Project Roller Coaster

So I get back from IST (in service training aka reconnect were all the volunteers in a specific program get together for a few days) and my counterpart tells me that on the advice of a friend he started talking with the bank about the potential of working with them and the owner to get the property for the dam since the owner has not paid off the mortgage (I had orginally thought he had taken out a loan against the property but I was mistaken, still struggling a bit with the Spanish sometimes). I was overwhelmed, impressed that he went ahead with the idea and disappointed in myself for not thinking of it a while ago. We got in contact with the NGO Forcuencas again after a couple of months without communication and learned that we only have until March 20th to submit the proposal and all other required information to be considered for funding. I felt like I had been hit by a ton of bricks. But wait, there is a POSSIBILITY of funding through another NGO, CARE, if we can´t make the Forcuencas deadline as it seems that some personnel will continue to work for CARE after Forcuencas dissolves. We then talked with the property owner about the prospect of changing from a presa (dam) to using a spring source and he seemed willing if we could arrange for a meeting with the Patronato (town council for those who forgot), representatives of the bank and Forecuencas, and the water and sanitation volunteer who made the project design (in case of revisions). The day of the meeting Forcuencas and the bank could not make it (should have seen the bad omen) but a representative from INFOP (a capacity building organization) came and talked about how the organization can offer different types of training on family gardens, reforestation, etc and I got pretty excited about the prospect of working with him. Unfortunately the meeting went downhill from there (and the wat/san volunteer´s time was wasted). The property owner said he was no longer considering the possiblity of letting the community use a spring source, nor move the presa further upstream for better water quality (sounds like a lawyer got to him but at least he is still very interested in reforestation). He promised to fence both sides of the stream to keep the cows out, but the manure will still wash in with the rains. I discovered that there is an access road crossing the stream above the proposed presa site, and his house is also located above although he has promised to pipe grey/black water to below the system intake, so needless to say I am really worried about contamination of the water supply and how we could treat it. I do not want to be the volunteer who gave his community contaminated water so I have thought about not trying to make the deadline to see if waiting brings other possibilities, such as if the electricity project goes through making it possible to drill a well and use an electric pump. Also with the concurrent electricity project, the demands on the community might be too high if the water project gets off the ground. For both projects there is an expected community contribution, unskilled labor and monetary, that might be overwhelming if both projects happen at the same time. But the choice is not mine. My counterpart really wants the water project to go through (although he has devoted more time recently to the electricity project) and he consistently tells me that the community has waited more than 20 years for a water project. It is harder for me to get a read on the community at large and gauge their desire for the water project right now. So I´ve got some thinking to do. My gut feeling says wait it out but a nagging thought says don´t waste the opportunity.