were determining where
(05:47):
those funds were going, ratherthan a national chapter that
wasn't involved in thefundraising.
And so they decided, hey, we'redoing this good work and we've
got great connections in Ecuadorand the work is sustainable.
And so they decided we're goingto break off on our own and
start this Safe Water in Ecuadorgroup connected with Michigan
AWWA.
So that's the way it's been forI don't know how long 10, 12
(06:10):
years probably and so that'skind of where we're at now is.
I'm staying connected to thework in Ecuador through Bruce
Rydbeck and now more so throughme.
But, yeah, just really cool tosee Michigan AWWA's continued
commitment to the work inEcuador and just the work that
happens through fundraising andtechnical support.
(06:32):
It's just really awesome tohave a group of water
professionals in Michigan thatare so involved in the work
that's happening here.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
That was a really great background history.
I recognize a lot of greatnames in that list that you
listed and we're excited to haveboth of you and the others that
have joined that long list oflegacy.
Could you tell us a little bitabout what some of the work is
that is done?
What are the projects thathappen in Ecuador?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, again being on the ground, I'll answer that
question.
A lot of the work that we do isfocused on full system
construction, and so what thatlooks like is a community that
is interested in either having abrand new water system they
(07:21):
might not have any sort of watersystem before drinking water
system or they want to replacean aging water system.
What they'll do is they'll cometo our offices or the offices
of our national partner,codiinse, the Ecuadorian partner
, and they'll say, hey, we'reinterested in doing a water
system, can you help?
(07:41):
And so essentially what we dois we do system assessment.
We'll visit wells that thecommunity might have, springs
that the community might have,and just assess what it would
look like to protect those wellsor springs, depending on the
condition, capture the water andmove it into a distribution
(08:05):
system, whether that's viagravity or via pump system.
We will do that assessment.
We'll do spring protection,well drilling, we'll do
distribution system design andconstruction.
And a lot of that constructionis on the community themselves.
It's the community membersthemselves that are digging the
trenches that are, with the helpof a couple of field staff that
(08:28):
Codeense has putting the pipetogether.
So it helps us keep costs low,it empowers the local community.
It gives them an understandingof the work that's required to
build a water system, and itreally it allows them to
understand all the work that'srequired to build a water system
, and it really it allows themto understand all the work
that's going into it, and sothey'll be more likely to
(08:49):
maintain the system and justreally feel ownership for those
systems.
And so that's essentially whatwe're doing.
We're also doing some workshopsin order to improve
understanding of systems designfor communities.
So really, capacity building is, I think, what they would call
it in this business, so justhelping local administrative
(09:13):
boards and water systemoperators better understand
their systems and how to operateand maintain.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
That's a lot of really intense and great work.
Colin, I think you wanted tohop in there Really intense and
great work.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Colin, I think you wanted to hop in there.
Yeah, I just wanted to hop inas somebody who came from a
background of doing things likethis and then saw how Safe Water
in Ecuador did it.
I really think the model, thatSafe Water in Ecuador value of
the project is given by thecommunity.
(09:45):
As Mark said, most of the timethat's through work and you get
local knowledge of how to fixthe water system, how to
maintain it.
You know these guys.
They go out to the community,they try to help them establish
water boards.
I mean, they never leave aproject which is not the way
it's always done, right.
You know there's a lot of NGOswho will we call them helicopter
(10:07):
in and drop in something andthen in a year it doesn't work
and nobody, nobody uses it.
I saw just oodles of examplesof that.
You know my time overseas.
I just think it's an incrediblething.
I think the money that is raisedgoes directly to the project.
We're not.
You know if you, if you donateto a large national organization
, you got to know maybe 30, 40%of that is going to actual work
(10:32):
here.
No, Mark is working off alldonations and you know, whatever
money we raise.
We literally know what we'rebuying, as we know, hey, we're
buying the pumps for thisproject, or we're buying this
stretch of water, man, or youknow.
I mean we're this money isgoing directly to the
communities that it's going toservice, which is which is rare,
and definitely, uh, feather inthe cap or kudos to mark and the
(10:53):
people working down there.
I mean, mark was talking abouthow incredible it is that
michigan awwa, you know, doesthis stuff for equator.
Well, he's living there.
So maybe burying the lead alittle bit, Mark, I think what
you're doing is much more of asacrifice than any of us do, and
anything we can do to supportyou, you know, is great, because
it's humbling how much you'vedevoted yourself to this work.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
So I love that you're actually down living in the
amongst.
You know the communities thatyou're working with.
Tell me a little bit about howSafe Water and Record War
approaches the work that you doand the projects that you
undertake in a culturallysensitive kind of way.
Respecting the cultures thatwe're working with is a really
important part of anything thatwe would do.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Yeah, for sure.
Most of the way that weapproach this work is, again,
empowering local communities bygetting them involved from the
very start of the project.
Again, it's the communitiesthat are initiating the contact.
When we're visiting communities, and the beauty of the culture
that we're working in is that itis so community driven, that it
(12:07):
is so community driven.
I don't know hot culture, coldculture is often the way that
you know.
You talk about individualistbeing the cold culture versus
community-based being the hotculture, and so most of the
indigenous communities wereworking in the Quechua
communities, very, very hotculture in that sense, and that
they're very community focused.
So when we go visit a communityand Colin can maybe talk about
(12:28):
this community visit we did inChinjin, centro Civico when
we're going to visit a community, it's not just one or two
people from the community thatgo along on these visits with us
.
It can sometimes be 50 people,100 people.
You're going up this hike, upthe mountain and you've got 100
(12:49):
community members that are withyou because the community itself
is just so involved in any sortof communal decision that
happens when we're doing work inthese communities and we are
Cotein, say again, the nationalpartner, they're the ones that
(13:09):
are coming into agreements withthe Junta de Agua, the water
board, the administrative waterboard, and so it's the water
board that has to come to anagreement with the entire
community that this project isgoing to happen.
(13:30):
So, during the design of theproject, the community is
involved.
You know, when we get a designdone, we say, hey, this is, this
is the design, these are wherethe pipes are going to go.
And at that time, you know,community members are saying,
yes, no, I'll let you put pipethrough my property.
It's very handshake.
Nothing's near as formal as itis in the US.
You know, we're not gettingeasements or anything like that.
(13:51):
It's, you know what this is forthe benefit of the community.
Yes, you can put this pipethrough my field or however it
might go.
And so, yeah, from start tofinish, the community is
involved, through thetopographic survey, through
design, and then obviously, thenobviously again through
construction, implementation,and so, um, again, just kind of
(14:15):
another I'll say professionalterm in this type of business is
asset-based communitydevelopment, abcd.
And so you know, we're using theskills and the abilities that
these community members have,many of them being farmers.
They're used to working withtools in their hands, and so
(14:36):
once we get into a community andwe're doing construction work
that's where they're accustomedto being you know they're
digging, they're using picks andhoes and shovels to dig these
trenches, and it's really quitefun if we have groups visiting
from outside, especially inthese communities at 10, so to
speak, their ability to to digtrenches at speeds that we just
(15:12):
can't fathom, because they arejust so good at that kind of
thing, and so, yeah, keepingcommunities involved from start
to finish, using the skills andthe abilities that these
communities have in order tohelp them help themselves.
So it's, it's really just areally cool opportunity to
empower the local communities toto be part of their own
(15:33):
solution talk a little bit moreabout the makeup of these
communities calum, do you haveanything to based on your
experience?
sorry, I was.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I was going to add to the previous question.
I apologize, matt, I keeptrying doing a bad job hopping
in.
That's okay, go for it.
Yeah, I think the other thingthat Mark maybe didn't mention
is so critical to ours that itdidn't even cross his mind.
But we partner with Cody Yensei, who's a local NGO, and they
(16:06):
are almost entirely consisted ofKichwa people.
So the people that we'rebuilding the systems are, we
have people who grew up in thesecommunities that are a local
NGO, that are driving all this.
I mean, when Mark says theinitial contact, that's often
through Cody Ince and there aresort of cultural slash,
construction, slash everything,consultants and they, you know,
they just they understand theculture more than you know they
grew up in it.
(16:26):
Right, they understand it morethan we ever could.
And while Mark and Chris aredefinitely very, very fluent and
very, very tied in with theculture, you know when you grow
up there it's different.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Yeah, thanks for adding that, colin.
That's such an important partof the work that we do and
having that cultural connection.
A lot of the times that doesdetermine the success of a
project.
When we can go, we can go intoa community and we can think, oh
, you know what this community?
They're excited, they want todo the project.
And then the director ofCorince Efrain, who his
(17:00):
community I'll mention MiraFlores, cochapamba community he
grew up in worked with MichiganWater for People to build a
water system.
