About Engineers Without Borders
Engineers Without Borders – UW Madison (EWB-UW) is a non-profit student organization that partners with disadvantaged communities to implement sustainable solutions to community problems.
EWB-UW was established in 2003 under the guidance of the late Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Peter Bosscher, who helped the chapter to develop a program in Muramba, Rwanda. Now in its fifth year of operation, the once small student chapter has expanded to over 80 active members and maintains a five-year commitment to five communities, making ours the largest chapter of Engineers Without Borders in the United States.
EWB strives to educate internationally responsible engineers and students. We embody the Wisconsin Idea by not only performing engineering and social services in the state of Wisconsin, but by providing engineering and social services to communities around the globe.
Our chapter currently works in Muramba, Rwanda; Bayonnais, Haiti; Nejapa, El Slavador; Orongo, Kenya; and Red Cliff, Wisconsin. Ours is a true partnership with our host communities, and community participation is crucial to the success of our projects. Communities play an active role in project selection and exhibit complete control over our projects. Community ownership during the design process is important, but community ownership post-implementation is necessary in order to maintain our projects and to ensure that our projects fulfill their intended purpose.
The first project implemented by our chapter was a roof-rainwater catchment system in Muramba, Rwanda, where our projects continue to focus on developing sustainable water and energy infrastructure. In trips to the community in April 2004 and July 2004, the community identified the lack of potable water as its greatest need. The community found the water distribution system to be seriously inadequate with deficiencies in system operation, maintenance, water quality, and water quantity. Students traveled on subsequent project implementation trips in July 2005 and July 2007 during which they fixed the foundation of the water distribution system, laid 5 km of new pipe, installed a solar panel, taught villagers how to create fuel briquettes from agricultural waste, installed the previously mentioned roof-rainwater catchment system, and installed a biosand filter.
During the assessment trip of January 2009, the travel team gathered information to aid in improving local cook-stoves and farming practices. The travel team also conducted a follow-up assessment of previous EWB-UW projects installed in the area. This summer a travel team will implement cleaner stove technology and refine the briquetting process with the villagers of Muramba.
EWB-UW has renewed a project in Bayonnais, Haiti that was begun in the summer of 2002 by Bernard Amadei at the University of Colorado. The original assessment of the community in November 2002 found a community living in great poverty, but with huge potential. Community meetings, water testing, and other inquiries identified the community's four greatest needs: enterprise, alternative fuel to charcoal, a bridge across the river, and cheaper electricity for the school. The original project was divided into several phases and eventually split between the burgeoning EWB San Francisco Professional Chapter and EWB-UW.
Although the bridge was completed in the spring of 2006, the recent string of hurricanes that have swept through Haiti have washed away the approach to the bridge. The most pressing need for this community is to rebuild the approach and reconnect the community to its school. Other projects include: the design of a material-efficient concrete roof for widespread use in the community; the building of a micro-hydroelectric generator at the water source to bring more reliable electricity to a larger portion of the community; and the building of a health clinic to help prevent the spread of disease. EWB-UW will also continue teaching a surveying course so that community members may aid in data collection on future projects, which may generate income for Bayonnais from the rapid development of nearby cities.
Our organization is currently partnering with Rotary International to construct a wastewater collection system in La Granja and Nuevo Ferrocarril, El Salvador. The lack of wastewater collection has resulted in a sanitation crisis. Residents are forced to dump wastewater into the streets, resulting in significant health problems in the community. EWB-UW committed to help these communities find sustainable solutions to their sanitation needs by designing a low-cost wastewater collection system.
Along with construction, two very important aspects of the project are educational workshops that teach local children and community members basic sanitation and health practices, as well as water testing to assess the pathogenic threat to community members. Last semester our group prepared educational materials, workshops, and designs for construction during the January 2009 implementation trip.
During that trip, the travel team and its community partners laid over 1000 meters of piping, and successfully hooked into a boring under the Pan-American highway that was done by local contractors. The next step in this project is the design and construction of a walking bridge that will cut travel distance between the communities by a mile, as well as carry piping for the wastewater infrastructure.
