Engineering

The WPI chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) returned in early August from their second trip to Guachthu’uq, in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, where they continued their assessment of two problems: how to provide clean and accessible drinking water for the village, and how to develop a stove that will prevent the smoke-induced respiratory health issues the villagers face. In an interview, EWB member Julie Bliss, an environmental engineering and sustainability studies double major, talks about the projects worked on and the life changing experience.

What is the mission of Engineers Without Borders?

We help people in all aspects of their lives, socially, medically, economically, and environmentally.  As engineers, we try to provide them with something they don’t already have, putting our engineering expertise to use to help.

How did you decide to work on these two projects?

We were able, with local input, to learn that the village in Guatemala had a very high death rate from respiratory diseases caused by cooking over an open flame and by a dirty water supply. This village needed the ability to cook over a safe open flame and find a clean water supply.

We referred to the cooking project as our stove project. The goal was to use less wood, decrease cooking times, and, most important, reroute the smoke from the fire to reduce harm to the villagers. Many of the cooking fires were set up in the middle of the home with little ventilation.

The villagers try to collect as much firewood as possible from the ground or purchase it from other communities. Once they get the wood, they have to store it somewhere dry because it’s rainy most of the year and the wood usually gets wet. When wet wood is burned, it is less efficient and causes more smoke. All this smoke is the cause of the high rate of respiratory disease in the villagers.

Where do you currently stand with the stove project?

We’re in the design stages right now. We’ve talked to a few organizations that do this kind of thing. Two of the homes have stoves—by looking at them and the research we’ve done, we’ve come up with a few simple designs. We’re trying to work hand-in-hand with the WPI Fire Protection Engineering Department to design the best stove.

What can you tell me about the water project?

The quality of the water from the spring is terrible and very often it is hard to come by.  We had the water tested for metals, inorganic compounds, and bacteria; it showed it was filled with contaminants. Right now the villagers go down to the spring, or Finca, when they need water. The kids and mothers go down to the spring and collect water. It takes one person, on average, 12 trips up and down the mountain to get enough water. They use gallon buckets and carry them on their heads.

To provide a safer water supply, for both cleanliness and location, the roofs of the village homes can be fitted with rain catchers. These would collect rain water and store it away from contaminants. It would also be much easier for the villagers to access.

What are your next steps?

We are working with our mentor, Matthew Gamache ’99, PE, a water resource engineer at CDM, to finalize the solution for the houses. We did a materials assessment for each house, and we know they have gutters and corrugated metal. We have priced everything, and once we finalize the models, we can really get going on placement of the systems for each house. When we go on our next trip, we will do a pilot project. During our last trip, the community selected three homes that will get a water system and three homes that will get stoves. It will be a long process, but our hope is to get enough funding to go twice a year and expedite the process every year.

You seem very passionate about this – what is it that you love so much about this work?

It’s a love-hate relationship, seeing the people struggle as much as they do. It makes you realize that we take everything for granted in the U.S. When you see it down there, you connect with it.

Almost every home would invite us in after our home assessments. They’d say, “Okay, come in, we’re going to give you food and drink,” when they can barely afford it themselves. Some would take out a loaf of bread and give us four pieces of white bread and bananas and oranges and anything they could find. And they would give it to us like it was no problem, when they can’t even feed their families. It was very emotional on some levels.

Anything else you’d like to add about your experience there?

A big thing that really hit me was we told the kids we would hang out with them. We said to one of the leaders, “We’ll be back at 3 o’clock tomorrow,” and he told maybe two kids. When we arrived, there were 50 kids waiting for us—they were just so excited to see us!

We had brought some construction paper, playdough, and bubble stuff. When I took the construction paper out of the backpack, everyone started running toward me! I had to tell them to wait a minute and divided everything among the rest of the group so they could hand things out, too. And the kids were just going crazy with the construction paper and the crayons, and then they would make something—they would make a flower or something—and then they would give it to us. They would never keep it for themselves.  They would give me the piece of paper or whatever it was and say, “It’s for you!” And we’d say, “No, no, no you can keep it, it’s yours!”  But none of the kids would keep it, so we started a little pile and at the end gave it to one of the government leaders.

It’s unbelievable to see the excitement over bubbles and crayons. Everything we take for granted, and you don’t realize it until you go down there.