Michigan Water for People was abig, big reason.
The project in his communitywas a success.
So just a cool connection there.
But again, efrain, he can go inthere and he can be like, nope,
(17:21):
I'm not seeing it.
These people aren't motivated.
They're saying the right wordsbut they're not ready to do what
we require of them.
And so again, yeah, thanksColin for mentioning that.
It's just so important to havethat cultural connection.
Without that this ministrywouldn't be a success.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
So we're talking mostly rural areas, right, and
we're not.
This isn't urban, this is rural.
You mentioned farmers.
Describe that a little bit.
What's the scope of theprojects that you're doing?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Yeah, so a lot of the times it's again.
We're in central Ecuador, inthe Andes Mountains.
The city that I'm in right now,rio Bamba that's where our
office is based is at 9,000 feet.
A lot of these communities thatwe're working in anywhere from
9,000 feet up to sometimes14,000 feet in areas that we can
be working, and so rural areas,farming areas, sometimes very,
(18:17):
very steep slopes Colin canattest to that.
We did a visit to Gingin,centro Civico, and I think we
ended up getting up to 13,700feet maybe, but steep slopes.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
We were told it was a short, short hike.
That was a short hike.
Seven miles straight.
That was real short yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
So just incredible vertical relief.
I mean, obviously you're in themountains and so from I'll just
talk about a design that I did acouple of years ago, or, yeah,
about a year and a half ago, inthe community of Pujol, San Jose
, and in that community therewas from a community of 205
(19:08):
homes.
From the house at the highestelevation to the house at the
lowest elevation, there was morethan 700 feet of vertical
relief, and so we're talkingabout five or six pressure zones
within this community of 205homes.
The total of distributionsystem that was constructed was,
I think it was, 22 kilometers,so 15 miles, just under 15 miles
(19:30):
of pipe that was constructed bythis community in three months.
We're not talking about smallareas or any sort of lack of
effort here.
These people are putting inincredible amounts of effort to
dig that trench, to install thepipe, to fill the trench back in
.
So over a two, three monthperiod is typically how long
these construction projects take.
(19:50):
Just an incredible amount ofeffort expensed by the people to
get themselves access to cleanwater, which is just really,
really cool to see.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
What's the source water for this?
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Yeah, source can be a couple of different sources.
Yeah, source can be a couple ofdifferent sources.
So one of the things that werequire of these communities
when they come into our officeand say we want a water project,
is they have to have legalrights to source water, whether
that be a spring up in themountains or a well that they've
drilled, they have to havelegal rights, through the
(20:25):
Ministry of Water here inEcuador, to be able to consume
that water.
Typically kind of our bread andbutter has always been springs,
and so that can be a springthat's higher up in the
mountains than the community,and so it flows entirely by
gravity from that spring to thecommunities.
It could also be a springthat's located below the
(20:48):
community, and in those cases weinstall pump systems to get
that spring water up to a topreservoir and then distributed
by gravity from there.
We do do some work with withwells, and those can be hand dug
wells.
It can be drilled wells eitherof those, but those.
Those are the sources that wedeal with this organization over
(21:09):
the years Again, bruce RydbeckI'll mention that name in the
decades that he worked in thiswork, from the late 80s up until
2019.
When he left, he saw just somany treatment systems that get
installed and then, a year later, aren't in use because they
just weren't maintained, youknow.
(21:30):
Just not sustainable,especially in these rural
contexts where you don't havetrained individuals to maintain
these filter systems, treatmentsystems.
We found that making sure thewater is clean directly from the
source is the best way toprovide clean water for these
communities, and so the way thatwe found that it's best to do
(21:54):
that is through spring capture.
Sometimes we do a little bit ofchlorine treatment just to kill
any sort of bacterias thatcould potentially grow, but
that's mostly what we're dealingwith is clean spring water
straight from the source.
That's typically what getsdelivered to the community and
the community members' homes.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Colin, I'm going to come straight to you for a
question.
So I hear you recently went ona trip and went down and worked
on a project.
Was this your first trip?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
No, this is my second trip.
Well, the first trip was whenMark and I were still both in
three mark hadn't moved downthere yet and we went down there
in 2019, late 2019, rightbefore things kind of kicked off
covid wise.
So this last trip, um, in april, has been our first since covid
.
But yep, um, it was myself andtwo others, uh, mitchell Feria
(22:51):
and Fiona Miller.
Fiona works at Friday New Hopand Mitchell works at GMB.
I hope I get that right, mark.
Yeah, we were down there forabout a week and I was Mark saw
some projects, you know,provided some engineering
expertise.
Mitchell brought his, broughthis drone, uh, and got a lot of
really nice shots.
So he's making a little videothat I think we're going to have
(23:13):
on display at the chanceauction, the annual conference.
But yeah, it was.
It was fantastic.
We spent, we stayed, in RioBamba most of the time and then
did little day trips out todifferent things and and then a
lot of them were just seeingexisting systems.
Then we went to see a potentialspring and that was the seven
mile hike uphill.
(23:33):
Uh, mitchell and Fiona gothorses there.
I don't think there was enoughhorses for me on the way up, but
I got one on the way back down,uh, but that was, it was pretty
intense but um, but yeah, itwas fantastic.
It was really good to see markagain.
It's good to see all the stuffprogressing.
Talk to you know, talk to thecode and say talk to every
(23:57):
community.
There's a big celebration, likethe first or second day we were
there, that went for I don'tknow five, six hours, I don't
know how long was.
That was a really longcelebration.
It was very nice but it wasvery long.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah that that community, san Martin Bajo, is a
community that Safe Water inEcuador provided funds for
almost fifteen thousand dollarsfor pump house, pump equipment,
electrical controls, pumps,motors, that kind of thing.
So it was wonderful to haveColin and the rest of the group
down just to recognize SafeWater in Ecuador for that
(24:33):
donation and for just the waythat Safe Water in Ecuador has
provided funds for manycommunities like it in the past.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Colin, you mentioned the chance auction.
Can you talk about the fundingfor this program?
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I think a lot of people know, but every year at
annual conferences really one ofour probably our biggest, if
not one of our only fundraisingbig events.
One of those is the ChanceAuction, the other is the golf
outing.
So the golf outing will be onTuesday, september 10th, and I
don't actually know the courseoffhand.
(25:08):
I'll talk to Rebecca about that.
But you know we have some holessponsored.
We'll be doing drinks a littledifferently this year.
We've got to figure that outyet, but we will let people know
once we know.
And then, yeah, chance Auctionwill be the next day, on
Wednesday.
So Mark will be bringing lotsof goodies from Ecuador and then
(25:28):
we'll have some other donationsas well and folks can buy
tickets and put them in and seewhat they can win.
It's usually pretty fun.
It ends up being a pretty funreveal time.
So, yeah, those are two reallybig, funny events.
We really appreciate everybodywho sponsors holes, who comes to
the golf outing, people whodonate to the Chance Auction,
people who buy tickets for thechance auction.
(25:51):
You know we we guilt thempretty hard there near the end,
but you know it's, it's all inthe, it's all in the name of, of
the greater good, right.
So yeah, well, that that's kindof what we got going.
You know, we've been like Isaid, the golf outing will be a
little different this year, butwe'll, we'll be sure to let.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
So I am a longtime donator to the Chance Auction.
I'm running out of unique ideasfor you know themed baskets,
but we'll come up with somethinggood this year.
So I would love to challengeanybody that's listening to this
If you attend the annualconference, just show up with
something.
They'd be happy to have it inthe auction.
But also you can get involvedin other ways.
(26:38):
You know donations can be takenthroughout the year, but, mark
and Colin, why don't you tell usa little bit about how anybody
else could get involved with SWE?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, just email me or call me Mostly.
But you know, at annualconference, if anybody wants to
come up with what we got, we'llhave somebody at the chance
auction booth all day.
We'll absolutely take a contacteach.
On the next meeting, you knowwe there's a lot um that's
involved and we're looking tokind of, uh, delegate a little
more and have a little more umof roles for people, you know,
(27:14):
rather than the chair trying todo everything.
Um, you know we're going to tryto have trip coordinators.
If you want to go on the trip,talk to us.
That's um, we're looking atdates.
Yet I think we got to look onmark's end, but usually it's
around march, april, may andthere, um it it is uh, you would
have to pay your own way on it,but I think this last year
(27:35):
market kind of fell around maybe1200 bucks all altogether with
the plane ticket staying thereand then paying other things.
Yeah, I mean, literally justfind me, find Mark, find someone
on the committee.
