WaterStep will lead a six -member team that will travel to Orosi Valley, Costa Rica and begin a project providing proper access to sanitation. The team will include staff members from WaterStep and Louisville’s Metropolitan Sewer District, who will use their design and implementation expertise to provide appropriate sanitation systems to the 250-year-old small town of just over 4,500 people. The team will leave from Louisville on Saturday, March 12 and be in Costa Rica until March 19.
This will be WaterStep’s first sanitation project in the area. The team will work at an international camp owned by Global Missions, called El Jardin Sagrado, which hosts up to 1,000 international and local visitors year-round.
The first phase of this project will focus on the central area of the camp, which includes water closets, restrooms, and showers. The team will install a new working septic system and add laterals into the rest of the camp. Once the WaterStep and MSD team show the owners of the camp how to install a working system, they will be able to repeat the process in other buildings on the camp, improving the access to sanitation across the camp.
WaterStep has provided sustainable water solutions – such as the M-100 chlorinator, and health education – to Costa Rica for 15 years and has led many trips to Orosi Valley. Teams have stayed at El Jardin Sagrado and worked with the leaders of the camp to find locations for safe water installations. WaterStep installed a water purification system at the camp in 2011.
According to the World Health Organization, 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation around the world, while over 660 million people still lack access to safe drinking water sources. A lack of access to proper sanitation and water can lead to health issues such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Costa Rica has had access to sanitation tools for years, but many community members need to be educated about the proper way to use sanitation and the importance of it.
We are looking forward to this trip and are eager to share the results with you. To learn more about our past work in Costa Rica, click on our recent projects.
