Benefits

The households targeted by this project were isolated by the terrain and so the systems were designed to supply only one or two families each. The cost per beneficiary of the project became acceptable only because the engineering design, project management and site supervision by the EWB-UK volunteers were provided free of charge.

Families now have sufficient safe water available

This project has helped families in Intag to understand the causes of water-related health problems and benefits of using clean water. They are now expected to contract water-related illnesses less frequently and less severely. Key aspects of the system design have also been explained to the families to support good maintenance of the system. To reduce the occurrence of landslides they also understand how they can adapt their water-disposal habits. 

The communities are moving ahead with the clean water they are using. The president of a local committee has won the opportunity to showcase these family-sized systems at the Expo Zaragoza 2008, a forum for some of the world's experts on water and sanitation.

The volunteers themselves gained valuable exposure through this collaboration. Edward and Mark experienced complex problems in a rural development context and developed a sound understanding of how to prevent them. They both improved their respective project management, linguistic skills and developed techniques to avoid corrupt bidding processes while procuring materials cheaply.  

Technically, both volunteers now have usable and practical knowledge of gravity-fed water system design, of buildings and their foundations, of the causes of landslides and geological erosion together with sound GPS-surveying skills.

PRODECI were satisfied with the professional standard of work done by Mark and Edward. Future work carried out by PRODECI will benefit from the many technical additionals to their existing systems. The volunteers passed on engineering practice, project management skills and their ability to negotiate with suppliers. These will be a distinct advantage to PRODECI in the future.

The partnership continues

2008 sees the continuation of EWB-UK’s partnership with PRODECI. Volunteers this year will measure the tangible impact of the current water systems and construct further ones for the communities. If you would like more information about this project, PRODECI or Engineers Without Borders UK please get in touch via our website. We look forward to hearing from you.

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