BlackboardLocal Chapter of Engineers Without Borders Travels to the Peruvian Amazon to Work on a Drinking Water Project
This summer, faculty and students from the local chapter of Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering made a journey to San Rafael, Peru and helped provide access to potable water to about 400 people. The students and faculty involved in this effort are part of a recently formed student chapter of the national organization, "Engineers Without Borders-USA."
Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) is a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life. This partnership involves the implementation of environmentally and economically sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineers and engineering students. The activities of EWB-USA range from the construction of sustainable systems that developing communities can own and operate without external assistance, to empowering such communities by enhancing local, technical, managerial, and entrepreneurial skills. These projects are initiated by and completed with contributions from the host communities working with the project teams. The objective of all these activities is not only to contribute to new and ongoing development projects in an effective way, but to expand the dimensions of experience for emerging and practicing engineers. It is EWB-USA's vision that this is a primary path to achieving a more sustainable world, without suffering the consequences of engineering projects that are socially, culturally, or economically inappropriate.
San Rafael is a self-managed, farming community located on the riverbanks of the Amazon roughly 18 miles from the large city of Iquitos, Peru. The only way to get to San Rafael is to travel by river boat. The residents, 60 families (about 400 people), are mainly mestizos (mixed race ethnicity) who make their living fishing, cultivating plot gardens, making handcrafts and recently through eco-tourism.
FAMU-FSU EWB was introduced to the region by Juan Carlos and Rebecca Galeano. Juan Carlos Galeano is a professor of Spanish, whose field work on Amazon folktales first led him to the Amazon in 1996. Rebecca Galeano whose area of interest includes foreign and second language acquisition found the Iquitos region to be a gold mine for linguistic field work and the design of student service learning opportunities.
In December of 2007, Dr. Tarek Abichou, the faculty advisor of FAMU-FSU EWB visited San Rafael. He and the village leaders agreed to work together towards a solution to the water supply situation in San Rafael.
In San Rafael, the drinking water system's intake pipe cannot connect to the Amazon river year-round. During the dry season (April - October), the Amazon River recedes a great distance and the village residents must collect and carry water from the river in buckets. Because of climate change, the river is moving further away each year. The water pump used to draw water from the river had not been functioning very well due to the additional drop in the water level in the river during the dry season. Recently, the down time caused by the faulty pump has been increasing since it takes over a week to ship the pump to Iquitos for repairs each time it malfunctions. Thus leading to additional days where the village has no access to their drinking water system.
This August, engineering professor Tarek Abichou, a group of five students from his FAMU-FSU chapter of Engineers Without Borders (Nick Azadian, Catherine Carella, Yomaima Gonzales, Ashley Melton, Rafael Vasquez) and an additional FSU faculty member Juan Ordonez made the journey to San Rafael to rehabilitate the faulty water system. Abichou made this trip after returning from his six-month long Fulbright in North Africa. Abichou, Ordonez, and students extended the water intake system and provided a new working pump for the village. They also inspected the water treatment & distribution system and replaced and installed one new activated carbon filter. The group worked throughout the 2007-2008 academic year to raise funds for their travel and for all materials and equipment. Thanks to this effort the village of San Rafael now has cleaner drinking water and the possibility of a much improved standard of living. FAMU-FSU EWB intends to foster a five year commitment to San Rafael to help the community attain their basic needs and become self-sustainable.
FAMU-FSU EWB is a young organization but it is growing at an astounding rate. Though primarily focused on sustainable development, the student organization also encourages its members to participate in local community service. FAMU-FSU EWB is a collective of enthusiastic engineering students committed to volunteering their time and skills towards creating innovative solutions to improve the health and livelihood of developing communities and their environments. They share a love for the outdoors, a curiosity for travel, and a motivation to put our engineering abilities to use to improve the environment and health of underserved populations throughout the world.
Today's problems necessitate a new way of thinking and a long-term approach and organizations like the FAMU-FSU EWB allow engineers to have a central role in building a sustainable future; in fact, they have an obligation to provide leadership in that direction.
