At the potluck dinner in November 2007, AARPCV voted to support a Peace Corps Partnership proposal from Costa Rica.  The proposal aims to improve the water usage and management of a rural Costa Rican village named La Garita.  Below is a summary of the proposal. 

The small rural village of La Garita urgently needs improvement in its water infrastructure to bring running water to its growing community. La Garita is a small village in the province of Guanacaste on the far Pacific Northwest border of Costa Rica with Nicaragua.    

In 1985, the village water committee of La Garita installed a gravity-based aqueduct to provide inhabitants with running water from several subterranean springs in the outlying hills. The number of households in the community at that time was a mere 140 houses. Today, the number of households receiving water exceeds 200. This increase in demand, coupled with several faults in the system that are badly in need of repair have pushed the village into a water scarcity problem that has never before been seen. Six months have passed in La Garita without a full days worth of running water and the villagers have been forced to ration the little amount of water that arrives to their homes to make it through the day. 

The village water committee, supported by the Costa Rican Association of Aqueducts has determined that urgent revamping of the water system is needed to alleviate the village of its water shortage and potentially grave health risk. The financial contributions to this project will help meet this urgent need. Additionally, this project requests funds to purchase 60 water meters that are badly needed by the committee to charge for water service and bring in funds needed for further system maintenance.