Engineers Without Borders - USA, Denver » Ecuador

November 2009 Ecuador Trip

Jason — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:05:46 +0000

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Denver Professional Chapter of EWB has recently returned from another trip to Ecuador. The small team arrived in Malingua Pamba on November 8, 2009. The 5 day implementation trip was a success and the team accomplished many action items.

They gave a short presentation at the last chapter meeting informing on what was accomplished, comprimises they had to make and problems that they noticed. Click here to see the trip report notes taken by project lead Joe Blair.

Malingua Pamba Erosion Control Planting

Jason — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:29:05 +0000

New steps are being taken in our Malingua Pamba, Ecuador Project. Laura Backus one of our members that went on an implimentation trip to Ecuador and saw the problems that the people are having with erosion.

She is starting a Malingua Pamba Erosion Control Planting group. This is to investigate the possibility of a collaborative erosion control and native tree planting project with the participation of the Malingua Pamba community, WRV, CELM, and the Denver Professional Chapter of EWB.

Pam is currently coordinating a CELM trip January 20th to 26th, and people interested in the erosion control project could travel with this group to scout the project and tour area nurseries.

For more information attend our next Denver Section EWB Meeting.

Malingua Pamba Post-Trip Report

corey — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:42:44 +0000

“Paulino, the President of Malingua Pamba and Chair of the Water Board reports that not only are the people overjoyed to have easier access to water, but that relationships between communities as well as neighbors have improved; oh, and of course, their health & sanitation are improving…” Read the full report here.

Malingua Pamba Water Project News, Spring 2008

debbiehathaway — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:28:09 +0000

EWB will be making a fourth visit to Malingua Pamba, a rural village in the Ecuadorian Andes, in April 2008. This trip will continue implementing project activities initiated in April and November 2007. The upcoming group plans to build additional pressure-break tanks on the potable water system; provide training to the community on improved methods for mixing and pouring concrete tanks; upgrade weak and undersized pipes and connections; and help the community plan additional upgrades that they can accomplish between this and the next EWB visit.

Additionally, EWB will conduct pre-design activities related to the planned irrigation system build-out, tentatively scheduled for Fall 2008.A “living” report is being maintained by the Malingua Pamba Project Team that provides background on the community, on the water systems and on related topics. This report is intended to be a repository of information for our present and future team members, as well as a means of sharing information with potential donors and other interested parties. The report consists of a main section and supporting appendices, all of which can be downloaded from project information page.

Projects Featured in RMWEF/AWWA Publication

corey — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:32:14 +0000

“Engineers Without Borders – USA (EWB-USA) is a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their inhabitant ’s quality of life. The EWB-USA Denver Chapter was founded in 2006 by a group of professionals dedicated to utilizing their skills to help these communities. Membership is open to engineers and non-engineers alike, and all skills are valued, from health care and construction to education and language…”

Kevin Greer wrote this article about our chapter and activities for a publication called “Rumbles” by the Rocky Mountain Water Environment Federation and Rocky Mountain Section of the American Waterworks Association. Download the full article here.

Video of Project Work in Ecuador

corey — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 16:04:20 +0000

Joel Haggar with Water Purification Specialists LLC created a wonderful, inspirational video of our work in Ecuador. You can view it on here on their website. EWB-Denver has been involved with improving water delivery in Malingua Pamba, Ecuador, since August of 2006. Malingua Pamba is a mountain village perched high on the Andes at 10,000 feet elevation. This video contains 15 minutes of beautiful footage and heartwarming interviews. Please take a moment to see how these dedicated Denver-area engineers are working to make a difference in the world!

Malingua Pamba is the EWB-USA Project of the Month

corey — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:28:28 +0000

EWB-USA is featuring the Denver chapter’s work in Malingua Pamba, Ecuador as their Project of the Month! Congratulations to all the dedicated, hard-working folks of EWB Denver, and our superstar NGO partner Pamelita Gilbert. Read all about it on the EWB-USA website.