I can share my contact infothrough here at the end if you
guys want or somehow, if we canget that out there, I'm more
than more than happy to talk towhoever wants to be involved.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, we could always use more help.
I'm curious do you guys havelike a favorite project that
you've completed?
Speaker 4 (28:07):
yeah, I guess I'll go back into the into the annals
and talk about this meter,florida, scotia, pamba project
that I that I mentioned.
That was one of the originalprojects that at that time Water
for People worked on with theorganization that's down here
and it just it required some,just some significant thinking.
(28:28):
The springs were located on theother side of a valley from
this community and it requiredjust some ingenuity from the
engineers here and then someassistance from Water for People
, and it was again.
They had to cross this valley,they had to go underneath a
river and a road and saw I can'tremember how I wanted to say
(28:52):
like 350 meters plus of pressure, which is 500 PSI, 450 PSI, so
significant pressures.
And so what ended up happeningis there had been a situation in
a nearby community where theytried to use iron pipe, and when
you're trying to carry lengthsof iron pipe on steep hillsides,
(29:15):
some bad things happen, andsome people in this nearby
community ended up getting hurttrying to do that.
And so what happened was BruceRydback at the time.
He said, hey, water for People,what do you think?
What kind of options do we havefor pipe materials?
And somebody from Water forPeople said, hey, why not
fiberglass?
You know it's lightweight.
(29:36):
I think they had it in lengthsof six meters or something like
that 18 to 20 feet and it canwithstand just very high
pressures, and so that's whatthat's.
What ended up happening is theyhad a container or a partial
container of fiberglass pipessent from the US to Ecuador to
use for, I want to say, morethan a kilometer's length of
(29:58):
this feed line, and so, yeah, itended up working great.
Just last year, last September Ithink, I came back to Ecuador
with some fiberglass unions sothat they still have some
fiberglass in their bodega, intheir storage room, and so, if
(30:19):
they ever need to fix anything,I came down with some unions so
that they still have somefiberglass in their bodega, in
their storage room, and so, ifthey ever need to fix anything,
I came down with some unions sothat they could keep using that
fiberglass pipe.
Yeah, that's a success story 25years running.
And again, that's helped shapethe ministry.
From that community came thecurrent members of Codeense.
Members from that communityformed this organization, this
national organization, to helpadminister projects and help
(30:40):
other communities, and so it's.
It's been just a multiplicationsituation with that community,
with that project which Waterfor People helped fund, and so
that's really just kind of ajust a model for for other
communities and it's, it's justbeen a wonderful project here.
Obviously, and you know, wehope that maybe, maybe some of
(31:02):
these projects that we'recontinuing to work on, that that
could happen in other places.
What about you, colin?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I'd probably say MartÃn Bajo, that was.
I mean, we just had the bigpresent, the big celebration for
it.
But you know, there was somethings that tied me very
personally to that one um, andso it was really good to see
that pump station.
It's nice to have a nice.
This is exactly what we fundedand you can go look at it, take
pictures of it and send it backto people help on that.
(31:31):
So, um, yeah, that was, thatwas probably my, my favorite.
But, mark, he's right, that'sthe seminal project, sort of.
That is the big one.
If SWE were to have a favoriteright.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
For those of us who don't know what you're talking
about, explain that project, thepump station project.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, it was San MartÃn Bajo, I believe they have
a couple.
They had an existing well right, mark, and then we drilled a
new well, um, and trying toremember the number of
communities now, mark has allthese things around a lot in his
head and I don't necessarilyhave them but they drilled a new
well in a new pump house, um,and they pumped up to a
(32:10):
reservoir up top.
So we were sort of there's anexisting system, wasn't working
very well, um, you know,hydrodeology is inexact at best,
and I think in this case wasthere an earthquake or something
, or was that another one, mark,where they had a seismic event
and then it wasn't producing theway it had before?
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Yeah, with San Martin , baja the situation a community
of 112 homes they hadpreviously had a spring source
that just wasn't sufficient forthe growth of the community, and
so they were supplementing thatspring source with river water,
which untreated river water,and so whenever it would rain,
(32:52):
their system would fill withdirt and contaminants and all
that kind of thing, and so, yeah, the new wells were certainly
an upgrade on that.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Are there challenges with getting power to these pump
stations?
Speaker 4 (33:08):
In some very remote areas it can be difficult, but
there's been a hugeelectrification of rural areas
in Ecuador in the last 30 years,40, 30, 40 years, and so
sometimes we have issues wherewe have to get power connected
from 500 feet away.
(33:30):
Or we did a project in 2014 inAchuyay and that one required,
yeah, probably close to akilometer of new poles and
wiring to connect that pumphouse to the electrical grid.
So that can happen from projectto project.
But the Ecuadorian governmentthat's one of the things that
(33:52):
they've greatly improved on inthe last 30, 40 years has been
electrification of rural areas.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
I will note, though, that the cities are interesting
in the way they do electrical.
They have electrified, everyonehas electricity, but they have
not worked on the efficiencyportion of it.
There was literally some polesthat were seemingly getting
pulled out of the ground or overby the amount of wire on them.
It was simply incredible.
So so if we have any electricalfolks electricians, just for
(34:21):
like a, you know, to go see it's, it's amazing.
It's amazing how some of thisstuff even works.
I can't even the rat's nest ontop of the pole.
It's almost pulling it down.
It's incredible.
But yeah, mark, right, I mean Ikept remarking out the whole
trip, mark.
I probably probably, like colin, stopped mentioning it, but it
is amazing how much they've runelectricity throughout the
(34:41):
country.
I mean every.
You can go 12 500 feet in thisremote community, and they got
poles going all the way outthere.
They don't have water, sanitaryor any of those other things,
but they certainly gotelectrical.
So it's actually that's one ofthe things that they've really
done a nice job on so I do know.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
um, on website there are lots of pictures from past
projects and trips which mightbe really helpful to those who
are trying to, you know, put animage with what we're talking
about today.
So I encourage you to hop overthere and check that out when
you can, and I think as we wrapup, it sounds like you could use
people with all kinds ofbackgrounds to join in, attend a
(35:22):
trip, lend their expertise.
So maybe one of you give me alittle bit of a rundown of the
kinds of people you would loveto work with.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Someone who is hands on.
We get a lot of engineers downhere and we're really good at
drawing stuff.
When it comes to fixing a pump,we really don't quite know what
we're doing.
So we've been.
As Mark mentioned, there's alot of pump station, there's
well pumps and there's a lot ofpumps that we put in.
But we don't really have a goodO&M sort of plan or SOP with
(35:54):
those sort of plan or SOP withthose.
But we could get somebody whoworks on and they're mostly kind
of submersible well pumps, Iguess is what I'd call them.
Even if they're being used in apump station, it's still a
submersible well pump that'sbeing used, and somebody with
that background would beincredible.
We've been trying to sort offind somebody to come down and I
(36:16):
think you know we'd even be aswilling to, you know sort of uh,
supplement some of the, the payfor it.
You know, if somebody's saying,okay, it costs too much, you
know we can find a way to get,get them down there and let's
establish a nice sop and keepthese pumps running forever.
Um, if we can, or as long as wecan, that'd be it.
That'd be a big one, um, butbut anybody really, I mean all
(36:38):
sorts of backgrounds.
You know mitchell brought downthe drone and it was awesome to
get all that drone footage.
I mean anybody, or just bringyourself down, even if you
aren't got some sort of specialskill, still we still love
having people down there.
Jeannie loves seeing people whoare donating and love seeing I
mean it's just, it's great andwhen you go there you feel so
much more connected.
You know, it's like you'remeeting the people and, um,
(37:01):
everyone's like five foot two,uh, because they're all in the
mountain.
So it is kind of interesting.
There you feel kind of like agiant.
I'm five foot 10.
I felt like I was too big, um,so that's an interesting
experience that, if anybodywants that, um, I guess the
other thing that Mark and Ihaven't mentioned is this is
absolutely beautiful.
Like you can just close youreyes and snap a picture and it's
so mountainous and gorgeous andit's got these rolling
(37:25):
mountainous hills and the farmsare on the built on the side of
the side of the hill and it'sjust beautiful.
And we also try to put a littlebit of sight in with every trip
too.
You know we're there to kind ofdo work, but we usually take a
day or two to you know, doingsomething fun either a good hike
or going in the keel, going tothe market, things like that but
um, but yeah, the big one we'rereally pushing for is the pump
(37:48):
person.
So if anybody you know of, like, say, peerless midwest or or
they're pumping well wants tocome down and show us how to
work on a submersible well pump,we would very, very much
appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Yeah, I'll just add to that the work that we're
doing, that Life-Giving Waterdoes, that Codinze does.
