Gracias a Dios, La Lima
Water, Sanitation, Drainage
The neighborhood of Gracias a Dios is located in the municipality of La Lima, near the border with San Pedro Sula, close to the strip of industrial development along the highway from San Pedro Sula to El Progreso.
This region has recently experienced extremely high population growth due to the increased number of factories and job opportunities in the region. The population has grown at a faster rate than the communities have been able to keep up with in terms of public infrastructure.
The community of Gracias a Dios currently does not have a potable water system. Residents in this community must haul water from houses in neighboring communities that do have potable water. A deep well was drilled behind the elementary school, but a pump was never installed.
Residents of Gracias a Dios have latrines or septic tanks. It is suspected that excess runoff drainage water and the latrines and septic tanks are polluting the surface runoff and the groundwater, which is entering the nearby well based on water quality tests taken of the well water last year.
The municipality requested potable water, sanitation, and storm water drainage in this community. The project began as an Engineers Without Borders project and was assigned to the San Francisco San Jose Annex Professional Chapter led by Shyamala Raveendran and Chris Pitt.
Before the group even made their first site assessment trip, the Municipality of La Lima contracted two local engineers, Alma Mendoza and Roberto Torres, to design and prepare the package to be submitted to FHIS for funding.
Global Community Development decided it was in everyone’s best interest for the San Francisco San Jose Annex Chapter to discontinue the project and let local engineers handle the design and the package.