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September, 2007 – Newsletter and Meeting
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Next General Chapter Meeting:
Our
next chapter meeting will be Wednesday,
September 12th at 7:00pm
at Rice
University in Room 253 of the Mechanical
Engineering Laboratory, which is Building 46 on the map. Agenda: 7:30 to 8:00 pm: The Bolivia
project team will give a presentation on their recent assessment trip. Upcoming Events
October (TBD): EWB Professional
Development Seminar - TBD Recent Event
National
Society of Black Engineers - Houston Alumni Extension EWB-Central
Houston has been working closely with NSBE-HAE in recent weeks, accepting an
invitation to speak at their August general body meeting and
participating in their Membership Extravaganza in early September. We
hope to continue this great partnership. Many thanks to NSBE-HAE for
their wonderful hospitality. If you would like to learn more about
NSBE-HAE, please visit their website at: http://www.nsbe-hae.org. Their general body
meetings are held at the Community Resource Center at 50 Waugh Dr. at 6:30pm
on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. BOLIVIA
Team member Chris Barth with community children during
health surveys The Bolivia Water Project team completed
a very successful technical assessment trip last month. Five team
members: Zach, Howard, Chris, Yvette, and Marcos traveled to the city of
Cochabamba, in Bolivia to conduct a technical assessment for a water
project benefiting the communities of San Nicolas, Villa Oropeza,
Achumani, Cobol, and Calamarca. Other activities included understanding
the needs and particular situations of the community residents, water quality
testing, and solidifying community and Rotary partnership
relationships.
Project team having a lunch hosted by Theresa
Flores, from the Cochabamba Norte Rotary club The
most important development during the trip was discovering that well drilling
is not an option in the area. This situation was verified through
consultation with two different drilling contractors and an independent
geologist who all visited the area. Another important development is
the fact that the municipal water company has decided to expand a trunk line
into the area to service a nearby community that has been established a
considerably longer time. The project team has negotiated with the
municipal water company to connect to the trunk line and purchase water at
bulk rates. Thus, the project has developed to connect to the trunk
line and, through a series of pump stations, carry the water to two or more
tanks which can gravity feed to the benefiting communities. Working on
several fronts, the team also managed to obtain all the necessary maps, conduct health
surveys, test water quality, and garner community support for the
project.
Children around steel barrels used to store water. Aside from the important work with the
benefiting communities, the team enjoyed the home-stay opportunity with members
of the Cochabamba Norte Rotary club. Jaime Portugal, Rocio Atristain,
Josue Marcum, and Humberto Flores generously hosted a member of the traveling
team. The team was also showered with hospitality through a series
of lunch, dinner, and social events from various members of the Rotary club. |
INDIA
Installing wells. This is certainly one way to hand
bore. The India tsunami project moved forward
a lot in the last couple of months. Bryan Shnider, a student from Southern
Methodist University and me (AnnMarie Spexet) were on site with members from
the Los Angeles chapter from June to the beginning of August. We were
preparing for and laying the groundwork for the installation of the water stations.
To begin, we
Water disinfection poster in Telugu and English In addition, Bryan Shnider installed a
rope pump in one of the communities. Rope pumps are another low cost
technology for getting water from shallow open wells that is widely used in
Latin America. The rope pump came from the Rice University EWB project in
Nicaragua. We hope that this technology will encourage well covers to reduce surface
contamination into their open wells.
Bryan setting up the rope pump One thing we learned from this trip is
that the water stations we had originally designed were oversized, and would
be much too big for these communities to maintain as well as prohibitively
expensive to construct, since the increased fuel costs have hit India as well
as in the U.S. So, we need help to scale the structures down. We are
now coordinating with members from the Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco
EWB chapters to return to the site this fall and winter to help with follow up
and to do the construction the scaled down stations in Batti Somiah Palem,
Jalamma Palem, and Sri Rama Pattapu palem.
Storm approaches in Jalamma Palem |
EL SALVADOR
An interesting turn of
events occurred for the El Salvador Sanitation Team in August. During a
project trip in May, Jose Moreira helped the president of the Colonia
Esmeralda community directive draft a letter to the San Salvador city
government to request a solution for the sanitation problem in Colonia Esmeralda,
Tiembla Tierra, and Santa Carlota. Previous requests from the
communities to the city government had yielded no results. As such, our
sanitation project team continued to plan for the project, investigating
pipeline constructability and alternative solutions. Much headway
was being made when, much to the surprise of everyone, the team learned last
month that the city government responded to the letter and is already moving
forward to begin construction of a sanitation pipeline! The corridor
through which the pipeline will pass has been surveyed by city engineers and
official contracts have been signed with the communities. The
construction is set to begin by the end of September. Our sanitation project
team will continue to remain in contact with the communities to ensure that
the pipeline is constructed without incident before officially closing the
books.
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Corporate Sponsors
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Donations
Like
all EWB projects, our projects are completely financed by donations. All donations are tax deductible and you
may contribute by mail or use the internet at your convenience. To donate by internet, click here. To donate by check or money order: Make
payable to EWB-USA, but write “ Engineers
Without Borders – |
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“Never doubt that a
small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead |
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**To
subscribe to or unsubscribe from this email list, email Pauravi Shah (pauravi.ewb@gmail.com) EWB-USA is
a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that
partners with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their
quality of life, while involving and training internationally responsible
engineering students and professionals. |
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