UF engineering students will bring clean water to a secondary school in Nepal this May.
UF’s Engineers Without Borders will take about seven students to Khanalthok, Nepal, to build a hand-washing station and implement a hygiene education program in the secondary school, said Taylor Chaisson, the Nepal project leader.
The only source of drinking water is from a tap that is 45 minutes away from the school, said Matthew Burke, a 22-year-old UF environmental engineering senior. The water shows high counts of coliform bacteria, which could make students sick, he said.
“Our hope is to provide these kids with clean water so they will go to school and stay in school,” Burke said.
Mackenzie Shepherd, a UF biological engineering junior, said the team will install a first-flush system to create clean water. When it rains, this device will collect all the contaminants, such as animal feces and leaves, found in water from the roof.
Once collected, the clean rain water will flow through the pipes and into the tank, the 20-year-old said.
The team will then build a hand-washing station that is connected to the clean water tank, Chaisson said.
This system will allow the team to teach the community proper hand-washing techniques that are instrumental for their health, the 20-year-old said.
“With their regularity of diarrhea, they don’t understand that washing their hands will help them not be sick all of the time,” Chaisson said.
They hope to implement the water sanitation and hygiene education program, WASH, through games, Burke said.
“One of our main goals is to implement an education program that will last in the long term,” Chaisson said. “We hope to improve their health as a result of us going.”
UF’s Engineers Without Borders has traveled to Nepal twice before, Chaisson said.
On the first trip, the team asked the villagers questions about their conditions, families and health. From their questions, they realized the lack of clean water was a major issue. They took water samples and found it was contaminated, she said.
“All of their water is filled with E.coli-related bacteria, except for the rain water,” she said.
After finding this information, the organization decided to focus its project on clean water for the school, Chaisson said.
UF’s Engineers without Borders collect water samples for testing in Nepal during their 2014 trip.
On their second trip, the team members measured gutters and buildings and performed site assessments for the water-safety devices they will implement, she said.
Chaisson said this experience allows engineers to get firsthand experience before graduation while experiencing a new culture.
“None of us spoke the same language,” she said. “But it was amazing to be able to communicate through acts of kindness.”
UF’s Engineers without Borders install a new water pump in Nepal during their 2014 trip. This year, the a team of about seven students will return to Nepal to build a hand-washing stations and teach hygiene programs at the local schools.
