Our History In Peru

PUSUNCHÁS (2015-PRESENT)

The team first visited Pusunchás in summer of 2015. An agricultural community located in the mountains nearby the city of Otuzco, Pusunchás had lacked a functioning water system for over 20 years. The previous infrastructure broke down and ceased to service the community when its source dried up. Since then, the community had petitioned the municipality for a new water system to no avail. Community members commonly walked miles to obtain drinking water or used pools in the ground to collect water during the rainy season. Contamination and reliability presented serious problems for the community.

During the 2015-16 academic year, the team conducted a logistical, financial, and technical analysis on the feasibility of the building a water pipeline in the community, officially establishing a partnership with Pusunchás in December 2015. At first, the project seemed dauntingly large and challenging, and many members of the community had great concerns and doubts that the project would be successful. EWB-Princeton teamed up again with the Peruvian NGO Las Marianistas, who had provided financial and logistical support on the project in La Pitajaya. In the summer of 2016, the team completed a full technical assessment, working with community leadership to collect geographic and water quality data. The source for the system was identified as a natural spring atop the mountains in the neighboring community called San Francisco del Suro. In 2017, the source capture and reservoir were constructed and the Progreso sector was successfully connected to the system, bringing clean water to 10 homes. In 2018, the majority of the system was installed, which included 44 tapstands (one at each of the 44 homes), 6 pressure breaks, and over 6 km of pipeline. In 2019, the remaining homes were connected to the distribution network and a chlorination system was installed. With 64 participating families and a pipeline that spans across 20 kilometers, Pusunchás is EWB-Princeton’s largest project to date.

Project Managers:

• 2015-16 Community and Technical Assessment: Josh Umansky-Castro ‘17 and Corrie Kavanaugh ‘17

• 2016-17 Implementation I: Susannah Crowell ‘18 and Jay Li ‘19

• 2017-18 Implementation II: Sofia Bisogno ‘20 and Sneha Iyer ‘20

• 2018-19 Implementation III: Riley Wagner ‘20 and Sydney Hsu ‘21

• 2019-20 Evaluation & Project Closeout: Yulissa Cantero ‘21 and Pranav Iyer ‘22

SAMNE & LA PITAJAYA (2011-2015)

In 2011, EWB-Princeton opened a new project in the town of Samne, Peru. That summer, 6 students and a professional mentor visited and assessed the town for potential projects, jointly establishing a list of community priorities with the local residents. While in Samne, the team was approached by residents of La Pitajaya, a small settlement on the outskirts of Samne. The community expressed a desire for a potable water system to replace the Moche River as their source of water. The need for clean drinking water was a constant problem in La Pitajaya; mining waste in the river, which likely includes heavy metals and other toxins, remained even if the water was boiled. The latest assessment conducted by the Samne health post reported a significant number of bacterial and parasitic infections (1244 cases in the municipality in 2010) directly caused by drinking contaminated water, with young children being the most heavily-affected demographic. The lack of an effective water distribution system forced residents to spend considerable time each day boiling water and traveling back and forth between their homes and the source.

In response, the EWB-Princeton team conducted an assessment trip in January 2012, sending five students and a technical mentor to better assess the community and engineering requirements of a potable water system. Throughout the spring of 2012, the team designed a system that pipes water from a local source to 36 houses in La Pitajaya. Through communication with local contacts, they also continued to test water quality and source flow rates on site, and to prepare a community education program to improve health and hygiene.

In August 2012, the team returned to La Pitajaya to begin installation of the first phase of the water system. This included a spring box to capture the clean water from the source, parts of a pipeline to transport the water 5 km to a reservoir uphill of the community, and the foundation for a reservoir site. In the following implementation trip, the team added a pipe network bringing water from the reservoir to 14 individual tapstands for the houses in the upper part of town. Over the course of implementation, a separate system for the lower part of town was also completed. Water treatment was introduced into the system to further reduce the incidence of water-related illness in the community.

In July 2013, a team of 7 members of the Perú team travelled to la Pitajaya to complete the potable water system for Alta. The team spent a busy six weeks trenching approximately 3 km of the main and distribution pipeline, working alongside the local mason to construct the tapstands, pressure break tank and to repair the spring box, and connecting the laid pipe to the tapstands. The Community Sub-team prepared a set of 13 lesson plans on water, hygiene, human health and environment and the travel team presented these plans to the Director of the local school in Samne, who then incorporated them into the current curriculum at the school.

In July 2014, the team returned to la Pitajaya to begin construction on the water system in la Pitajaya Baja. Five weeks into the six week long trip, the water system was completed. THERE IS NOW WATER FLOWING THROUGH A TAPSTAND AT EVERY HOUSE IN LA PITAJAYA! Additionally, the team had time to connect two more houses to the Alta water system and conduct maintenance work on the Alta system.

Project Managers:

• 2010-11: Hank Song ‘11 and Barbara Hendrick '12

• 2011-12: Barbara Hendrick '12

• 2012-13: Emily Moder ‘13 and Nicole Businelli '13

• 2013-14: Andres Parrado ‘15 and Nihar Madhavan ‘15

• 2014-15: Amanda Li ‘16 and Kasturi Shah ‘16

HUAMANZAÑA (2005-2010)

Huamanzaña, a small farming village of about 140 people, lies at the base of the foothills of the Andes Mountains in the coastal highlands of northern Peru. An isolated, rural town, Huamanzaña is characterized by poverty, misuse of natural resources, and abandonment by the central government in faraway Lima. It lacks easy access to healthcare or secondary education, is not connected to the electrical grid, and is highly dependent on an agricultural economy.

Engineers Without Borders Princeton University worked alongside this community from 2005-2010, completing four major projects: a communal bathroom facility (2005), a solar power system (2006), a smokeless biomass stove project (2007-08), and an improved water distribution system (2009). In the summer of 2010, the EWB-Princeton team concluded with a community education program, comprised of a series of workshops focused on children, women, and the community as a whole, and facilitated the formation of a water committee to take responsibility for the upkeep of the system and ensure the sustainability of the projects once EWB-Princeton left the site. The team also performed maintenance on all four previous projects.

Project Managers:

• 2005: Elena Olivi ‘06, Sebastien Douville '06, and Nate Lowery ‘06

• 2005-06: Daphne Tess Cecil-Cockwell ‘08, Ron Weissbard ‘06

• 2006-07: Shannon Brink ‘09

• 2007-08: Andres Moreno ‘10

• 2008-09: Hank Song ‘11 and Meghan McNulty ‘10

• 2009-10: Hank Song ‘11