The Heneya project is an ongoing initiative of the institute that involves a series of actions coordinated by directors Cesar Mancilha Carvalho Pedigone and Marcela Thiemi Andrade Korogi, which made it possible to collect water from several family units located in 3 villages on the Jordão River, in addition to a pioneering complete sewage treatment system at the Campo Sagrado Center in the Nova Empresa village.

The project was divided into 4 stages, which occurred simultaneously.

1st Stage – Water collection and sanitation, with construction of a kitchen and bathroom with shower at the Campo Sagrado Institute – headquarters of the Nova Empresa village:

These actions were financed by donations from the company Magazine Luiza, Instituto Bio Saneamento, by donations from individuals such as Cesar Mancilha Carvalho Pedigone, Gildo Sales Bane Huni Kui, Karina Pavão Patrício and by several smaller donations made through a crowdfunding campaign (in which resources were also requested for the construction of a laboratory school in the same location, called Yura Kaya Xinã, which is still active today). current).

The project began in 2020, with the installation of 2 dry toilets and a solar-powered water pump, as well as the construction of a complete hydraulic system for the distribution of piped water, at the headquarters of the Centro Campo Sagrado Chave da Lua, located in the new company village.

The installation of the dry toilets had technical support in partnership with the Instituto Bio Saneamento, represented at the time by director Fazio.

Two dry toilets (1 for men and 1 for women) were installed, built with wood, along with basic faucet installations and drainage of water from urine for a banana cycle.

The project included health education meetings with participants of the Sacred Field and visitors who were present, hosted by Dr. Cesar Carvalho, in which topics such as the importance of adequate sanitation in homes, personal hygiene guidelines, infectious diseases of the oral-fecal cycle and guidelines on how to correctly use a dry toilet were addressed, associated with the creation of printed educational material that demonstrated with drawings in the Hãtxa Kui language the importance of performing personal hygiene activities (brushing teeth, washing hands) and guidelines on how to use the dry toilet.

The project took an average of 2 months to build, having been completed in 2020 and finally the toilets were ready, which are still used today. The waste from the dry toilet, which is filled in 120L polyethylene barrels, is transformed into organic compost that is deposited to nourish nearby trees, in a safe place, preventing the transmission of human diseases of the oral-fecal cycle.

Following the dry toilet, the water collection and distribution system was developed, which also included the construction of a kitchen and a shower cubicle;

This phase was financed by donations from Cesar Carvalho, Marcela Thiemi and Gildo Sales Bane Huni Kui.

A solar-powered hydraulic suction pump from Anauger was purchased for this purpose and installed by technician Elino Silva. The equipment was installed in the stream that runs alongside the laboratory and local dormitories.

The water was then distributed through low-density polyethylene pipes to a 2500L water tank near the laboratory, and another portion was pumped to a 1000L water tank near the indigenous medicine house, further away from the collection site. A small accessory 310L water tank was also installed at the Yura Kaya Xinã school-laboratory.

The water was then distributed through pipes from the water tanks to the kitchen, shower cubicle, kupichau, school-laboratory and the house.

The kitchen was built together with the project, and for the first time it had taps, one of which was for washing dishes, and two tanks were built on the kitchen balcony for washing clothes.

Initially, the water from the sewage generated by the kitchen was directed to a banana plantation, where an evapotranspiration pit was later built.

Finally, 6 months after the completion of the part already described, in an action conceived and coordinated by Dr. Cesar Carvalho, with the help of financing from the Institute of Applied Neurolinguistics, represented by Jairo Mancilha, with technical and financial support from the Bio Sanitation Institute, an evapotranspiration pit was built, which received drainage from the kitchen sewage, the main source of gray water in the area (since it receives water from washing clothes and the kitchen).

Logistics were difficult, since the Campo Sagrado Center is 1 km from the riverbank, and the access road has several steep climbs and descents, making it only possible to make the journey on foot. Therefore, transporting gravel, HDPE tarpaulins and other materials was quite costly and expensive, which also made it impossible to build a masonry pit due to the lack of resources.

As an alternative to masonry, local, high-density and waterproof wood (Massaranduba) was used, coated with marine varnish, to build the structure of the pit. The pit was covered internally with HDPE tarpaulin and then waterproofed wooden cubes were placed on the bottom, followed by gravel and finally sand, making up the filtration layers. Baé banana trees were planted above the sand, which grew well and are currently bearing fruit. Any treated water that exceeds the capacity is directed through an overflow pipe to the edge of the stream. Fortunately, the dimensions were well calculated and due to the flow of people and use of local water, the pit never overflowed and works well to this day.

2nd Stage: Artesian well for collecting water at the Campo Sagrado Center – headquarters of the Nova Empresa village

The collection of water through the solar-powered pump generated a revolution in health in the area, as the Campo Sagrado team no longer needed to fetch water with pans from the creek, which provided even poorer hygiene water, in addition to causing accidents when transporting water due to the weight and ante-ergonomic positions during collection and transport (one of the women in the family developed cervical spine injuries, among other factors, from carrying a pan of water on her head). Furthermore, on rainy and cold days, collecting water from the creek was difficult, which facilitated the emergence of flu and other diseases due to people’s immunity being affected by having their bodies wet on rainy days.

Even so, despite the ease of collection with a solar pump, there was a problem with water quality: on rainy days, the creek’s waters became muddy and therefore the water did not come in good quality. Not to mention that the pump’s suction and pumping capacity was reduced, so especially on days with little sun, water was not obtained in sufficient quantity depending on the number of users.

In this way, the solar suction pump was kept for 2 years. After that, due to necessity, a project was started to build an artesian well on site, in order to obtain water in abundant quantities and without physical and chemical alterations (turbidity due to clay and other pollutants) on rainy days.

The artesian well was then drilled in July 2024.

The artesian well provided abundant water, and was connected to a wire for days without ever having emptied. The professional who was paid to build the artesian well, hired by a company from Feijó, unfortunately did not complete the job, having failed to seal it with cement, apply the sanitary seal and also failed to cover the pipe, making it necessary for the Campo Sagrado team to finish this task.

Analyses were carried out on the water from the artesian well and the Campo Sagrado creek. After the analyses, it was found that the water from the creek, when not cloudy on rainy days, is of excellent quality, and does not contain any hazardous contaminants.

The water from the artesian well, unfortunately, contained a quantity slightly above the permitted level for potability of the metal Cadmium (the quantity verified was 0.006 mg/L – the maximum permitted quantity was 0.003 mg/L). The well also contained a significant quantity of sulfur-containing gas, which is why the water had a bad smell.

After research, temporary solutions were found for treating the water from the artesian well: 3 sequential steps:

1-) Chlorination of the water; 2-) Filtration of the water with activated carbon in a large 1000L/h filter (this filter has the function of removing bad odors from the water and the presence of chlorine; 3-) Final filtration of the water with Zeolite watercell ZZ (0.4 – 1mm), this is indicated for removing heavy metals from the water, when present in low quantities, as occurred in the Campo Sagrado well.

The complete artesian well project began in June 2023 and was completed in June 2024 (final part of the artesian well water treatment)

* Unfortunately, due to the lack of resources due to the unpredictability of such contaminants in the water, it has not yet been possible to acquire the Zeolite filter, thus the water is considered unfit for human consumption, however it has been used in construction and other activities that require abundant water, which were previously very difficult to carry out due to the lack of available water. The team is currently frequently emptying the artesian well with the intention of collecting a new analysis in the second half of 2024 in order to verify whether the water will remain contaminated and then, if necessary, acquire a suitable zeolite filter*