Engineering students tackle freshwater for a Guatemalan village
The village of Quejchip, Guatemala, is home to more than 300 families, two mountain-water springs and a serious problem.
With decades of civil war now behind them, families are returning to Quejchip in growing numbers. But the village’s springs provide limited water and can only be reached through several hours of travel, on foot, over rugged hill terrain. The water also needs to be tested and possibly treated for E. coli, coliforms and other possible contaminants.
The UWM chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-UWM) has several solutions: designs for a gravity-fed potable water collection and distribution system, the ability to test the water and develop a treatment plan, and a team of student engineers and professional advisers to help oversee construction.
Now all the student organization needs is a bulk order of concrete, steel rebar, reinforcement pipe and a team of masons to complete the project during its next visit to Guatemala, June 14-28.
Engineers Without Borders-UWM
at Harry W. Schwartz
April 3, 6:30–9 p.m.
Ten percent of every purchase made at the bookshop during the event will fund a potable water collection and distribution system designed by EWB-UWM students and professional engineers.
The program includes a presentation about the Quejchip project from EWB members, an up-close look at some of the equipment that will be used in Quejchip and a discussion of Guatemalan culture from native Guatemalan Mario R. Lopez, senior artist with the UWM Department of Communications and Media Relations.
Fundraiser this Thursday
On Thursday night EWB-UWM will host a fundraiser at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop on Downer Avenue, 6:30–9 p.m., to earn money for supplies and labor to complete the Quejchip project.
The group has only been on the UWM campus for a year and a half, but has already raised $4,000 and conducted a site visit to Quejchip last August to begin surveying the land and developing blueprints.
“When you think about a construction project in a developing nation, you’re thinking in very different terms,” says Marissa Jablonski, a graduate student in the College of Engineering and Applied Science and co-chair of EWB-UWM.
“Instead of thinking about how many trucks you need to transport materials, you’re asking yourself how many men you’ll need to carry pipe up a large hill – trucks are not an option.”
The group also needed to think about how to keep crabs and frogs from settling in the cement boxes they will construct to collect and store the spring water for immediate consumption – a looming question the group was able to answer after the initial site visit.
From Miller Park to Quejchip
Group members will spend their time between now and June earning another $3,000 for supplies and labor, reviewing and revising the project design, brushing up on their Spanish and conducting some water testing.
Besides the Schwartz fundraiser, the group is planning a benefit concert, and has already completed two coffee sales and an art auction. The 2008 Major League Baseball season also marks the second spring/summer EWB-UWM will spend at Miller Park, working the concession stands at 10 Brewer games.
“It’s been a good project to put all our energy into, and to get the group off the ground as a new student organization,” says civil engineering senior and EWB-UWM membership director Scott Anderson.
Volunteers, collaborators welcome
But in addition to hosting fundraisers, conducting independent studies, collaborating with mentors at CH2M Hill (a firm providing engineering, consulting and operations management services worldwide) and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, and completing their regular coursework, Anderson says the group is always looking for more volunteers to work at Miller Park, attend its fundraisers and plan future projects.
“Doing a project like this, even planning a fundraiser, sometimes sounds a lot easier than it is,” adds Anderson.
“And a lot of the areas that EWB works in have inadequate health care and other priorities that student engineers can’t necessarily work on, but that nursing or education students could help with,” says Anderson. “We’re hoping to collaborate with other UWM students in the future.”
To that end, EWB-UWM is hosting a lecture from activists Gigi Pomerantz and Lisius “Marcorel” Orel of the nonprofit organization Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), which works toward preserving soil resources and transforming waste into resources in Haiti. The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9, in the UWM Union, room 191. Visitors are welcome.
To volunteer with EWB-UWM or to learn more about the Quejchip project, contact the organization at ewb@uwm.edu or visit www.ewb.uwm.edu.