Obviously we try to useappropriate technology, but at
the same time, we're trying topush forward on new ways of
doing things, trying to findbetter ways that we can be
setting up pumps, setting upcontrols, setting up our
(38:22):
chlorine dosing, and so it'sgood for us to have people that
are in an industry that is muchfurther along than what we have
here in Ecuador.
Just to provide a little bit ofcontext, in my opinion, I would
say that Ecuador is 50 to 60years behind the US just as far
(38:43):
as infrastructure is concerned,and so I live in Rio Bamba.
It's a city of almost 200,000.
I can't drink the tap waterhere.
The water is not treatedsufficiently for local
Ecuadorians to be drinking tapwater, and so there's just to
provide a little bit of contextof where the country is, and so,
yeah, just to have people thatare in the thick of engineering
(39:07):
in the US to come down toprovide just a different
perspective on how we can bedoing work, ways that we can be
improving all those sorts ofthings is really beneficial for
our work.
It lends credence to our work,too that we have current
professionals that are reviewingour work and saying you're
doing great or here are ways youcan improve, because that just
(39:31):
lends so much credence to ourwork and it helps us become
better too.
The engineers that are downhere full time.
It helps us become betterengineers and we are down here
full-time.
It helps us become betterengineers and we, we want that
and we want we want theseprojects to be as sustainable as
possible.
And, yeah, this partnershipwith michigan awwa, with swi
that's, it just provides so muchof that for the ministry.
(39:52):
That's that's happening here.
So it's just beneficial for usand, and hopefully in the long
term, not only for thesecommunities but also but also
for the for Ecuador as a whole.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
And then one more small thing.
Someone's probably thinking, oh, I need to know Spanish.
I don't know Spanish Like Ibarely, just barely.
Mark can do a lot of.
You know a lot of playingaround, that you'll learn some
words while you're there andpeople are generally very nice
and usually somebody knows alittle bit of English, so you
don't have to come down and befluent or even know much at all,
(40:26):
like me.
So just mentioning that, Well,great, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
any other questions?
Speaker 3 (40:34):
No, this has been a really good opportunity to hear
more about the organization.
I've been with the Michigansection for 20 years now and you
know have known a little bitabout SWE over the years, but I
really like the deep dive thatwe did today.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Are there any upcoming projects that you want
to plug in Ecuador?
Speaker 4 (40:55):
We don't have anything identified at the
moment as far as next projectsgo, so nothing there.
One thing I would like tomention is we do have a
presentation at Michigan Ace,september 11th, I believe.
It's at 4.05 pm, I believe.
I think it's the last slotright before the happy hour on
(41:17):
Wednesday.
What we're going to have thereis I'm listed as the principal
presenter, but that's not reallythe case.
I've got some friends from bothCalvin University and Hope
College that are going to behelping me out.
Some students and professors atthose institutions have been
down in Ecuador in the last sixmonths helping us with some
water quality studies and thensome health surveys to help us
(41:40):
better understand the impact ofthe work that we do, both on the
spring protection front, thechlorine treatment front, and
then just as a whole, how thework we're doing impacts health
in communities, and so I thinkit's going to be a really
interesting presentation fromfolks at both of those
institutions just to share how,yeah, the type of impact this
(42:05):
work is having and how they'regetting involved in the work
here.
So if you're at Michigan ACE, Ithink, show up Wednesday
afternoon to the general sessionand you can hear more about
that work, definitely going tohave to check that out.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Is there anything else that you want to say?
Any any final thoughts for fromeither of you?
Speaker 4 (42:27):
I've got one more thing just on a cost perspective
, when you think about what awater project might cost in the
us, the way that we're doingwork here again utilizing the
work of the communities and justdoing things, I mean the work
that we're doing is very basicfrom a technical perspective
(42:48):
it's not that difficult but it'seffective, it's efficient In
most cases when we're buildingthese water systems it costs
roughly 350 dollars per home toget water to these, to these
homes.
So just just from a donationperspective, you know, to get to
(43:10):
get a family water forhopefully 20 years for 350
dollars.
It's really, think, just aneffective use of funds and
obviously, again, just the workthat the community puts in is
just so important to that.
But just to give you an ideafor what costs are and how just
(43:34):
not a lot of money can make ahuge impact in the lives of
these communities.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Yeah, I guess I'd echo what Mark said there.
I mean, if you give $10 toUnited Way, if you give $10 to
one of these large organizations, $2, $3, $4 of your money is
going to people and there's alot of add-ins and things like
that, not to say any of thoseare bad.
But I think we have a uniquesort of I guess bespoke little
organization here.
(43:58):
You've got Mark Chris Fisherdown there, you've got all the
guys in Cody and say they'vedevoted their lives to doing
this work Right, and they haveset it up so that every dollar
you give them goes to thecommunity, which is which is
really incredible and, frankly,rare, especially the size we're
talking about, especially thesize we're talking about.
So, um, you know that to me,whenever I give my time or money
(44:21):
to SWE, I just think you knowI'm just giving a drop in the
bucket, you know, versus whatMark and some of those guys are
doing down there.
It's, it's incredible.
So we're we're just happy to beable to support them and we'd
be more happy, you know, ifMichigan A's AWDA can, can
(44:42):
support SWE going forward.
And we appreciate all thesupport over all the years.
We know everybody's been reallysupportive and we really,
really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
That means a lot so well, thank you for all your
work and mark, thanks forjoining us from ecuador today.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Yeah it's been wonderful to be with you guys
and, yeah, thank you for theopportunity to share.
Again, I echo what Colin saidMichigan AWWA has been a
wonderful supporter of the workhere.
Dozens of communities,thousands of families that
Michigan AWWA has impacted andhopefully it can be the same for
decades to come.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Any, last words, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
No, no, no, no.
I would like to again thank youboth for being with us today.
That was a really greatoverview of what SWE is, and
hopefully the people that arelistening will get involved in
some sort of way.
Of course, always donations,because it can impact a lot of
(45:42):
people, but also your time andyour energy would be welcome as
well.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
Also, join us September 10ththrough the 13th for for my ACE
it's there's a lot ofinteresting things going on
there and it's going to be a lotof fun.
So well, thank you guys.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
There's a lot of interestingthings going on there and it's
going to be a lot of fun.
Well, thank you guys.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
From the east side to the westside and statewide.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
From experts to everyday heroes, we've got it
all.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Join us as we dive into water and wastewater topics
from across Michigan.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
Subscribe, follow us and get caught up in the current
today.
Welcome to the Current, the official podcast
for the Michigan section of theAmerican Waterworks Association.
I'm your Eastside host, MattLane.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
And I'm Jamie Fleming , your host from the West Side.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Join us as we dive into water and wastewater topics
from across Michigan, fromacross Michigan.
Welcome to the Currenteverybody.
I'm Matt Blaine, your Eastsidehost.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
And I'm Jamie Fleming , your Westside host.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And today we are talking with Colin McCorkle and
Mark DeHaan about what does SWEstand for?
Safe water in Ecuador.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Nailed it.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Okay, so why don't you guys introduce yourselves,
and then we'll get into thequestions.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We'll start with you, colin.
Yeah, so my name is ColinMcQuirkle, one of the co-chairs
on the Safe Water in Ecuadorcommittee, kind of recently
minted co-chair, but I've beenpart of the committee for a long
time.
You know, mark and I went downin 2019.
We went down again this lastMarch and April.
So I've been down to Ecuadortwice, been part of the
committee for a long time.
You know I have a background inthis sort of international I
(01:19):
guess volunteerism work.
I was actually in Peace Corpsfrom 2012 to 2014.
It took me a little bit toremember that In Sierra Leone
and West Africa.
So I have a whole this is realclose to my heart kind of work.
So you know my job.
I work at Fishbeck over inGrand Rapids and do water
wastewater design, but we'rehere to talk about safe water in
(01:41):
Ecuador.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I'll hop in real quick to give a shout out to
Colin.
Him and his band are theartists for our theme song,
which is just awesome.
It's a great little jingle.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
It is, it's fantastic .
Thank you.
So Mark you're up.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Yeah, and I'm Mark DeHaan.
I currently live and work inEcuador, south America, so I'll
be your South American guesttoday.
Firm in Grand Rapids, pridaNewhoff, during that time, was
(02:28):
involved in Safe Water inEcuador and actually became
involved in the work in Ecuadorwhen I was at Calvin University
in 2015.
That was my first trip here.
So, while I was working at PNNin Grand Rapids, traveled down
to Ecuador with SWE in 2018 andthen again with Colin in 2019.
And, like many of you, had a lotof time to think during COVID,
(02:52):
decided to make the life changeto come down here to Ecuador and
work full-time, and so,essentially, I work with Safe
Water in Ecuador as, I guess,the in-country contact.
