UMaine Student Group Seeking Funds for Septic Project in Honduras
Contact: Rita Cooper, (207) 329-6320 or president.ewb.um@gmail.com
The University of Maine student chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-UMaine) is urgently seeking donations to fund the construction of a community sanitation system in the small town of Dulce Vivir, Honduras, where poor sanitation conditions limit economic opportunities of the residents and cause environmental and health concerns.
Implementation of the student-designed system will begin in March and will be completed once the remaining funds have been raised. The group is aiming to finish the project by late May, before the start of the Honduran rainy season in June.
EWB-UMaine has already raised $29,000 and is seeking an additional $20,100 to continue work in Dulce Vivir, where UMaine students have helped the town’s 120 residents in previous years divert seasonal flood water around the community and designed a sanitation system to reduce disease.
The funding situation is at a critical stage, as the EWB-UMaine students have a mid-February deadline to come up with the remaining funds in order to purchase construction materials such as sand, gravel, pipe and concrete, and to have those materials delivered to Dulce Vivir in time for May construction.
If funding is not in place by mid-February, the second phase of the project would be pushed back to the UMaine students’ school vacations in December 2011 or even March 2012. That would mean the Dulce Vivir residents would have to go through another rainy season with a poor sanitation system.
“Donors will certainly change the lives of the people of Dulce Vivir,” says EWB-UMaine President Rita Cooper. “Donors will also be contributing to the growth of motivated, passionate, and socially conscious young engineers right here at the University of Maine.”
An EWB-UMaine team of five students and three professional mentors will travel to Dulce Vivir during spring break in March to construct the piping system and install the septic tanks. The second part of the implementation, the construction of a raised mound leach field, will take place in May and is dependent upon meeting fundraising goals.
EWB-UMaine, which was founded in 2007 and is made up of students and their professional mentors, has been working for four years with Dulce Vivir residents, consulting with the community on its priorities, collecting information needed for the system design, and developing contacts needed to ensure the project’s success. On its first trip to Honduras in 2008, the student group designed a drainage system, which has prevented runoff from the surrounding hills from flooding the area. The residents still have problems with their pour-flush latrines, however. Poor soil conditions and a high groundwater table cause the cesspits connected to the latrines to overflow into backyards, especially during the rainy season. The new septic system designed by EWB-UMaine students will eliminate waste in the backyards and clean the water to prevent environmental and health concerns.
To ensure the long-term functionality and sustainability of the project, community members will receive training on how to maintain the system and EWB-UMaine will maintain contact with residents and provide technical support for at least five years.
“Through our project, we are all learning how to use the material we’re studying in class to help people and make a real difference,” Cooper says. “We are very lucky to have such passionate students and great professional mentors who put in time outside of classes and jobs to work together to design and construct this challenging project.”
To learn more or donate to the project, go to www2.umaine.edu/EWB/live or email president.ewb.um@gmail.com.
About Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA)
EWB-USA is a nonprofit humanitarian organization established to support community-driven development programs worldwide through partnerships that design and implement sustainable engineering projects. EWB-USA members work with local communities and NGOs in over 45 developing countries around the world on projects that provide clean water, renewable energy, sanitation and more. Time Magazine called Engineers Without Borders-USA the “Blueprint Brigade.” EWB-USA has grown from little more than a handful of members in 2002 to over 12,000 members today and has over 400 projects worldwide. EWB-USA maintains over 225 dedicated chapters, including university chapters on 180 campuses in the United States, and has touched the lives of more than one million people. For more information about EWB-USA please visit www.ewb-usa.org.