Ecuador
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Are you a Princeton student interested in joining the team? Come by our meetings starting in September and get involved! We’ll teach you everything you need to know— and you don’t need to be an engineer. Contact ewbecuador@gmail.com.
Our Project
Our Ecuador team is working to provide a safe, sustainable, and reliable water system in Rosario Vainas, a small village of 550 people located about 117 miles (app. 3.5-hour drive) from Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The existing water distribution system consists of water tank trucks that provide insufficient amounts of untreated water. Community members report significantly varied weather patterns making them over-dependent on the water tank trucks. Additionally, water-borne illnesses are commonplace in the community due to the inaccessibility of portable water. The end goal of the project is to design and implement a water system for the community of Rosario Vainas in Manabí, Ecuador that provides potable water for ~180 households.
Current Progress
In the summer of 2022, the travel team conducted the assessment phase of a potable water system project. The team consisted of seven undergraduate students, one engineer representative from EWB, and an in-country translator, driver, and a representative from the NGO, Fundación Redes Solidarias. In order to design a water system, the travel team collected data on the existing water sources in the community to determine the continuity of the underground aquifer and contamination levels from agricultural surface runoff. Additionally, community members were surveyed to understand water and electricity access and usage, climate trends in the area, and receive community input on project design. As a result of the work in Rosario Vainas, team Ecuador obtained the requisite geological, geographic, and demographic data to design a well for the community. Additionally, the team formed essential relationships with community members and a local NGO that built trust and stability in undertaking the project.
Where We’re Headed
After concluding the assessment stage of the project in the summer of 2022, the team is working on analyzing the gathered data to design the specifications of the well and think about the distribution system. Additionally, the team at Princeton is in contact with a team in Ecuador to prepare the well site prior to the second travel trip in the summer of 2023, where two major projects will be conducted: (1) building the well (2) gathering data for a distribution system.