Engineers Without Borders

Engineers Without Borders
Founded:	2005
Recognition:	ABC
Membership:	80
Executive Board:	2011 Year Claudia Vargas, Co-President Kevin Ma, Co-President Kristina Lee, Funding Chair Bethany Schneider, Education Chair Christine Liu, Public Relations Chair Allison Duh, Events Chair Min Ye Shen, Secretary Rebecca Ciez, Treasurer David Bendetto, Webmaster Suraj Cheema, Project Manager (Ghana) Alison Ferris, Project Manager (Uganda)
Category:	Community Service, Pre-professional
Website:	http://www.cuewb.org
Contact:	cu-ewb@columbia.edu

Engineers Without Borders is a student chapter of the NGO Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA), whose mission is to support “community-driven development programs worldwide by collaborating with local partners to design and implement sustainable engineering projects.” They are a student volunteer organization aimed at applying technical engineering skills toward aiding impoverished communities across the world. This is achieved designed solutions to problems raised by a community in a developing country, raising funds for these designs and finally sending groups of students to the country in order to implement these solutions.

Vision and Mission

Our vision is a world in which the communities we serve have the capacity to sustainably meet their basic human needs, and that our members have enriched global perspectives through the innovative professional educational opportunities that the EWB-USA program provides.

EWB-USA supports community-driven development programs worldwide by collaborating with local partners to design and implement sustainable engineering projects, while creating transformative experiences and responsible leaders.

Past Projects

• Orissa, India - building a micro hydro system to provide a low cost energy source to the community

Current Projects

Obadan, Ghana

The Ghana Program within CU-EWB works with the village of Obodan, Ghana to improve sanitation and access to water resources while focusing on developing methods to convert waste to energy via source-separated latrines. This innovative latrine separates liquid and solid waste, allowing the waste to decompose naturally without odors and allowing villagers to safely clean out the facility on their own. The nitrogen-rich urine that is collected can be used for fertilizer on villagers’ farms and even aid bacteria in producing biomass to be used for methane, and solid composted waste can be used as a source of renewable energy, such as biofuel for powering pumps or methane for use in cooking. Meanwhile, designs are in the works for a gravity-fed water distribution system to improve water accessibility in Obodan, since multiple visits to the water source are cumbersome. A motorized pump can move water from the source—a borehole that currently supplies water to the village, to an overhead tank at the center of town. The pump will ideally be powered by the compost as biodiesel—a clean, renewable and locally available resource.

Based on feedback from the villagers of Obodan during community workshops, and considering that Obodan is a farming-based community, our team decided to improve upon the main public latrine, a Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit (KVIP), built in 2005 with the aid of CU-EWB. The team realized that the original KVIP, though helpful in addressing the shortage of proper sanitation facilities, was not an ideal solution due to its release of strong odors and need for relatively expensive cleaning procedure.

Source-Separated Latrine

This past summer in 2010 they implemented one source-separated latrine and began construction on another to be completed this summer in 2011. There are two chambers, where only one is used at a time while the other is covered, usually for about half a year. While one is used, the other will be composting. By the time the used chamber is full, the other will be naturally composted and ready to be converted either to methane or for biofuel use. The source-separated latrine now produces odorless waste—nutrient-rich urine that can be used as fertilizer and solid waste that turns into compost after a certain retention time. Our immediate research efforts are in collaboration with our faculty advisor to address possible avenues of compost reuse, specifically relating to soil for crops and fuel for household use.

The community has also expressed their desire for a water distribution system. Currently, villagers obtain water from two handpumps. The goal is to build a gravity-fed system in which water can be accessed via spigots throughout the village. This requires water to be pumped to an overhead tank from the borehole, and is best accomplished by an automated pump. The solid waste from the source-separated latrine is a most appropriate source of power for the pump. It is a clean energy source, renewable and certainly available locally, especially with the source-separated latrine situated in the village. Further research is being conducted to determine an optimal way to utilize the waste for powering the water pump.

The use of waste to power the village’s water system is a sustainable solution to their water and sanitation needs. It is a solution not only to Obodan, but also for developing communities in Ghana and throughout the world.

• Soroti, Uganda

External Links

Columbia University Engineers Without Borders Official Website