Amarateca Project
All photos taken August through December of 2002

1. Building on rock - that is what the sign says - has its disadvantages.

2. Water flows along the underground contact between weathering surficial rock and underlying hard, dense basalt.  In this excavation, uphill from the development, seeping water has a vigorous green algae colony, suggesting that this flow is persistent.

3. Outhouses on pedestals because the rock is too hard.  If the bottom of each pit has not been sealed, contamination from these privies will migrate with the ground water.

4. Sheet flooding occurs during heavy rains, and there are no decent drains in place to keep water from washing away the streets or flowing into homes.

5. Another sign proclaiming a different sponsor of another housing project.

6. Housing project, Amarateca.

7. View toward the southwest, up one of the main "streets."

8. Elevated tank supplies water pressure to the development.  Water is pumped from well located downhill from the settlement.  Review slides 2 and 3.

9.  Some of that liquid flowing down the street includes 'aguas negras'.  

10. There is no trash pickup.  Piles of trash are partially burned but without a great deal of care, or so it appears.

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