IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSTAINABILITY OF GRAVITY-FED WATER SYSTEMS IN THE COMARCA NGÄBE-BUGLÉ, PANAMA: SPRING CAPTURES AND CIRCUIT RIDER MODEL

Acknowledgements I was always told throughout my time in the Peace Corps to trust the process. I didn't always. As a critical thinker, when there was something I didn't understand – I fought against it until it proved itself to me. This worked for and against me, as you can imagine. The evolution of the project for which this report represents was a struggle. The struggle was against heat, public transportation, muddy hills, missing tubes, bad calculations, and bags of cement carried on the backs of men. It was a process. It proved itself. Thanks to my fans at home, always equal parts amazed and concerned about my endeavors. My parents, Paul and Cynthia Jones, all my family, and my wonderful friends. I recognize with sincere appreciation the Peace Corps Panama staff and Waterlines Volunteers. You gave me freedom to roam and trust to allow me to make mistakes and maybe, just maybe, a difference. My fellow Peace Corps Panama Volunteers who really know what this report is about: Chet Hopp, Emma Luther, and Christopher Kingsley for your contributions to the work this report approaches and for letting me document it all. Without the support of Michigan Tech, particularly my advisor Dave Watkins, this report, this affirmation of the past two years of my life, would not have taken form. Thank you for encouraging attitudes and words, they have sustained me through this process. My greatest acknowledgment is to my Ngobes. Not the poor, impoverished, in need ones you always hear about. My fellow human ones, with whom I ate and laughed, joked and worked. The ones that took tools out of my hands and looked to me for advice, and then forgave me when I was wrong. Thank you for your friendship and for being the unknowing subjects of my self-explorative research project. You gave me the opportunity to learn about myself and you are an aura of light shining out of me always. Abstract Gravity-flow aqueducts are used to bring clean water from mountain springs in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, Panama, to the homes of the indigenous people who reside there. Spring captures enclose a spring to direct the flow of water into the transmission line. Seepage contact springs are most common, with water appearing above either hard basalt bedrock or a dense clay layer. Spring flows vary dramatically during wet and dry seasons, and discharge points of springs …