Engineers Without Borders improves sanitation in Peruvian village

In August, nine Princeton students arrived in the mountain town of Huamanzaña, Peru, with an armful of engineering plans.

They departed a month later with the hope that their presence had permanently changed the way of life in that community.

This was no ordinary study-abroad excursion, but rather the inaugural trip of Princeton Engineers Without Borders (EWB).

Founded in spring 2004, the Princeton chapter of this national organization seeks to "take technologies that are sustainable, culturally sensitive and maintainable and introduce them into disadvantaged communities anywhere around the world," chapter president Sebastien Douville '06 said.

One such community was Huamanzaña, which had no sanitation system and a very limited source of clean water. Though development efforts by nations such as Japan had improved conditions in Peruvian valleys, areas higher in the mountains felt none of those positive effects. "They had almost felt abandoned by their government," chapter vice president Nate Lowery '06 said.

On an assessment trip, the students met with villagers to decide what would be helpful. "The project is always initiated by the community," Douville explained.

After returning home, the group created a detailed engineering plan with the help of a professional engineer on how to decrease the incidence of disease in the area. They were required to present the complete concept to a panel from the national EWB to obtain permission for the implementation trip.

After returning to Huamanzaña, the students applied their individual knowledge and experience to different aspects of the project.

To eliminate the locals' unsanitary waste disposal sites — large pits in the ground or the local river — the team built four toilet stalls and connected them to an offset, sanitary sewage pit.

The town's only water source was a pipe that would run for only an hour per day, so they erected a water tower to store water over time, and used its head pressure to supply newly created sinks.

The anthropology majors created skits, songs and posters with the intent of encouraging villagers, especially children, to use the toilets and wash their hands. This was of great importance since "to be most effective, the whole community must use the facility," Douville said.

To further this aim, the students recruited villagers to aid in construction. This instilled a strong sense of community ownership of the project because "they had built most of it," Lowery said. This also exposed the engineers to unusual but practical solutions proposed by the natives.

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Douville recalled that, in the process of digging a pit, the team struck a rock that was too large to lift out.

Undaunted, the native men propped up the rock and lit a fire underneath it. The stone then cracked into several smaller pieces that could be easily removed, a local solution to an engineering setback.

After the construction was completed, the natives of Huamanzaña began changing their routines to live a more sanitary lifestyle, Lowery said.

There were some problems in opening the facility to the whole community because of local social stratification, but eventually the community decided sanitation was important for everyone.

EWB members said the project involved more than just engineering design and implementation.

"We're confronting a lot of social and political issues," Lowery said. "We sought this out to supplement the very theoretical education at Princeton. You learn stuff that you're never going to learn in the classroom."

Additionally, living in a foreign country allowed the group to experience a different culture and way of life. The group slept in the town's old schoolhouse, and locals provided them with food and even held parties.

The chapter plans to return to Huamanzaña in the future to assess longterm results of their initiative, and to help the natives further develop their infrastructure.

They are also considering new projects in locations such as Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kenya and New Orleans, as membership has increased to around 50 people.