So if we have needs that wewould like addressed by
engineers in the US, if we havequestions about certain products
(03:13):
or just processes or thingslike that, then I'm the one that
sends an email off to Colin andsays, hey, we need assistance
with this.
How can you guys help?
Do you know somebody that canhelp?
And says, hey, we needassistance with this.
How can you guys help?
Do you know somebody that canhelp?
Also, yeah, during the tripthat Colin was on in April, I
was kind of the guy on theground in country so I was doing
(03:33):
the driving and doing thetranslating and that kind of
thing.
So that's kind of my currentrole with Safe Water in Ecuador
right now.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That's awesome.
Let's level set a little bit,because there might be some
listeners who don't know exactlywhat Safe Water in Ecuador is.
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat it is and why Ecuador,
whoever wants to take it.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Yeah, I guess I can kind of give you a brief history
on Safe Water in Ecuador andhow it all started.
It started with a student atwhat was then Calvin College and
the student Scott Zastrow.
He got connected to MichiganAWWA, gordon Jones at the time
and said, hey, I'm doing thiswork in Ecuador with these folks
(04:19):
from my church.
Would the Michigan AWWA sectionbe interested in helping out?
And so Gordon Jones gotconnected.
And then Scott Zastrow, once hegraduated from Calvin and
joined industry my understandingis that he got connected to
Michigan AWWA.
And then at the time, what wasWater for People?
(04:42):
The Michigan section had a lotof enthusiastic members of that
Water for People chapter andjust ended up raising incredible
amounts of money for theprojects staying connected to
the work that was happening inEcuador, connecting at that time
to Bruce Ridbeck who was thedirector of community
(05:05):
development ministry here inEcuador.
And so, just as time went on,the money continued to flow
through the Michigan Water forPeople chapter and there were
some disagreements between thenational group and then the
Michigan group, especially withhow the funds were being used
and considering Michigan wasraising more money than some
(05:25):
other chapters.
The folks in Michigan I'll namea couple that were really
heavily involved Janice Skatzand Mike Ruhn, paul Siegert,
john O'Malley, I believe weresome of the other big names that
were connected with Rotary andother organizations to raise
funds.
They really wanted to be theones that were determining where
(05:47):
those funds were going, ratherthan a national chapter that
wasn't involved in thefundraising.
And so they decided, hey, we'redoing this good work and we've
got great connections in Ecuadorand the work is sustainable.
And so they decided we're goingto break off on our own and
start this Safe Water in Ecuadorgroup connected with Michigan
AWWA.
So that's the way it's been forI don't know how long 10, 12
(06:10):
years probably and so that'skind of where we're at now is.
I'm staying connected to thework in Ecuador through Bruce
Rydbeck and now more so throughme.
But, yeah, just really cool tosee Michigan AWWA's continued
commitment to the work inEcuador and just the work that
happens through fundraising andtechnical support.
(06:32):
It's just really awesome tohave a group of water
professionals in Michigan thatare so involved in the work
that's happening here.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
That was a really great background history.
I recognize a lot of greatnames in that list that you
listed and we're excited to haveboth of you and the others that
have joined that long list oflegacy.
Could you tell us a little bitabout what some of the work is
that is done?
What are the projects thathappen in Ecuador?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, again being on the ground, I'll answer that
question.
A lot of the work that we do isfocused on full system
construction, and so what thatlooks like is a community that
is interested in either having abrand new water system they
(07:21):
might not have any sort of watersystem before drinking water
system or they want to replacean aging water system.
What they'll do is they'll cometo our offices or the offices
of our national partner,codiinse, the Ecuadorian partner
, and they'll say, hey, we'reinterested in doing a water
system, can you help?
(07:41):
And so essentially what we dois we do system assessment.
We'll visit wells that thecommunity might have, springs
that the community might have,and just assess what it would
look like to protect those wellsor springs, depending on the
condition, capture the water andmove it into a distribution
(08:05):
system, whether that's viagravity or via pump system.
We will do that assessment.
We'll do spring protection,well drilling, we'll do
distribution system design andconstruction.
And a lot of that constructionis on the community themselves.
It's the community membersthemselves that are digging the
trenches that are, with the helpof a couple of field staff that
(08:28):
Codeense has putting the pipetogether.
So it helps us keep costs low,it empowers the local community.
It gives them an understandingof the work that's required to
build a water system, and itreally it allows them to
understand all the work that'srequired to build a water system
, and it really it allows themto understand all the work
that's going into it, and sothey'll be more likely to
(08:49):
maintain the system and justreally feel ownership for those
systems.
And so that's essentially whatwe're doing.
We're also doing some workshopsin order to improve
understanding of systems designfor communities.
So really, capacity building is, I think, what they would call
it in this business, so justhelping local administrative
(09:13):
boards and water systemoperators better understand
their systems and how to operateand maintain.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
That's a lot of really intense and great work.
Colin, I think you wanted tohop in there Really intense and
great work.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Colin, I think you wanted to hop in there.
Yeah, I just wanted to hop inas somebody who came from a
background of doing things likethis and then saw how Safe Water
in Ecuador did it.
I really think the model, thatSafe Water in Ecuador value of
the project is given by thecommunity.
(09:45):
As Mark said, most of the timethat's through work and you get
local knowledge of how to fixthe water system, how to
maintain it.
You know these guys.
They go out to the community,they try to help them establish
water boards.
I mean, they never leave aproject which is not the way
it's always done, right.
You know there's a lot of NGOswho will we call them helicopter
(10:07):
in and drop in something andthen in a year it doesn't work
and nobody, nobody uses it.
I saw just oodles of examplesof that.
You know my time overseas.
I just think it's an incrediblething.
I think the money that is raisedgoes directly to the project.
We're not.
You know if you, if you donateto a large national organization
, you got to know maybe 30, 40%of that is going to actual work
(10:32):
here.
No, Mark is working off alldonations and you know, whatever
money we raise.
We literally know what we'rebuying, as we know, hey, we're
buying the pumps for thisproject, or we're buying this
stretch of water, man, or youknow.
I mean we're this money isgoing directly to the
communities that it's going toservice, which is which is rare,
and definitely, uh, feather inthe cap or kudos to mark and the
(10:53):
people working down there.
I mean, mark was talking abouthow incredible it is that
michigan awwa, you know, doesthis stuff for equator.
Well, he's living there.
So maybe burying the lead alittle bit, Mark, I think what
you're doing is much more of asacrifice than any of us do, and
anything we can do to supportyou, you know, is great, because
it's humbling how much you'vedevoted yourself to this work.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
So I love that you're actually down living in the
amongst.
You know the communities thatyou're working with.
Tell me a little bit about howSafe Water and Record War
approaches the work that you doand the projects that you
undertake in a culturallysensitive kind of way.
Respecting the cultures thatwe're working with is a really
important part of anything thatwe would do.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Yeah, for sure.
Most of the way that weapproach this work is, again,
empowering local communities bygetting them involved from the
very start of the project.
Again, it's the communitiesthat are initiating the contact.
When we're visiting communities, and the beauty of the culture
that we're working in is that itis so community driven, that it
(12:07):
is so community driven.
I don't know hot culture, coldculture is often the way that
you know.
You talk about individualistbeing the cold culture versus
community-based being the hotculture, and so most of the
indigenous communities wereworking in the Quechua
communities, very, very hotculture in that sense, and that
they're very community focused.
So when we go visit a communityand Colin can maybe talk about
(12:28):
this community visit we did inChinjin, centro Civico when
we're going to visit a community, it's not just one or two
people from the community thatgo along on these visits with us
.
It can sometimes be 50 people,100 people.
You're going up this hike, upthe mountain and you've got 100
(12:49):
community members that are withyou because the community itself
is just so involved in any sortof communal decision that
happens when we're doing work inthese communities and we are
Cotein, say again, the nationalpartner, they're the ones that
(13:09):
are coming into agreements withthe Junta de Agua, the water
board, the administrative waterboard, and so it's the water
board that has to come to anagreement with the entire
community that this project isgoing to happen.
(13:30):
So, during the design of theproject, the community is
involved.
You know, when we get a designdone, we say, hey, this is, this
is the design, these are wherethe pipes are going to go.
And at that time, you know,community members are saying,
yes, no, I'll let you put pipethrough my property.
It's very handshake.
Nothing's near as formal as itis in the US.
You know, we're not gettingeasements or anything like that.
(13:51):
It's, you know what this is forthe benefit of the community.
Yes, you can put this pipethrough my field or however it
might go.
