Engineers Without Borders & Engineering a Better World at UCLA Build Critical Community Infrastructure around the World

Engineers Without Borders: A Water Pump in Uganda and a School in Nicaragua

The prevalence of microbes and contaminants in local surface water has long posed a serious health risk for residents, livestock and wildlife in the Ugandan community of Bukonko. In spring 2022, members of UCLA’s EWB team traveled to Uganda to complete an assessment of the area, including learning about the local culture, before proposing its plan to drill a borehole and install a pump for clean water.

Christina Espinosa, who graduated from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering this year and served as project lead during her fourth year, said the project isn’t just about clean water. It’s also about education.

“Children are forced to travel long distances to bring back clean water,” Espinosa said. “Oftentimes, the kids skip school in order to do this and support their family. Providing access to clean water in the community itself will not only decrease the number of people getting sick but also increase the number of kids attending school.”

The team successfully drilled a borehole in January and is now providing 14,000 liters of clean water per hour. Next, the team plans to install a motorized pump with multiple taps to allow many people to draw water at the same time. EWB also plans to implement a community-wide water distribution system or a rainwater harvesting system.

In rural San Sebastián, Nicaragua, EWB at UCLA completed in May a 2,000-square-foot combined schoolhouse and storm shelter — the organization’s most expensive project to date at a cost of $120,000. First launched in 2013, the team had built water, latrine and sanitation infrastructure in the community, which improved the lives of 300 families, before expanding the project to include schoolhouse construction in 2017. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the team continued to make progress despite difficulties in traveling and delays in construction.

The schoolhouse will offer a safe and spacious learning environment for K-12 students while doubling as a storm shelter during Nicaragua’s hurricane season. Students working on these projects get a chance to help local communities while gaining valuable hands-on engineering experience. This includes learning technical skills, such as reading engineering drawings, as well as project management and communication skills.

“Students walk away from EWB with skills to understand a nonprofit’s finances, create successful crowdfunding campaigns, write grants and effectively communicate with industry professionals,” said Ali Davis, a fourth-year civil engineering student who is the project manager in Nicaragua for EWB at UCLA.

Engineering a Better World: A Chicken Farm in Nepal and Bathrooms in Ethiopia

Last fall, Engineering a Better World at UCLA began an initiative to build an industrial-size chicken farm at a school in Nepal. Food and income from the farm will help address the economic insecurity that has led to human trafficking and child marriage. Construction began in October and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The project is a partnership with the Freedom and Hope Foundation as well as Her Future Coalition — nonprofit organizations that support the Freedom School in northeastern Nepal. To date, the EBW team has raised more than $15,000 to support the project. Members of the team will travel to Nepal at the end of March 

“Building a chicken farm may not seem significant,” said Jason Wright, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student who is the project manager in Nepal. “However, the community that we are working with has a deep-rooted issue of trafficking girls. The Freedom School is now trying to prevent that for future generations. This goal will be much easier to achieve if the school can achieve financial independence and sustainability, which we hope to provide through our humble but effective chicken farm.”

The Nepal initiative benefited from the foundation set by the club’s first project last year to improve bathroom and water accessibility in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. That plan, which is still ongoing, was conceived by Jalal Abdel-Latif — a UCLA alumnus originally from Dire Dawa, who graduated in 1985 with master’s degrees in African studies and urban planning. He also helped the project obtain its initial funding.

Being a part of something bigger than one’s self, something as big as this, is an experience that not many people can say they’ve had,” said Suraj Shah, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and president of both EWB and EBW at UCLA.

The challenge stems from the hard water that has damaged Dire Dawa’s pipes — requiring frequent repairs and causing interrupted access to water. The disruptions have also been worsened due to the city’s intermittent water delivery by trucks as well as substandard bathrooms. The team is continuing its efforts to help construct modern bathroom facilities and install a clean water tank to improve water supply and accessibility.

EBW at UCLA will also build a state-of-the-art digital library for a primary school in Dire Dawa with the help of a local contractor hired to begin construction right away. The organization has raised $12,500 in grants and crowdfunding money so far. While the current work is focused on one school, the team intends to replicate it in many communities.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Building Cultural Awareness and Solving Societal Problems

Both EWB and EBW at UCLA encourage students outside of engineering to join and contribute their own unique skillsets. There are roles for students studying anything from business to film — be it helping with a project’s financing or documenting the groups’ efforts.

Before traveling to designated communities in different parts of the world, students in both Engineers Without Borders and Engineering a Better World first learn about the different cultures through workshops, social events and other resources. The clubs aim to foster cultural awareness and emphasize the importance of addressing real-world problems.

“Being a part of something bigger than one’s self, something as big as this, is an experience that not many people can say they’ve had,” said project lead Suraj Shah, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at UCLA Samueli who now serves as president of both EWB and EBW at UCLA. “Instead of solely focusing on developing one’s skills and improving one’s self, we try to take those skills and see how we can benefit communities around the world.”