EWB-UW has been partnering with the community of Orongo, Kenya since the fall of 2007. A masters student from the University of Sweden at Stockholm did research in the community through 2002 and wrote his thesis on the village's water quality while highlighting other urgent village needs. Inspired by this student and community members, dozens of EWB-UW students began work on possible community projects in the area with an assessment trip planned for January 2008. This trip was postponed due to post-election violence, but four students and one professional engineer did travel to the community for an 18-day assessment in August 2008. During this trip, the project team interviewed almost 180 people, contacted governmental and non-governmental organizations, and established a network of organizations that will support future projects.
The Kenya team is currently researching agroforestry; affordable irrigation techniques; methods of removing fluoride, salt, and other minerals from the community’s water supply; and methods of introducing micro finance institutions to the community. During the January 2009 assessment trip, the travel team implemented an agroforestry plot at Orongo Primary School and constructed a slow sand filter that serves the eastern part of the community. Like the El Salvador project, sanitation practices and seminars will be implemented throughout our continuing relationship with the community.
EWB-UW also partners with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on a storm and ground water management project in Red Cliff, Wisconsin. Although this community is located six hours north of Madison and just beyond opulent Bayfield, Wisconsin; Red Cliff suffers from a complete lack of storm water management infrastructure. The annual cost of repairs to residential buildings is magnifying the effects of the recession on the economy of the reservation, and the flooding of their cemetery prevents the use of culturally significant land.
In the past six months, the EWB-UW domestic team has completed two assessments of the community, during which community members entreated the team for help on the above issues. During the second assessment trip, the team began gathering topographical survey data of the community cemetery. This November a team of students traveled to Red Cliff to install borings that the project team will use to gather groundwater and flood severity data. EWB-UW hopes to begin construction of a sustainable drain tile design in the cemetery during the summer of 2009 to be finished by November 2009. This project will be funded through a Wisconsin Idea grant from the University of Wisconsin.
EWB-UW also plans to begin construction on a sustainable engineering solution to flooding in the residential housing development in November 2009 to be completed by August 2010.
EWB-UW was established in 2003 under the guidance of the late Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Peter Bosscher, who helped the chapter to develop a program in Muramba, Rwanda. Now in its fifth year of operation, the once small student chapter has expanded to over 80 active members and maintains a five-year commitment to five communities, making ours the largest chapter of Engineers Without Borders in the United States.
EWB strives to educate internationally responsible engineers and students. We embody the Wisconsin Idea by not only performing engineering and social services in the state of Wisconsin, but by providing engineering and social services to communities around the globe.
Our chapter currently works in Muramba, Rwanda; Bayonnais, Haiti; Nejapa, El Slavador; Orongo, Kenya; and Red Cliff, Wisconsin. Ours is a true partnership with our host communities, and community participation is crucial to the success of our projects. Communities play an active role in project selection and exhibit complete control over our projects. Community ownership during the design process is important, but community ownership post-implementation is necessary in order to maintain our projects and to ensure that our projects fulfill their intended purpose.
The first project implemented by our chapter was a roof-rainwater catchment system in Muramba, Rwanda, where our projects continue to focus on developing sustainable water and energy infrastructure. In trips to the community in April 2004 and July 2004, the community identified the lack of potable water as its greatest need. The community found the water distribution system to be seriously inadequate with deficiencies in system operation, maintenance, water quality, and water quantity. Students traveled on subsequent project implementation trips in July 2005 and July 2007 during which they fixed the foundation of the water distribution system, laid 5 km of new pipe, installed a solar panel, taught villagers how to create fuel briquettes from agricultural waste, installed the previously mentioned roof-rainwater catchment system, and installed a biosand filter.
During the assessment trip of January 2009, the travel team gathered information to aid in improving local cook-stoves and farming practices. The travel team also conducted a follow-up assessment of previous EWB-UW projects installed in the area. This summer a travel team will implement cleaner stove technology and refine the briquetting process with the villagers of Muramba.