And so, yeah, from start tofinish, the community is
involved, through thetopographic survey, through
design, and then obviously, thenobviously again through
construction, implementation,and so, um, again, just kind of
(14:15):
another I'll say professionalterm in this type of business is
asset-based communitydevelopment, abcd.
And so you know, we're using theskills and the abilities that
these community members have,many of them being farmers.
They're used to working withtools in their hands, and so
(14:36):
once we get into a community andwe're doing construction work
that's where they're accustomedto being you know they're
digging, they're using picks andhoes and shovels to dig these
trenches, and it's really quitefun if we have groups visiting
from outside, especially inthese communities at 10, so to
speak, their ability to to digtrenches at speeds that we just
(15:12):
can't fathom, because they arejust so good at that kind of
thing, and so, yeah, keepingcommunities involved from start
to finish, using the skills andthe abilities that these
communities have in order tohelp them help themselves.
So it's, it's really just areally cool opportunity to
empower the local communities toto be part of their own
(15:33):
solution talk a little bit moreabout the makeup of these
communities calum, do you haveanything to based on your
experience?
sorry, I was.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I was going to add to the previous question.
I apologize, matt, I keeptrying doing a bad job hopping
in.
That's okay, go for it.
Yeah, I think the other thingthat Mark maybe didn't mention
is so critical to ours that itdidn't even cross his mind.
But we partner with Cody Yensei, who's a local NGO, and they
(16:06):
are almost entirely consisted ofKichwa people.
So the people that we'rebuilding the systems are, we
have people who grew up in thesecommunities that are a local
NGO, that are driving all this.
I mean, when Mark says theinitial contact, that's often
through Cody Ince and there aresort of cultural slash,
construction, slash everything,consultants and they, you know,
they just they understand theculture more than you know they
grew up in it.
(16:26):
Right, they understand it morethan we ever could.
And while Mark and Chris aredefinitely very, very fluent and
very, very tied in with theculture, you know when you grow
up there it's different.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Yeah, thanks for adding that, colin.
That's such an important partof the work that we do and
having that cultural connection.
A lot of the times that doesdetermine the success of a
project.
When we can go, we can go intoa community and we can think, oh
, you know what this community?
They're excited, they want todo the project.
And then the director ofCorince Efrain, who his
(17:00):
community I'll mention MiraFlores, cochapamba community he
grew up in worked with MichiganWater for People to build a
water system.
Michigan Water for People was abig, big reason.
The project in his communitywas a success.
So just a cool connection there.
But again, efrain, he can go inthere and he can be like, nope,
(17:21):
I'm not seeing it.
These people aren't motivated.
They're saying the right wordsbut they're not ready to do what
we require of them.
And so again, yeah, thanksColin for mentioning that.
It's just so important to havethat cultural connection.
Without that this ministrywouldn't be a success.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
So we're talking mostly rural areas, right, and
we're not.
This isn't urban, this is rural.
You mentioned farmers.
Describe that a little bit.
What's the scope of theprojects that you're doing?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Yeah, so a lot of the times it's again.
We're in central Ecuador, inthe Andes Mountains.
The city that I'm in right now,rio Bamba that's where our
office is based is at 9,000 feet.
A lot of these communities thatwe're working in anywhere from
9,000 feet up to sometimes14,000 feet in areas that we can
be working, and so rural areas,farming areas, sometimes very,
(18:17):
very steep slopes Colin canattest to that.
We did a visit to Gingin,centro Civico, and I think we
ended up getting up to 13,700feet maybe, but steep slopes.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
We were told it was a short, short hike.
That was a short hike.
Seven miles straight.
That was real short yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
So just incredible vertical relief.
I mean, obviously you're in themountains and so from I'll just
talk about a design that I did acouple of years ago, or, yeah,
about a year and a half ago, inthe community of Pujol, San Jose
, and in that community therewas from a community of 205
(19:08):
homes.
From the house at the highestelevation to the house at the
lowest elevation, there was morethan 700 feet of vertical
relief, and so we're talkingabout five or six pressure zones
within this community of 205homes.
The total of distributionsystem that was constructed was,
I think it was, 22 kilometers,so 15 miles, just under 15 miles
(19:30):
of pipe that was constructed bythis community in three months.
We're not talking about smallareas or any sort of lack of
effort here.
These people are putting inincredible amounts of effort to
dig that trench, to install thepipe, to fill the trench back in
.
So over a two, three monthperiod is typically how long
these construction projects take.
(19:50):
Just an incredible amount ofeffort expensed by the people to
get themselves access to cleanwater, which is just really,
really cool to see.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
What's the source water for this?
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Yeah, source can be a couple of different sources.
Yeah, source can be a couple ofdifferent sources.
So one of the things that werequire of these communities
when they come into our officeand say we want a water project,
is they have to have legalrights to source water, whether
that be a spring up in themountains or a well that they've
drilled, they have to havelegal rights, through the
(20:25):
Ministry of Water here inEcuador, to be able to consume
that water.
Typically kind of our bread andbutter has always been springs,
and so that can be a springthat's higher up in the
mountains than the community,and so it flows entirely by
gravity from that spring to thecommunities.
It could also be a springthat's located below the
(20:48):
community, and in those cases weinstall pump systems to get
that spring water up to a topreservoir and then distributed
by gravity from there.
We do do some work with withwells, and those can be hand dug
wells.
It can be drilled wells eitherof those, but those.
Those are the sources that wedeal with this organization over
(21:09):
the years Again, bruce RydbeckI'll mention that name in the
decades that he worked in thiswork, from the late 80s up until
2019.
When he left, he saw just somany treatment systems that get
installed and then, a year later, aren't in use because they
just weren't maintained, youknow.
(21:30):
Just not sustainable,especially in these rural
contexts where you don't havetrained individuals to maintain
these filter systems, treatmentsystems.
We found that making sure thewater is clean directly from the
source is the best way toprovide clean water for these
communities, and so the way thatwe found that it's best to do
(21:54):
that is through spring capture.
Sometimes we do a little bit ofchlorine treatment just to kill
any sort of bacterias thatcould potentially grow, but
that's mostly what we're dealingwith is clean spring water
straight from the source.
That's typically what getsdelivered to the community and
the community members' homes.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Colin, I'm going to come straight to you for a
question.
So I hear you recently went ona trip and went down and worked
on a project.
Was this your first trip?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
No, this is my second trip.
Well, the first trip was whenMark and I were still both in
three mark hadn't moved downthere yet and we went down there
in 2019, late 2019, rightbefore things kind of kicked off
covid wise.
So this last trip, um, in april, has been our first since covid
.
But yep, um, it was myself andtwo others, uh, mitchell Feria
(22:51):
and Fiona Miller.
Fiona works at Friday New Hopand Mitchell works at GMB.
I hope I get that right, mark.
Yeah, we were down there forabout a week and I was Mark saw
some projects, you know,provided some engineering
expertise.
Mitchell brought his, broughthis drone, uh, and got a lot of
really nice shots.
So he's making a little videothat I think we're going to have
(23:13):
on display at the chanceauction, the annual conference.
But yeah, it was.
It was fantastic.
We spent, we stayed, in RioBamba most of the time and then
did little day trips out todifferent things and and then a
lot of them were just seeingexisting systems.
Then we went to see a potentialspring and that was the seven
mile hike uphill.
(23:33):
Uh, mitchell and Fiona gothorses there.
I don't think there was enoughhorses for me on the way up, but
I got one on the way back down,uh, but that was, it was pretty
intense but um, but yeah, itwas fantastic.
It was really good to see markagain.
It's good to see all the stuffprogressing.
Talk to you know, talk to thecode and say talk to every
(23:57):
community.
There's a big celebration, likethe first or second day we were
there, that went for I don'tknow five, six hours, I don't
know how long was.
That was a really longcelebration.
It was very nice but it wasvery long.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah that that community, san Martin Bajo, is a
community that Safe Water inEcuador provided funds for
almost fifteen thousand dollarsfor pump house, pump equipment,
electrical controls, pumps,motors, that kind of thing.
So it was wonderful to haveColin and the rest of the group
down just to recognize SafeWater in Ecuador for that
(24:33):
donation and for just the waythat Safe Water in Ecuador has
provided funds for manycommunities like it in the past.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Colin, you mentioned the chance auction.
Can you talk about the fundingfor this program?
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I think a lot of people know, but every year at
annual conferences really one ofour probably our biggest, if
not one of our only fundraisingbig events.
One of those is the ChanceAuction, the other is the golf
outing.
So the golf outing will be onTuesday, september 10th, and I
don't actually know the courseoffhand.
(25:08):
I'll talk to Rebecca about that.
But you know we have some holessponsored.
We'll be doing drinks a littledifferently this year.
