Ministerio Agua de Vida

The community of El Torno was the first community chosen from the Rio Bocay community survey to develop a spring box water supply system. The people of El Torno were very proactive in their quest for a water system - they had even purchased the land where the spring was located with funds raised from the community. However, they needed assistance to purchase the materials. Ronnie Hopkins, the local missionary overseeing the project told the community that we would purchase the materials but they had to provide all the labor. We did agree to hire a supervisor who was experienced in water system construction.

Pastor and Teacher with some children

Church service welcoming the Water Team

The spring is located about a mile in the hills above the village and the goal was to provide for a water spigot at each of the 48 homes, the church and the school. Therefore the project involved buying over a mile of PVC pipe!! All of the pipe, plus the cement for the spring box and reservoir had to transported to the village by canoe down the river. Once off-loaded, it all then had to be caried by hand. LOTS OF WORK!

Transporting the pipe by canoe along the Rio Bacay

All 6,000 ft. of pipe was carried by hand

The spring box itself is a concrete structure placed over or immediately below the spring head. Its purpose is to collect the water so that it can be piped to the reservoir and to keep the animals out. The reservoir collects the water during the night so that when the spigots are opened in the morning there will be plenty of water. The system was designed to provide at least 100 gallons of water per household per day.

Completed spring box

Water storage reservoir

Our ministry (by the generosity of our donors) provided funds to purchase materials for the main pipeline and the concrete structures. The community members provided all of the labor without pay. Also, each family agreed to purchase the pipe from the main pipeline to their house for a spigot or pila, which is like a large bathtub to store water at the house.

Worker enjoying the newly connected water

Family with a full "pila"

The project was dedicated to Jesus at the local Assembly of God church (hope to post some photos in the future). Once again, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been proclaimed through the Water of Life! To God be the Glory!

Technical Details

Project date: March 27 - June 25, 2015

Location: Latitude - N 13° 48’ 39.4” Longitude - W 85° 22’ 50.7”

Elevation: 803 ft. above sea level

Project Cost: $14,762

Type of project: Installation of spring water collection and distribution system

People served: Community consists of 48 families