The Cochabamba newspaper Los Tiempos wrote an article yesterday about the San Isidro Festival, which takes place in and around the Ucuchi water reservoir that Mano a Mano built in partnership with the community in 2005.
Los Tiempos Article – English Translation
“The San Isidro Tourist Festival, in its fourteenth version, enchants the people of Sacabo and Cochabambinos with outdoors activities, such as boating, motorcycle racing, camping and extreme sports, among others, which will take place throughout this Sunday. The San Isidro lagoon is located in the rural district of Ucuchi in Sacaba.
“This festival seeks to help in the economic reactivation, since in 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic, the festival was suspended,” said the secretary of Madre Tierra and Productive Development of Sacaba, Elfy Flores.
This Sunday there will be the sport of motorcycling, which will have the participation of competitors from all over the country; in addition, a gastronomic fair is planned, combined with boating, horseback riding and sport fishing. San Isidro is located 35 kilometers from the city of Cochabamba.”
– Los Tiempos, “El Festival San Isidro reúne gastronomía, deporte y turismo”
Mano a Mano’s First Major Water Project – A Reservoir in Ucuchi in 2005
“Water is life. We cannot live without water.” Dona Martina, a subsistence farmer in Ucuchi, Bolivia, approached Mano a Mano with this grim problem and a request: “A large reservoir would hold enough rain water to irrigate our fields once the dry season begins. You saw our ganas (motivation) when we worked together to build a school. We will work hard every day if you build a reservoir with us. Then we could feed our children and still have enough to sell some in the city.”
One of the most important aspects of these projects for Mano a Mano is the sustainability of projects that have been built; we want to ensure that anything that we build is used efficiently, is used for its intended purpose, and is in use for a long time. A basic philosophy of Mano a Mano in our community-based development model is to provide the most basic needs for communities – clinics, schools, roads, water projects, aviation runways, agricultural tools and training – that can serve as a springboard for other projects. (For an example of this, watch this video about our road project in El Palmar, Bolivia.) In 2017, the Cochabamba newspaper Los Tiempos ran an article about the San Isidro Ecotourism Park, and Mano a Mano’s Ucuchi water reservoir is an integral part of the park. We are happy to see the impact that this project continues to have, more than 15 years since its dedication in March 2006.
The San Isidro Ecotourism Park hosts fishing tournaments (pictured here from April 2021) and other extreme sports & ecotourism events (pictured here from December 2020).
Learn More About Mano a Mano’s Ucuchi Water Reservoir Project
- Ucuchi Water Reservoir – Part of the San Isidro Ecotourism Park
- Farmers Travel to Visit Water Reservoirs in Other Communities – September 2022
- Visiting the Ucuchi Water Reservoir with Rotary – September 2018
- Ucuchi Water Reservoir Site Visit (2013)
- Building Water Projects and Community Development Projects: Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo 2022 Report
- World Water Day 2022: Partnering with Bolivian Communities to Improve Access to Water