Wine Tasting Fundraiser, September 26th

corey — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:01:28 +0000

On September 26th from 6 to 9pm, please join the Engineers Without Borders Denver Chapter for the second annual wine tasting fundraiser to benefit our ongoing project in Malingua Pamba, Ecuador. Tickets are $35 and include wine (or beer if you prefer), appetizers and ambience in the beautiful courtyard of the Holiday Chalet. All proceeds will go to the water project that will bring clean and sustainable water to multiple mountain villages in the Malingua Pamba area. The event will be held at The Holiday Chalet, located at 1820 East Colfax, Denver, CO 80218.

Update from the Assessment Trip Team, November 2006

corey — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 03:43:28 +0000

Hope you receive this message in good spirits. We have visited Malingua Pamba for 4 days and have now returned to Quito. The group has gone onto the famous Otovallo market and the equator today and I have stayed on in Quito to leave in the AM. About half of us got sick with diarrhea, fever, and chills but it only last about 12 hours. Nothing serious. Here is an overview of the project.

We examined the water right document and found that MP holds the rights in common with another larger village below in the valley (Tenguche). Tenguche is actually a collection of several villages. Together they have the rights to some springs and a diversion from a creek for irrigation. They have a water committee representing the collection of villages. Paulino, the MP president, is the head of the committee. We are looking at the project covering the whole system now.

They already have a lot of pipe in the ground. Several years ago they got an NGO to provide the materials for the start of an irrigation system. The locals had to plan, design and construct it themselves. They built a diversion and laid the main trunkline ( 9 cm pvc) and also several small tanks and pressure breaks. They must have a high point in the line or air bubbles because the water does not flow. It is thus not being used. They really want help with troubleshooting this system and completing it. It needs the laterals and taps to individual fields. There is really no irrigation currently being performeed in the area now. They only get one potato crop now using natural rainfall. Potatoes are their main food source and we ate them for every meal. They also grow chochos, lupine seeds like beans, as a cash crop. It can handle the summer drought. The soils in Tenguche are more sandy and do not grow p otatoes as well as higher up.

There is an extensive potabhle water system in place also. Three springs are captured up at about 12,000′ There are taps all around MP and they seem to have plenty of water. The taps are outside houses or groups of houses. In fact there is considerable waste with leaking valves and fittings. Black polyethylene irrigation pipe is the main material. Tegunche seems to be a different story. For the 3 days before we got there they had no water. The story was that someone turned off the valve from the tank in MP. Hard to believe. They resorted to gathering water out of a muddy hole in the ground. The water comes through MP first and then downhill to Tegunche. There is a lot of local jealousy in Tenguche. They are still looking for a Pam. In contrast to MP many of the houses in Tenguche have indoors water taps, showers, flush toilets, septic tanks. This system needs some better flow splitting devices and the locals want a major expansion of it. The main lines seem to be about 1 inch. The quality of the drinking water seems to be fine based on our field screening.

They are gearing up to put a third story on Pam’s school and we had earthquake concerns. The village was flattened sometime in the 90′s. We gathered info on the concrete and steel design for future earthquake safety analysis. The government is also building another school building next door trying to turn MP into a regional education center. And yet they will not even supply a teacher for the existing school.

The Malinguans were very gracious hosts and did their best to accomodate us. We slept in the upstairs of the school. The locals moved their beds there for our use. Very damp and wet weather. They had a 4 hour welcome ceremony for us the first day. The band played on into the night the same sounds, not really a song. And we ate lots of potatoes. Brent’s Spanish was a major asset.

We basically gathered info, got a drawing made of the drinking water system, gained understanding of the drawing of the irrigtion system we had, and made no specific promises. We trained a kid to take read and record from a rain gauge. We did not place any weirs in the creek. Their right from the creek is limited to a stated flow and someone has already decided on the pipe size. We need to meet as a team on our return to Denver, compile all our data, and analyze it. We had difficulty using the GPS units. One did not work and the other did not agree with the map. It may have been how the datum was set. Took us a long time to figure out where we were on the topo.