“The world doesn’t need any more big dams. The world needs clean water, energy and basic services for the billions struggling just to stay alive at the end of each day,” says Dr. Bernard Amadei who started Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a national non-profit organization whose mission supports community-driven development programs worldwide through the design and implementation of sustainable engineering projects. As part of this global initiative, and in conjunction with Warm Heart Worldwide (WHW) the Civil and Mechanical Engineering senior design team of Sarah Hays, Samantha Cirone, Michael Corsi, Tom DiBiase, Michael Everett, Nathan Holliday, Anthony Passannante, and Scott Turygan travelled to Thailand to provide clean water and irrigation to a small ten acre village of approximately 200 people in need.
The village is located in the Phrao district of northeastern Thailand two hours north of Chian Mai City. The team spent nearly fourteen days in Thailand completing the project. The system that the students devised and implemented consisted of two sections: drinking and agricultural water. The drinking water system consists of a deep water well, a solar powered pump, a water storage tower and tank, as well as a distribution system that runs to various outlet points throughout the village. The agricultural water system consists of a mountainside water catchment area with a pipe system that runs to a storage basin. From there a circulation and distribution system uses the water to irrigate the crops. After a few minor troubles at various phases of the project, the system was installed. Water quality tests were taken of the water being drawn from the well, and all results showed that the water was free of any harmful pollutants and safe for drinking.
According to faculty advisor Dr. Michael Horst, he was most proud of, “Everyone’s motivation and dedication to try to produce a design which will be easily implemented and sustainable over time. Everyone worked hard and took the project very seriously because they recognized that they had the opportunity to make a real and significant contribution to someone’s life that is less fortunate than themselves.” Even with the completion of this project the team, while onsite in Thailand, collected various data which will be reviewed and assessed in order to determine if there is more which can be done to further improve conditions in the Phrao district of Thailand or in surrounding communities.
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