Students Return from Second Trip of 5 year Project to Help Village Access Clean Water Supply
Four UMass Dartmouth engineering students and the group's professional mentor will provide details on their most recent travels to the mainland hills of the Bocas Del Toro province of Panama. The presentation is Today, Tuesday, October 1, 2013, at 5 p.m. in the Grand Reading Room at UMass Dartmouth's Claire T. Carney Library.
This is their second trip of a 5-year project to help a village of 300 indigenous Ngobe people rehabilitate their increasingly insufficient water distribution system. The students will discuss their challenges, accomplishments and how they are gaining practical engineering experience through small scale, sustainable engineering projects aimed at bringing basic human needs to communities around the world.
Part of their travel to the village is to asses an aging water tank with brown-blue water flowing into it. The students have found the tainted water is almost entirely due to poor engineering. Their intended goal is to draw up a solution to this issue, but only using local materials and in partnership with the villagers.
With over 350 projects in more than 45 different countries, Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA) is helping millions live safely and sustainably. UMass Dartmouth's EWB-USA Chapter is one of 180 university chapters currently operating.