This semester the East Africa project team will be working on the assessment for their new project in Malawi. This is a school project with both a water distribution component and a sanitation component. The team intends to travel to the community in January 2023 to collect assessment data about the current water system and latrines.
During the semester, prior to travel, the team will need to prepare technical documentation to EWB-USA about the trip and its intended activities. Students who are traveling will also need to prepare for the trip by learning a series of practical engineering skills such as testing of water quality, learning to use Total Stations, and much more. Students will be working alongside professional engineering mentors to ensure proper data is collected and assessment activities are performed correctly. In addition to technical data, students will also survey the community to learn about their most important water and sanitation needs.
During the semester, the team will also work with the NGO, Freshwater Project International, which is based in Malawi, to perform a remote assessment in the community to collect initial data. The project will run internally through four key subgroups- Travel/PMEL (Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning), water sourcing, water routing, and sanitation/hygiene. The two water subgroups will focus on geolocating an ideal source of water and determining the most efficient way to deliver the water to the school. The sanitation/hygiene subgroup will work on designing and implementing the new latrine blocks. The Travel/PMEL subgroup will focus mostly on surveying the community and school and assessing the feedback to orient our solutions to the community and schools best interest.
