Environmental Health Project

The Environmental Health project of Peace Corps Panama is designed to improve the health of rural Panamanians.  Peace Corps Volunteers train motivated community members in water borne disease prevention practices, participatory decision making techniques, and sustainable health infrastructure development methods.  The EHP is focused on community capacity development and technical assistance for constructing and maintaining potable water systems and sanitation facilities. 

The three main goals are:

• Community Leadership, Organization, and Mobilization - Project participants in rural communities will develop capacity to lead, organize, and mobilize community members.  This is a process that often happens naturally by visiting families and identifying community leaders, personal observations, and training leaders in project management and leadership skills.
• Potable Water Systems - Project participants in rural communities will increase understanding, access, and management of potable water systems.  This includes education for water borne disease prevention, training for water system management, and water system project implementation.  Typical projects include commuity aqueducts, spring boxes, and rain water catchment.
• Sanitation Systems - Project participants in rural communities will increase understanding, access, and management of sanitation systems.  This includes education for water borne disease prevention, training for sanitation system management, and santiation project implementation.  Typical projects include construction of pit latrines, compositing latrines, and solid waste disposal and recycling.

During a field based week of technical training, we worked on learning how to build tap stands, fix and re-route PCV pipes, built a bridge for a pipe to cross a ravine, a pit latrine and a composting latrine.

Working on fixing a piece of pipe