We've got to figure that outyet, but we will let people know
once we know.
And then, yeah, chance Auctionwill be the next day, on
Wednesday.
So Mark will be bringing lotsof goodies from Ecuador and then
(25:28):
we'll have some other donationsas well and folks can buy
tickets and put them in and seewhat they can win.
It's usually pretty fun.
It ends up being a pretty funreveal time.
So, yeah, those are two reallybig, funny events.
We really appreciate everybodywho sponsors holes, who comes to
the golf outing, people whodonate to the Chance Auction,
people who buy tickets for thechance auction.
(25:51):
You know we we guilt thempretty hard there near the end,
but you know it's, it's all inthe, it's all in the name of, of
the greater good, right.
So yeah, well, that that's kindof what we got going.
You know, we've been like Isaid, the golf outing will be a
little different this year, butwe'll, we'll be sure to let.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
So I am a longtime donator to the Chance Auction.
I'm running out of unique ideasfor you know themed baskets,
but we'll come up with somethinggood this year.
So I would love to challengeanybody that's listening to this
If you attend the annualconference, just show up with
something.
They'd be happy to have it inthe auction.
But also you can get involvedin other ways.
(26:38):
You know donations can be takenthroughout the year, but, mark
and Colin, why don't you tell usa little bit about how anybody
else could get involved with SWE?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, just email me or call me Mostly.
But you know, at annualconference, if anybody wants to
come up with what we got, we'llhave somebody at the chance
auction booth all day.
We'll absolutely take a contacteach.
On the next meeting, you knowwe there's a lot um that's
involved and we're looking tokind of, uh, delegate a little
more and have a little more umof roles for people, you know,
(27:14):
rather than the chair trying todo everything.
Um, you know we're going to tryto have trip coordinators.
If you want to go on the trip,talk to us.
That's um, we're looking atdates.
Yet I think we got to look onmark's end, but usually it's
around march, april, may andthere, um it it is uh, you would
have to pay your own way on it,but I think this last year
(27:35):
market kind of fell around maybe1200 bucks all altogether with
the plane ticket staying thereand then paying other things.
Yeah, I mean, literally justfind me, find Mark, find someone
on the committee.
I can share my contact infothrough here at the end if you
guys want or somehow, if we canget that out there, I'm more
than more than happy to talk towhoever wants to be involved.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, we could always use more help.
I'm curious do you guys havelike a favorite project that
you've completed?
Speaker 4 (28:07):
yeah, I guess I'll go back into the into the annals
and talk about this meter,florida, scotia, pamba project
that I that I mentioned.
That was one of the originalprojects that at that time Water
for People worked on with theorganization that's down here
and it just it required some,just some significant thinking.
(28:28):
The springs were located on theother side of a valley from
this community and it requiredjust some ingenuity from the
engineers here and then someassistance from Water for People
, and it was again.
They had to cross this valley,they had to go underneath a
river and a road and saw I can'tremember how I wanted to say
(28:52):
like 350 meters plus of pressure, which is 500 PSI, 450 PSI, so
significant pressures.
And so what ended up happeningis there had been a situation in
a nearby community where theytried to use iron pipe, and when
you're trying to carry lengthsof iron pipe on steep hillsides,
(29:15):
some bad things happen, andsome people in this nearby
community ended up getting hurttrying to do that.
And so what happened was BruceRydback at the time.
He said, hey, water for People,what do you think?
What kind of options do we havefor pipe materials?
And somebody from Water forPeople said, hey, why not
fiberglass?
You know it's lightweight.
(29:36):
I think they had it in lengthsof six meters or something like
that 18 to 20 feet and it canwithstand just very high
pressures, and so that's whatthat's.
What ended up happening is theyhad a container or a partial
container of fiberglass pipessent from the US to Ecuador to
use for, I want to say, morethan a kilometer's length of
(29:58):
this feed line, and so, yeah, itended up working great.
Just last year, last September Ithink, I came back to Ecuador
with some fiberglass unions sothat they still have some
fiberglass in their bodega, intheir storage room, and so, if
(30:19):
they ever need to fix anything,I came down with some unions so
that they still have somefiberglass in their bodega, in
their storage room, and so, ifthey ever need to fix anything,
I came down with some unions sothat they could keep using that
fiberglass pipe.
Yeah, that's a success story 25years running.
And again, that's helped shapethe ministry.
From that community came thecurrent members of Codeense.
Members from that communityformed this organization, this
national organization, to helpadminister projects and help
(30:40):
other communities, and so it's.
It's been just a multiplicationsituation with that community,
with that project which Waterfor People helped fund, and so
that's really just kind of ajust a model for for other
communities and it's, it's justbeen a wonderful project here.
Obviously, and you know, wehope that maybe, maybe some of
(31:02):
these projects that we'recontinuing to work on, that that
could happen in other places.
What about you, colin?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I'd probably say MartÃn Bajo, that was.
I mean, we just had the bigpresent, the big celebration for
it.
But you know, there was somethings that tied me very
personally to that one um, andso it was really good to see
that pump station.
It's nice to have a nice.
This is exactly what we fundedand you can go look at it, take
pictures of it and send it backto people help on that.
(31:31):
So, um, yeah, that was, thatwas probably my, my favorite.
But, mark, he's right, that'sthe seminal project, sort of.
That is the big one.
If SWE were to have a favoriteright.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
For those of us who don't know what you're talking
about, explain that project, thepump station project.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, it was San MartÃn Bajo, I believe they have
a couple.
They had an existing well right, mark, and then we drilled a
new well, um, and trying toremember the number of
communities now, mark has allthese things around a lot in his
head and I don't necessarilyhave them but they drilled a new
well in a new pump house, um,and they pumped up to a
(32:10):
reservoir up top.
So we were sort of there's anexisting system, wasn't working
very well, um, you know,hydrodeology is inexact at best,
and I think in this case wasthere an earthquake or something
, or was that another one, mark,where they had a seismic event
and then it wasn't producing theway it had before?
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Yeah, with San Martin , baja the situation a community
of 112 homes they hadpreviously had a spring source
that just wasn't sufficient forthe growth of the community, and
so they were supplementing thatspring source with river water,
which untreated river water,and so whenever it would rain,
(32:52):
their system would fill withdirt and contaminants and all
that kind of thing, and so, yeah, the new wells were certainly
an upgrade on that.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Are there challenges with getting power to these pump
stations?
Speaker 4 (33:08):
In some very remote areas it can be difficult, but
there's been a hugeelectrification of rural areas
in Ecuador in the last 30 years,40, 30, 40 years, and so
sometimes we have issues wherewe have to get power connected
from 500 feet away.
(33:30):
Or we did a project in 2014 inAchuyay and that one required,
yeah, probably close to akilometer of new poles and
wiring to connect that pumphouse to the electrical grid.
So that can happen from projectto project.
But the Ecuadorian governmentthat's one of the things that
(33:52):
they've greatly improved on inthe last 30, 40 years has been
electrification of rural areas.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
I will note, though, that the cities are interesting
in the way they do electrical.
They have electrified, everyonehas electricity, but they have
not worked on the efficiencyportion of it.
There was literally some polesthat were seemingly getting
pulled out of the ground or overby the amount of wire on them.
It was simply incredible.
So so if we have any electricalfolks electricians, just for
(34:21):
like a, you know, to go see it's, it's amazing.
It's amazing how some of thisstuff even works.
I can't even the rat's nest ontop of the pole.
It's almost pulling it down.
It's incredible.
But yeah, mark, right, I mean Ikept remarking out the whole
trip, mark.
I probably probably, like colin, stopped mentioning it, but it
is amazing how much they've runelectricity throughout the
(34:41):
country.
I mean every.
You can go 12 500 feet in thisremote community, and they got
poles going all the way outthere.
They don't have water, sanitaryor any of those other things,
but they certainly gotelectrical.
So it's actually that's one ofthe things that they've really
done a nice job on so I do know.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
um, on website there are lots of pictures from past
projects and trips which mightbe really helpful to those who
are trying to, you know, put animage with what we're talking
about today.
So I encourage you to hop overthere and check that out when
you can, and I think as we wrapup, it sounds like you could use
people with all kinds ofbackgrounds to join in, attend a
(35:22):
trip, lend their expertise.
So maybe one of you give me alittle bit of a rundown of the
kinds of people you would loveto work with.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Someone who is hands on.
We get a lot of engineers downhere and we're really good at
drawing stuff.
When it comes to fixing a pump,we really don't quite know what
we're doing.
So we've been.
As Mark mentioned, there's alot of pump station, there's
well pumps and there's a lot ofpumps that we put in.
