Mason's Engineers Without Borders Study Abroad
Donation protected
I have been chosen to travel for Purdue's chapter of Engineers-Without-Borders to Colquechata, Bolivia. We are a non-profit organization that uses engineering solutions to provide communities around the world with life's basic necessities. Our website can be found here.
My chapter is design a gravity fed water distribution system to provide a community of 175 people with clean, drinkable water. Currently, community members walk over 1 km each way to a water source that is contaminated by with water-born pathogens and traces of e-coli. These community members are only using about 10 liters of water per day per person. The UN states the desired amount of water per person each day is 40 liters. We are aiming to design a system that meets at least 20 liters/day/person for all the community members so they may use it to drink, cook, do laundry, bathe, and other daily household needs.
The trip will be a 10-day trip in which we assess the community and collect data that is pertinent to furthering our designs. This includes lab testing of the community's primary water sources and the soil in the area. We also plan on collecting surveying points of the community and the possible pipeline routes from the water source to the homes to create a 3D-interactive map. We also want to implement a semi-permanent dam to help us measure the flow rate of the water source similar to the one constructed on the first trip(below).
Below is is my sub-team leaders and I presenting our semester's progress during design review. during this presentation, we are reviewed by a panel of post graduate students, professional engineers, and Purdue faculty to get feedback on our designs. The presentation went very well!
Thank you ahead of time for any donations that can help me travel to Bolivia in May and move forward in design a solution that will help the community of Colquechata.
My chapter is design a gravity fed water distribution system to provide a community of 175 people with clean, drinkable water. Currently, community members walk over 1 km each way to a water source that is contaminated by with water-born pathogens and traces of e-coli. These community members are only using about 10 liters of water per day per person. The UN states the desired amount of water per person each day is 40 liters. We are aiming to design a system that meets at least 20 liters/day/person for all the community members so they may use it to drink, cook, do laundry, bathe, and other daily household needs.
The trip will be a 10-day trip in which we assess the community and collect data that is pertinent to furthering our designs. This includes lab testing of the community's primary water sources and the soil in the area. We also plan on collecting surveying points of the community and the possible pipeline routes from the water source to the homes to create a 3D-interactive map. We also want to implement a semi-permanent dam to help us measure the flow rate of the water source similar to the one constructed on the first trip(below).
Below is is my sub-team leaders and I presenting our semester's progress during design review. during this presentation, we are reviewed by a panel of post graduate students, professional engineers, and Purdue faculty to get feedback on our designs. The presentation went very well!
Thank you ahead of time for any donations that can help me travel to Bolivia in May and move forward in design a solution that will help the community of Colquechata.
Organizer
Mason Bernard
Organizer
West Lafayette, IN