Our chapter’s two International Projects are centered around water relief in communities located in South America and Africa. These projects typically take place over Winter and Summer breaks, but are subject to change depending on the state of the country we would be visiting.
Our project in Bolivia in Azacilo was closed as of 2024, after working with this community since the start of our chapter is 2008.
Continue reading to learn about our individual International Projects!
AZACILO, BOLIVIA
We have worked in the mountain community of Azacilo the longest out of all our international projects, with our work beginning in 2008 with the inception of our chapter. The project started out as building eco-latrines (baños) for each household in the community. Following the completion of the baños, our work in Azacilo shifted to building solar-heated showers on top of the baños we built. We were able to resume this project in August of 2022 after not being in the community since 2019. However, during our time away from the community, we tried a remote implementation of a solar shower. This means we ordered and sent the parts needed to build a solar shower to the community for them to build. We were able to see the shower crafted from this experiment, and were thrilled to see it was well put together and working! During our most recent trip, we maintained all banos, and prepped the community for the end our work there. Our work in Azacilo is came to a close in 2024.
COLANI, BOLIVIA
Our time in Colani began in 2014 after we were approached by members of the community after they saw the services we were providing in Azacilo. (Colani is about a 15 minute walk from Azacilo.) Our first project was to provide an agricultural water distribution system to the community. We did this by constructing a spring box higher on the mountain to collect rain water, and then piecing together a system of pipes to carry water from the box down to the community. Our current project of building the baños we provided Azacilo began in 2018 and is expected to continue for years to come. On our last trip to the community, we completed three new bano and repaired two, leaving the community with nine working baños. We also learned there was a member of the community who built his own baño in our absence, which is very promising! Going forward, our main goals are to find ways to reduce the cost of the parts and to find more efficient ways to build baños while in the community.
BUBAGO, UGANDA
Bubago, Uganda is a rural village in eastern Uganda without access to clean water. Currently, the 1,500+ residents of Bubago travel hours on foot to access unsafe and unsanitary groundwater sources and risk their safety in the process. The village has contacted EWB KU to build a water distribution system to provide clean and accessible water to the village.
To do this, EWB-KU will work through the project lifecycle to determine the needs of the water supply and distribution system, establish design constraints, then design the distribution system.
In March of 2024, 6 EWB-KU members travelled to Uganda. A design team worked on the topographical survey to map elevations in the village and determine a location for the water tower; a PMEL team worked with the community to collect data that will be used in future designs; and a construction team worked with hired construction workers to help with the design and construction of the Temporary Tank. The final water yield is much higher than anticipated, which is exciting news. Future phases will focus on engineering the centralized elevated water tower and gravity-fed water distribution lines throughout the village. The estimated project implementation is date is 2026. Following implementation, the project will enter a Monitoring & Evaluation phase before completion.
Engineers Without Borders: University of Kansas 