Securing flood prone community - Nueva Reforma

In the spring of 2022 we learned from our partners in Ipala that many houses in a new neighborhood, or “colonia” as they refer to it, were unprepared to prevent damages from repeated flooding events. Our Vice-President Vernon Archer visited the site, met with ACIDHER (our main partner in Ipala) and representatives of the municipality. We analyzed the situation together and came up with some short term measures to assist a few families to overcome the emergency situation and agreed to keep working together to improve the situation seeking more mid and long term solutions for the whole colonia.

Nueva Reforma is built on an unserviced tract of land given by the mayor to house homeless people and displaced squatters (persons uprooted from housing they didn’t have title to) and it was clear from the beginning that this was a precarious situation. It requires much greater resources than we and our partners can come up with in one or two years. The municipality contributed some technical assistance and some construction materials, the community has been a showcase of volunteerism to do almost all of the physical work, and we provided money for more materials beyond what the City and residents could muster.

While our initial efforts focused on raising the floor level of houses it became increasingly clear that such a measure was NOT going to be a viable solution for the community as a whole and our plans had to evolve. We are now helping the residents build out their community to be fully serviced, by appropriate urban design standards and building codes. Just like streets, sidewalks and other infrastructure, stormwater management has to have a completed network to really function. Resilient infrastructure depends on a system of BMPs, including smart landscaping, interconnected walls and gutters to keep water out of the houses and provide safe places to live for Nueva Reforma residents.

This year we have supported five additional families to make changes/improvements in their houses so they can have dry, safe places to live in and this action has a positive impact on the community as a whole. However, there are dozens of homes in Nueva Reforma still in need of assistance, that's why we remain committed to keeping the progress moving.

This is just one example of a new, “at modern standard” wall being built to replace “wall” that was a mix of stick and wattle (dried mud) and tin roofing. Now it's complete, connected to the neighbors wall and will keep out storm water vastly better than before.