But we don't really have a goodO&M sort of plan or SOP with
(35:54):
those sort of plan or SOP withthose.
But we could get somebody whoworks on and they're mostly kind
of submersible well pumps, Iguess is what I'd call them.
Even if they're being used in apump station, it's still a
submersible well pump that'sbeing used, and somebody with
that background would beincredible.
We've been trying to sort offind somebody to come down and I
(36:16):
think you know we'd even be aswilling to, you know sort of uh,
supplement some of the, the payfor it.
You know, if somebody's saying,okay, it costs too much, you
know we can find a way to get,get them down there and let's
establish a nice sop and keepthese pumps running forever.
Um, if we can, or as long as wecan, that'd be it.
That'd be a big one, um, butbut anybody really, I mean all
(36:38):
sorts of backgrounds.
You know mitchell brought downthe drone and it was awesome to
get all that drone footage.
I mean anybody, or just bringyourself down, even if you
aren't got some sort of specialskill, still we still love
having people down there.
Jeannie loves seeing people whoare donating and love seeing I
mean it's just, it's great andwhen you go there you feel so
much more connected.
You know, it's like you'remeeting the people and, um,
(37:01):
everyone's like five foot two,uh, because they're all in the
mountain.
So it is kind of interesting.
There you feel kind of like agiant.
I'm five foot 10.
I felt like I was too big, um,so that's an interesting
experience that, if anybodywants that, um, I guess the
other thing that Mark and Ihaven't mentioned is this is
absolutely beautiful.
Like you can just close youreyes and snap a picture and it's
so mountainous and gorgeous andit's got these rolling
(37:25):
mountainous hills and the farmsare on the built on the side of
the side of the hill and it'sjust beautiful.
And we also try to put a littlebit of sight in with every trip
too.
You know we're there to kind ofdo work, but we usually take a
day or two to you know, doingsomething fun either a good hike
or going in the keel, going tothe market, things like that but
um, but yeah, the big one we'rereally pushing for is the pump
(37:48):
person.
So if anybody you know of, like, say, peerless midwest or or
they're pumping well wants tocome down and show us how to
work on a submersible well pump,we would very, very much
appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Yeah, I'll just add to that the work that we're
doing, that Life-Giving Waterdoes, that Codinze does.
Obviously we try to useappropriate technology, but at
the same time, we're trying topush forward on new ways of
doing things, trying to findbetter ways that we can be
setting up pumps, setting upcontrols, setting up our
(38:22):
chlorine dosing, and so it'sgood for us to have people that
are in an industry that is muchfurther along than what we have
here in Ecuador.
Just to provide a little bit ofcontext, in my opinion, I would
say that Ecuador is 50 to 60years behind the US just as far
(38:43):
as infrastructure is concerned,and so I live in Rio Bamba.
It's a city of almost 200,000.
I can't drink the tap waterhere.
The water is not treatedsufficiently for local
Ecuadorians to be drinking tapwater, and so there's just to
provide a little bit of contextof where the country is, and so,
yeah, just to have people thatare in the thick of engineering
(39:07):
in the US to come down toprovide just a different
perspective on how we can bedoing work, ways that we can be
improving all those sorts ofthings is really beneficial for
our work.
It lends credence to our work,too that we have current
professionals that are reviewingour work and saying you're
doing great or here are ways youcan improve, because that just
(39:31):
lends so much credence to ourwork and it helps us become
better too.
The engineers that are downhere full time.
It helps us become betterengineers and we are down here
full-time.
It helps us become betterengineers and we, we want that
and we want we want theseprojects to be as sustainable as
possible.
And, yeah, this partnershipwith michigan awwa, with swi
that's, it just provides so muchof that for the ministry.
(39:52):
That's that's happening here.
So it's just beneficial for usand, and hopefully in the long
term, not only for thesecommunities but also but also
for the for Ecuador as a whole.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
And then one more small thing.
Someone's probably thinking, oh, I need to know Spanish.
I don't know Spanish Like Ibarely, just barely.
Mark can do a lot of.
You know a lot of playingaround, that you'll learn some
words while you're there andpeople are generally very nice
and usually somebody knows alittle bit of English, so you
don't have to come down and befluent or even know much at all,
(40:26):
like me.
So just mentioning that, Well,great, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
any other questions?
Speaker 3 (40:34):
No, this has been a really good opportunity to hear
more about the organization.
I've been with the Michigansection for 20 years now and you
know have known a little bitabout SWE over the years, but I
really like the deep dive thatwe did today.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Are there any upcoming projects that you want
to plug in Ecuador?
Speaker 4 (40:55):
We don't have anything identified at the
moment as far as next projectsgo, so nothing there.
One thing I would like tomention is we do have a
presentation at Michigan Ace,september 11th, I believe.
It's at 4.05 pm, I believe.
I think it's the last slotright before the happy hour on
(41:17):
Wednesday.
What we're going to have thereis I'm listed as the principal
presenter, but that's not reallythe case.
I've got some friends from bothCalvin University and Hope
College that are going to behelping me out.
Some students and professors atthose institutions have been
down in Ecuador in the last sixmonths helping us with some
water quality studies and thensome health surveys to help us
(41:40):
better understand the impact ofthe work that we do, both on the
spring protection front, thechlorine treatment front, and
then just as a whole, how thework we're doing impacts health
in communities, and so I thinkit's going to be a really
interesting presentation fromfolks at both of those
institutions just to share how,yeah, the type of impact this
(42:05):
work is having and how they'regetting involved in the work
here.
So if you're at Michigan ACE, Ithink, show up Wednesday
afternoon to the general sessionand you can hear more about
that work, definitely going tohave to check that out.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Is there anything else that you want to say?
Any any final thoughts for fromeither of you?
Speaker 4 (42:27):
I've got one more thing just on a cost perspective
, when you think about what awater project might cost in the
us, the way that we're doingwork here again utilizing the
work of the communities and justdoing things, I mean the work
that we're doing is very basicfrom a technical perspective
(42:48):
it's not that difficult but it'seffective, it's efficient In
most cases when we're buildingthese water systems it costs
roughly 350 dollars per home toget water to these, to these
homes.
So just just from a donationperspective, you know, to get to
(43:10):
get a family water forhopefully 20 years for 350
dollars.
It's really, think, just aneffective use of funds and
obviously, again, just the workthat the community puts in is
just so important to that.
But just to give you an ideafor what costs are and how just
(43:34):
not a lot of money can make ahuge impact in the lives of
these communities.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Yeah, I guess I'd echo what Mark said there.
I mean, if you give $10 toUnited Way, if you give $10 to
one of these large organizations, $2, $3, $4 of your money is
going to people and there's alot of add-ins and things like
that, not to say any of thoseare bad.
But I think we have a uniquesort of I guess bespoke little
organization here.
(43:58):
You've got Mark Chris Fisherdown there, you've got all the
guys in Cody and say they'vedevoted their lives to doing
this work Right, and they haveset it up so that every dollar
you give them goes to thecommunity, which is which is
really incredible and, frankly,rare, especially the size we're
talking about, especially thesize we're talking about.
So, um, you know that to me,whenever I give my time or money
(44:21):
to SWE, I just think you knowI'm just giving a drop in the
bucket, you know, versus whatMark and some of those guys are
doing down there.
It's, it's incredible.
So we're we're just happy to beable to support them and we'd
be more happy, you know, ifMichigan A's AWDA can, can
(44:42):
support SWE going forward.
And we appreciate all thesupport over all the years.
We know everybody's been reallysupportive and we really,
really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
That means a lot so well, thank you for all your
work and mark, thanks forjoining us from ecuador today.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Yeah it's been wonderful to be with you guys
and, yeah, thank you for theopportunity to share.
Again, I echo what Colin saidMichigan AWWA has been a
wonderful supporter of the workhere.
Dozens of communities,thousands of families that
Michigan AWWA has impacted andhopefully it can be the same for
decades to come.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Any, last words, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
No, no, no, no.
I would like to again thank youboth for being with us today.
That was a really greatoverview of what SWE is, and
hopefully the people that arelistening will get involved in
some sort of way.
Of course, always donations,because it can impact a lot of
(45:42):
people, but also your time andyour energy would be welcome as
well.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
Also, join us September 10ththrough the 13th for for my ACE
it's there's a lot ofinteresting things going on
there and it's going to be a lotof fun.
So well, thank you guys.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
There's a lot of interestingthings going on there and it's
going to be a lot of fun.
Well, thank you guys.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
From the east side to the westside and statewide.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
From experts to everyday heroes, we've got it
all.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Join us as we dive into water and wastewater topics
from across Michigan.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
Subscribe, follow us and get caught up in the current
today.
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