Water shortages in a land of abundant rainfall, and no-till corn growing on steep, 70-percent mountain slopes—these were just a few of the experiences that a team from the Institute of Agriculture found on an outreach trip to Guatemala in August 2006. Five faculty members traveled to the country at the request of Institute donors Kelly and Beverly Milam to conduct an appraisal of village needs in several diverse communities served by Health Talents International (HTI), a medical outreach organization.
Team members were soil scientist Neal Eash, climatologist Joanne Logan, rural sociologist Bob Orr, animal scientist Kelly Robbins, and soil scientist Forbes Walker. (Eash and Walker are pictured in photo at left, with Guatemalan farmers.)
The team was asked to visit several of the communities with HTI medical clinics and suggest possible ways to assess their needs and opportunities for improving community health. HTI requested that the potential solutions be development oriented, culturally acceptable, address a felt need, teachable to the marginally educated, and use available resources that can be renewed or replenished.
The team found water supply and quality related issues to be among the most important challenges facing villagers in their daily lives. The team recently finalized its report and the recommendations it will make to HTI. Among the solutions looked at are ways to address the shortage and quality of water for household use by rain water harvesting from household roofs. All houses have corrugated iron roofs and there is rainfall for at least 6 months of the year, so it should be possible to design and build household rainwater collection systems that make use of locally available materials. In addition, Joanne Logan and Neal Eash are planning to use some of the needs identified during the trip into their classroom teaching in climatology and soil science courses.
Margot Emory with Forbes Walker
©Biosystems Engineering & Soil Science · bess@utk.edu · bioengr.ag.utk.edu · 865-974-7266