Clean Water for Nepal

Program providing Nepal Clean Water with gravity flow and slow-sand filtration system designed by Caltech undergraduates

The students will not be working alone, says their mentor, environmental engineering consultant Gordon Treweek (MS '71, PhD '75) who is partnering with Caltech engineering students for the first time. "All EWB projects are community-driven, with the local workforce providing much of the labor. And we've received tremendous logistical support, including interpreters, from the Namsaling Community Development Center, an NGO in Ilam that had previously worked with an EWB chapter from the University of Colorado, Boulder."

According to EWB requirements the Nepalese must contribute 5 percent of the project's budget. EWB-Caltech copresidents Jihoon Lee (a senior in bioengineering) and Nauman Javed (a senior in physics) acknowledge that successfully coming up with the remainder—over $20,000—involved nearly continuous fund-raising. "We've been applying for grants, soliciting private donations, partnering with companies, especially water-related and environmental corporations, and we held a benefit dinner in January that was largely attended by Caltech faculty and friends," says Lee.

Both a 10-day on-site assessment trip last summer and this summer's trip were covered by individual donations and grants. The assessment trip took Treweek, Javed, and fellow Caltech senior Webster Guan (chemical engineering) to Ilam to meet with the NGO; to survey the local community of about 100 families to ascertain their needs and willingness to assist in the construction and ongoing maintenance of the water tap stand; and to gather predesign data for planning construction and estimating costs.

"The support we have received from Caltech alumni directly and through their networks of contacts at Northrop Grumman and Boeing has been invaluable in helping to keep this project moving forward," Treweek says.

After the assessment trip, the students spent the 2014–15 school year preparing detailed engineering documents using computer-aided design techniques. In this, they were assisted by the water-resource engineering firms Carollo Engineers and Montgomery Watson Harza, whose pro bono involvement did not surprise Treweek. "Consulting engineering firms frequently donate resources for projects like this," he says. "It's socially responsible, and it gives them a chance to observe future engineers addressing the four traditional phases of engineering: planning, design, fund-raising, and construction."

With preventable infectious diseases a leading component of Ilam's one-in-three infant mortality rate, the project includes a public-education component. "Besides training the local villagers who will maintain our spring-water source protection system," says Javed, "we plan to visit local schools, demonstrate how the system works, teach a little germ theory."

Source: Phys.org

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• Filtration
• Drinking Water
• Water Management
• Research