EWB-UW has renewed a project in Bayonnais, Haiti that was begun in the summer of 2002 by Bernard Amadei at the University of Colorado. The original assessment of the community in November 2002 found a community living in great poverty, but with huge potential. Community meetings, water testing, and other inquiries identified the community's four greatest needs: enterprise, alternative fuel to charcoal, a bridge across the river, and cheaper electricity for the school. The original project was divided into several phases and eventually split between the burgeoning EWB San Francisco Professional Chapter and EWB-UW.
Although the bridge was completed in the spring of 2006, the recent string of hurricanes that have swept through Haiti have washed away the approach to the bridge. The most pressing need for this community is to rebuild the approach and reconnect the community to its school. Other projects include: the design of a material-efficient concrete roof for widespread use in the community; the building of a micro-hydroelectric generator at the water source to bring more reliable electricity to a larger portion of the community; and the building of a health clinic to help prevent the spread of disease. EWB-UW will also continue teaching a surveying course so that community members may aid in data collection on future projects, which may generate income for Bayonnais from the rapid development of nearby cities.
Our organization is currently partnering with Rotary International to construct a wastewater collection system in La Granja and Nuevo Ferrocarril, El Salvador. The lack of wastewater collection has resulted in a sanitation crisis. Residents are forced to dump wastewater into the streets, resulting in significant health problems in the community. EWB-UW committed to help these communities find sustainable solutions to their sanitation needs by designing a low-cost wastewater collection system.
Along with construction, two very important aspects of the project are educational workshops that teach local children and community members basic sanitation and health practices, as well as water testing to assess the pathogenic threat to community members. Last semester our group prepared educational materials, workshops, and designs for construction during the January 2009 implementation trip.
During that trip, the travel team and its community partners laid over 1000 meters of piping, and successfully hooked into a boring under the Pan-American highway that was done by local contractors. The next step in this project is the design and construction of a walking bridge that will cut travel distance between the communities by a mile, as well as carry piping for the wastewater infrastructure.
EWB-UW has been partnering with the community of Orongo, Kenya since the fall of 2007. A masters student from the University of Sweden at Stockholm did research in the community through 2002 and wrote his thesis on the village's water quality while highlighting other urgent village needs. Inspired by this student and community members, dozens of EWB-UW students began work on possible community projects in the area with an assessment trip planned for January 2008. This trip was postponed due to post-election violence, but four students and one professional engineer did travel to the community for an 18-day assessment in August 2008. During this trip, the project team interviewed almost 180 people, contacted governmental and non-governmental organizations, and established a network of organizations that will support future projects.
The Kenya team is currently researching agroforestry; affordable irrigation techniques; methods of removing fluoride, salt, and other minerals from the community’s water supply; and methods of introducing micro finance institutions to the community. During the January 2009 assessment trip, the travel team implemented an agroforestry plot at Orongo Primary School and constructed a slow sand filter that serves the eastern part of the community. Like the El Salvador project, sanitation practices and seminars will be implemented throughout our continuing relationship with the community.
EWB-UW also partners with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on a storm and ground water management project in Red Cliff, Wisconsin. Although this community is located six hours north of Madison and just beyond opulent Bayfield, Wisconsin; Red Cliff suffers from a complete lack of storm water management infrastructure. The annual cost of repairs to residential buildings is magnifying the effects of the recession on the economy of the reservation, and the flooding of their cemetery prevents the use of culturally significant land.
In the past six months, the EWB-UW domestic team has completed two assessments of the community, during which community members entreated the team for help on the above issues. During the second assessment trip, the team began gathering topographical survey data of the community cemetery. This November a team of students traveled to Red Cliff to install borings that the project team will use to gather groundwater and flood severity data. EWB-UW hopes to begin construction of a sustainable drain tile design in the cemetery during the summer of 2009 to be finished by November 2009. This project will be funded through a Wisconsin Idea grant from the University of Wisconsin.
EWB-UW also plans to begin construction on a sustainable engineering solution to flooding in the residential housing development in November 2009 to be completed by August 2010.