San Lucas Toliman, Solola, Guatemala
By Joe Wakely
March 2025
Sanik-Ya is one of the Rotary Club of Lake Atitlan’s (RCLA’s) model projects. In his last year of his life, Monsenor Greg Schaffer (the founder of the San Lucas Mission and one of Agua del Pueblo’s founders) purchased some of the last available land outskirts of San Lucas Toliman. The land was up the slope of the Volcano Toliman, higher than San Lucas.
Greg asked his team to choose the most deserving San Lucas families that could benefit from owning their own land. He subdivided the land into 160 plots for each of the 160 most deserving families. The beneficiaries called their land Sanik-Ya and Chitulul.
The only problem was water. Greg ‘had a dream’ to pump water from the Lake Atitlan. Typical for the optimistic Greg, he knew if he bought the land, ‘water would come’. The Peoples Consultants aka Agua del Pueblo USA, raised the funds for Agua del Pueblo (AdP) to design the system. Ing. Carlos Simon led the design team. As part of a Furman University course, students visited Sanik Ya and decided to raise the funds for a water project for both towns. I am a Rotary Club of Lake Atitlan (RCLA) member. The team of RCLA, AdP and I met at the most critical time when the $50,000 Furman University donation had just run out.Â
I worked with Agua de Pueblo to complete the engineering, design, and construction supervision. AdP also led the community meetings and assessments. This was a very complex and challenging project, both in terms of engineering and social aspects. This was my first Rotary Global Grant. Agua del Pueblo and I formed a strong team. AdP respected me and I felt AdP was competent in the engineering and social sides.
