Undergraduate students in the Caltech chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) have been working for the past several years to design and fund an improved water supply system for Tandacato, a rural village in Ecuador. The community of about 500 families lies near the base of Cotopaxi, an active volcano in the area. In 2021, heavy rains in Ecuador caused major landslides, which buried one of Tandacato's key water catchments—a structure built to collect and filter groundwater. It also damaged parts of the existing water system's delivery pipeline, resulting in an unreliable water supply. This meant that the community often did not have running water. When they did, it was frequently muddy and dirty, leading to concerns about the water's safety.
Earlier this month, four Caltech undergraduates who are board members of Caltech's EWB chapter—third years Jordan Threat (chapter president) and Diya Agarwal (chapter vice president), along with first years Kiera Aston and William Wrolstad—traveled to Tandacato for a week to help the community install and implement a replacement system the students designed. They constructed a new protected catchment and replaced 2.5 kilometers of pipeline to deliver captured and treated water to the community. Within weeks, the system will begin delivering clean drinking water to the people of Tandacato.
The project was completed in collaboration with Engineers Without Borders USA, a nongovernmental organization that undertakes such engineering projects in underserved communities. In 2023, former students from the Caltech EWB chapter traveled to Ecuador to assess the water system and the community's needs.
Since then, the club has worked to design and revise plans to improve the water system. Members spent time determining what would be most beneficial to the community and decided that a new catchment and pipeline was necessary. Next, they dedicated their efforts to engineering these components, from the protective concrete retaining wall for the catchment to the ideal pipe diameter and pressure rating for the pipeline. They also raised more than $40,000 to pay for the materials and other project costs, receiving funds from Caltech grants, individual departments at Caltech, and donations through a crowdfunding page posted by the EWB chapter.
"We've spent the last year or so finalizing all the designs, the calculations, and also communicating with the community. We want to make sure that what we're doing aligns with what they want," Agarwal says. "This was truly a community-driven engineering solution."
To ensure the design aligned with community sentiments, the students worked closely with Engineers in Action, a group of engineers in Ecuador who team with EWB chapters from around the US to collect data from the communities and assist with design revisions. The Engineers in Action members have also been mentored by EWB engineers who supported them with their engineering drawings and documentation. Patrick Stahl, an environmental engineer at Stantec in Pasadena, helped early in the project. Veronika Meyer, a civil engineer at Fort Wayne City Utilities (FWCU) in Indiana, was the responsible engineer in charge (REIC) for the project at its completion. The students said Meyer's expertise was pivotal in finalizing major design components. Meyer and her FWCU colleague Josh Mahon, along with STEM curriculum coordinator David Meyer, joined the students on the trip to Ecuador this year, helping them oversee installation.
The students said they were excited to use the concepts and methods they learned in their coursework in such an applied, real-world project. "There are calculations we do for our designs, such as choosing the size of the pipe that we're going to put in. As we were working on that, I remembered my ME 11 course [Thermal Science] when we learned about different pipe flows and thought, 'I can apply that here,'" Threat says. "Those were not just random equations that I had to learn. They are actually being applied to something that is truly having a positive impact on people's lives. I think it's an incredible opportunity to take what I'm learning in the classroom and then be able to use it in the real world, all while I'm still studying at Caltech."
In addition to creating the new catchment and installing the pipeline, the students and their mentors also conducted water-quality tests. "The results showed that the water quality was significantly better than the other existing [water] sources, indicating that the new source is much cleaner and safer for the community," Agarwal says.
The students point out that the work was accomplished almost entirely by community members, who did most of the construction work. The people of Tandacato hosted a town meeting to welcome the team, invited them to share meals together, and even threw a celebration at the end of the project, recognizing the partnership and the students' contributions.
Caltech's EWB chapter will spend the next year monitoring the water system to ensure that it is functioning as desired. If you are interested in supporting Caltech EWB and making a direct impact on the citizens of Tandacato, donations can be made through this funding site. To follow Caltech EWB's progress, follow the group on Instagram @ewb_caltech.
Kimm Fesenmaier ([email protected])
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