CEE Graduate Students Kimberly Bowman and Martin Chorkey (both MCE), through the BR Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, worked in The Cambia, West Africa this summer on a water contamination project.

In June, the group spent 10 days in Mbollet, which is a small village in West Africa, working on a project  focused on improving the drinking water quality and sanitation practices. This multi-phase project began with the group spending time observing the village and it’s practices, taking measurements and documenting their observations. The villagers live in extreme poverty and are farm on land that is almost entirely deleted of any soil quality. They lack fertilizers and the proper tools to improve their soil quality and farming methods and the lack of water supply and sanitation problems make life even more difficult for this struggling village. The group hopes that with their effort to improve and expand on the current water supply, that the overall quality of life for this village will greatly improve.

The EWB Chapter worked closely with an in-country non-government organization named GLOVE (Gambian Longevity through Village Enterprise). The top corporate sponsors of this project include ABMB Engineers, CDM and C-K  Associates. The group also held fundraisers for the project. But the 10 day trip this summer depleted much of their raised funds and therefore more must be raised to send the team of eight people back to the village for the next step of the process.

Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is a non-profit organization dedicated to working with developing communities throughout the world on sustainable engineering projects. For more information about the Baton Rouge chapter of EWB, visit their website http://www.ewb-brp.org