Engineers Without Borders:
Improving Quality of Life in Developing Countries

Professor of environmental engineering Steve Dentel has little tolerance for people who say disparaging things about the current generation of college students.  His advice to those who hear such comments:  “Take a look at Engineers Without Borders,” he says.

As advisor to the recently established UD chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), Dentel has had the opportunity to work with students who are willing to stay up the half the night trying to fix equipment that doesn’t work, travel miles over pothole-riddled dirt roads in a packed SUV to assess water needs and health problems in a remote village, and dip samples of rust-colored water from open pools to test for disease-causing bacteria.

These are young adults who are happy to receive three live chickens and a bundle of plantains as a token of appreciation from the village chief.  They are students who buy coloring books, crayons, bubbles, and a soccer ball for the children of that village.

Students like this were the ones who started UD’s chapter of EWB.  Dentel was the enthusiastic faculty advisor who helped in the search for a first project.  They learned about the water needs in Bakang, Cameroon, from Olivia Mukam, a Cameroonian student at Johns Hopkins University.

Bakang is a rural community of some 3,000 people who live on sustenance farming.  They currently collect water from contaminated streams and hand-dug wells for cooking, bathing, and drinking.  To alleviate these water issues, a plan was developed to drill a well that can provide the community with a source of clean groundwater and to equip it with a pump powered by solar energy.

In June 2007, Dentel and four students—Bernard Fortunato, Sarah O’Neill, Samantha Sagett, and Julie Trick—traveled to Africa on a site-assessment mission.  They were accompanied by Tony Rana, a professional hydro-geologist from the Mid-Atlantic Professional Chapter.

On the weeklong trip, the team was able to not only assess the problem but also take steps toward solving it.  For just $120, they repaired a pumped well that now provides clean water and can meet about one-third of the water requirements estimated for the community.  “The water is as clean as we could have hoped,” reads the group’s blog entry that describes this effort.  “We had not actually anticipated implementing anything on this trip and yet we have revived a nonfunctioning well that gives the Bakang villagers some safe potable water.”

“It must still be hand carried and, being almost two miles from some areas of Bakang, will not be used in place of closer but less safe water sources,” the entry continues.  “More wells, with storage and distribution, are also needed to free the women and children from this task so they can raise the income and education levels in this area.”

EWB-UD will return to Cameroon over Winter Session 2008 to take the next steps toward implementing the potable water project.  Dentel is gratified with the outcome of the first trip and pleased that a second trip will provide another opportunity for the Cameroonians to “see the young Americans and their can-do attitude.”  But he emphasizes that all of the students in the UD chapter, not just the ones that traveled to Africa, are motivated.  “What’s important is that they want to make a difference,” he says, “and they don’t want to wait.”

According to Dentel, there are currently 230 chapters of EWB, all created in the last six years.  “It’s a groundswell,” he says.  “Typically, students create the chapter and fuel the projects, while the advisor and administration patch together the support structure.”

It’s the support structure that currently has much of Dentel’s attention.  Projects like those taken on by EWB require not only a high level of motivation, which he and the students obviously have, but also a lot of resources.

“The students need technical support from professionals,” Dentel says, “not only in specific areas of engineering such as hydrogeology, but in general expertise such as budgeting, scheduling, and decision-making processes.  We’re also seeking broader knowledge in areas such as language skills, outreach, and fundraising.”

From Dentel’s perspective, the investment will help to fill a critical void.  “We need to look at ourselves and our field and see how else we can enrich our offerings,” he says.  “These students want challenges—and solutions—that they can see.  In the U.S., the more visible public health and water quality challenges have been dealt with.  The students find a stronger calling in the visceral needs of a third-world village.”

Samantha Sagett, a junior environmental engineering major, would agree with that perspective.  “I feel very fortunate to be here at UD, where we have a great engineering program,” she says, “and this organization provides a great opportunity for us to use what we’re learning to help real people.”

Dentel also believes that while faculty members do their best to incorporate hands-on problem-solving into their classes, these activities can’t compare with the experiences afforded by EWB projects.  Coursework can’t simulate such challenges as soil so conductive that it blows out batteries in resistivity equipment.  The classroom can’t provide an environment where students have the chance to practice constructing a shelter made of leaves, branches, and a poncho to keep their backpack dry and their data safe.

Beyond engineering, EWB provides students with an amazing array of life experiences—airports where the entire lighting system fails, red clay roads where cattle block the passage of modern vehicles, and villages where women and children spend most of their day collecting water for drinking, cooking, and washing.

EWB participants also learn about more subtle cultural differences.  In conducting a health survey in Bakang, the students worked with translators and recorders to gather data from their subjects.  “It was a painstaking process, but the people sat on benches and waited their turns very patiently (the need for patience is often apparent in this part of the world),” reads the blog entry for that day.

Dentel also cites more global implications of Engineers Without Borders.  “We hope that when we return to Cameroon, they will remember our good will and our hard work,” he says, “and when they think of the United States, they will not think of terrorism and wars on terror.  Instead, they will remember people like us, the engineers without borders.”

In addition to the impact they are making half a world away, the EWB students hope to make a difference locally as well.  To that end, they are holding an event called “Lift the Burden” on the North Green of the UD campus on November 8th from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.  Participants will be given several liters of water to carry across the Green to give them some idea of what it’s like for people in Third World countries who have to transport water for their everyday needs.

“We have the action part of this down but not the awareness part,” says EWB-UD President Sarah O’Neill, a junior in mechanical engineering.  “The objective of this event is to raise awareness about the significance of the water problem worldwide.”

It’s not surprising that many of the open EWB projects across the United States address potable water and sanitation-related problems in countries from Mexico and Mali to Haiti and Kenya.

“A sixth of the world’s population—more than one billion people—don’t have access to potable water,” Sagett says.  “We’re just trying to bring it to a community of 3,000.”

by Diane Kukich

Editor’s Notes:  The UD chapter of Engineers Without Borders is seeking more members, and students do not have to be engineering majors to join.  For more information, contact Sarah O’Neill at ewb.udel@gmail.com or visit the website
http://copland.udel.edu/stu-org/ewb.  General meetings are held at 7:00 p.m. on Thursdays in 223 Gore Hall.  To learn more about the group’s participation in the Cameroon water project, visit the EWB blog at http://ewb-ud.blogspot.com.

Villagers with UD team: Julie Trick, Barney Fortunato, Sarah O'Neill, Dr. Dentel, and Samantha Sagett	Dr. Dentel talking about clean water to gathered villagers	UD students evaluating and sampling a village well
The well water in Bakang was typically low quality with significant bacterial counts	Bakang villagers collected water from the same area used for washing clothes	The team found this nonfunctioning well near the village and had it repaired three days later