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Well No. 10

Methodist Church at Y'Apy

 Sponsors - Larry Hunter Development and

Golder Associates, Inc.

The Methodist Church at Y'Apy is on the reservation of the Guaraní people, indigenous to Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.  This church was planted by Korean Baptist missionaries from the United States, but due to shortage of missionary staff, had no full-time missionary presence since the early 1990's.  In the fall of 2003 the small congregation of faithful believers agreed to join the Comunidad Evangelica Metodista del Paraguay - the Paraguayan Methodist Church.  The Agua de Vida Ministry has been working with this church for over 2 years, and was recently able to drill them a well.

The colonia (as the locals call the reservation) covers almost 4,000 acres, and is home to almost 500 people, clustered in several villages.  The village of Y'Apy (which means "source of water" in the Guaraní language) is home to about 15 families clustered around the Methodist Church and a school originally built by Korean  Baptist missionaries.  The needs in this community are very great - it is hard to convey with words or photos the conditions that these people are living under.  Because of these great needs, we decided to double the size of the project, combining the funds from two donors, allowing us to build much more extensive sanitation facilities for the church, the school and the villagers.  The pictures on this web page show the well project itself - click here for more Y'Apy village images.

There are dozens of kids that live in the little village, and they all wanted to go help us collect water.  It was quite hot, so a trip to the creek was very popular.  This creek is almost a mile away from the village and is where the ladies do all of the  laundry.

The kids were around all the time - and more than ready to take advantage of the a good time.  They really enjoyed playing in the water - and the mud - while we were purging the well.  The well was finally completed and the water tower constructed with a 250 gallon tank to provide water for the entire village.

As we mentioned above, the needs at this location were much greater than at the other sites.  We constructed much more extensive sanitation facilities here than normal. 

The sanitation facilities that we constructed included a bathroom for the church congregation, a bathroom for the pastor's house and a bathroom and shower at the local elementary school.  This school is a very humble facility, but is all that is available for the children in the village.  School photos are shown on the Y'Apy village images page.

Since the ladies have to carry their clothes to the creek almost a mile away for washing, we built a cloths washing station with three sinks.  This is one of the most popular aspects of the project.

Since there are no other public sources of water for the village, we placed spigots all around to provide folks easy access.  A spigot was also placed at the school as well as at the soccer field - a real blessing on a hot day!!  It is hard for us to imagine the change from having to pull up water from a hand dug well - one bucket at the time - to just turning on a spigot!

When all was completed we had a wonderful inauguration of the well - and dedicated the water to Jesus - the true source of Living Water.  We always enjoy sharing God's word when we do a project.

We truly enjoyed this project, and feel that it was one of our most needed.  It was a true blessing to be able to work here, to offer water to help the people live better lives, but most important to get the chance to offer the Living Water of Jesus.

 Technical Details

Sponsor:    The Memorial United Methodist Church, Fernandina Beach, Florida

Drilling date: May 20 - July 10, 2008

Location:   Latitude -  S 24°29.499'     Longitude - W 56° 06.889' - Approx 5 km from the town of Yrybucua

Elevation:     209 meters above sea level

Total cost:    $3,852

Drill depth:   59  meters (194 ft.)

Soil types encountered:   Sand and clay, with soft to hard sandstone at depth

Static groundwater level:     14.6  meters below ground surface

Dynamic groundwater level:      40 meters

Installed well depth:  59 meters

Length of screened section:   24 meters

Length of gravel packed section:  26  meters

Length and type of sealed section:  Approx. 1 meter of bentonite pellets

Pump description:    1 hp mono-phase electric submersible

Depth to base of pump:   56 meters

Flow rate:    1,500  liters/hour

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