Bringing Water and Sanitation to Remote Villages
WaTER Center Research, Projects and Classes
INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS WATER CLASSES SOONER VILLAGE PROJECT GRADUATE RESEARCHINTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
Cambodia
Parts of southern Cambodia suffer from elevated arsenic levels as high as 3500 ppb, which is 350 times the World Health Organization's recommended concentration. In addition to arsenic, other elements such as fluoride, manganese and barium can be found in excessive concentrations. This summer, WaTER Center graduate student Christopher Cope spent three weeks in Cambodia learning about ground water issues by working with a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Resource Development International (RDI). During his time with RDI Cope was able to observe an innovative and multi-faceted NGO in operation and look for future water quality research collaboration opportunities. Cope learned that there are no easy solutions to the water quality issues in Cambodia, but there are ways to help. The WaTER Center hopes to partner with RDI to develop new technologies, or modify old ones, to contribute to solving some of these chemical water contamination issues. To learn more about his experiences and future research contact Chris Cope at crisco@ou.edu.
Tanzania
Approximately 78% of people in Tanzania do not have access to safe water sources. This is due to both microbial contaminanation and elevated fluoride levels, depending on the location. WaTER Center graduate student Laura Brunson traveled to Tanzania in June 2008 to learn more about rural water issues and seek future research and project opportunities for the WaTER Center. Brunson visited Morogoro, a central region located near the Ulugulu Mountains. There she was able to visit the Ministry of Water, meet with professors and NGO leaders working with water and travel to rural villages to observe daily water practices and water sources. Brunson also visited the Arusha area near Mt. Kilimanjaro where elevated fluoride concentrations cause dental and skeletal fluorosis for many people, especially children, in the region. The practice of using charred animal bones to remove fluoride from drinking water has been studied in the area, but to date minimal large scale rural implementation has been successful. To learn more about this trip and future research contact Laura Brunson at lbrunson@ou.edu.
Guatemala
Rio Bravo - The quality of life in Rio Bravo
is diminished because of a lack of access to clean drinking water. This community of 19,000 people is transitioning into a better way of living,
but this is hampered because those with access to municipal water are
unable to drink without a high risk of exposure to parasites and harmful bacteria. Others are at even greater risk as they rely on river or shallow ground water sources which expose them to Giardia and a variety of worms.
In January 2008, EWB-OU traveled to Guatemala to asses the water quality, infrastructure and human health of the area. On this trip they also made contact with the
local government to coordinate a program to provide 7,500 people, over 35% of the community, with access to safe
drinking water. Based on annual community health studies, between 2005 and 2007 over
3,700 people suffered from various intestinal parasites. This included: 549 cases of Giardia, over 75 incidence of E. coli, 332 cases of worms, 32 incidences of malaria, 1 case of Dengue and
over 3000 incidences of amoeba-caused illness.
EWB-OU proposes to enhance the water quality for both urban and rural populations in order to improve community health.
This includes the implementation of a primary water treatment system at two springs as well as a study of the appropriate levels of secondary
chlorine to be added
in order to ensure residual chlorine throughout the system. For 200 rural families a pilot project will be conducted with point-of-use treatment.
This pilot project will be evaluated for the possibility of further expantion to more families. EWB-OU also proposes to explore deeper aquifers and
establish community wells as an alternative to point-of-use treatment systems.
La Pradera - The village of La Pradera has access to several local springs, but significant time is consumed in walking to the springs
to fetch water, and this water is not fully protected against contamination. EWB-OU made a first trip to La Pradera with the objective to provide a
sustainable and reliable water distribution system for the village. EWB-OU plans a second trip where they intend
to design and build a foundation for a large schoolhouse to enhance local eduational opportunities. The building
will have removable interior walls to create a dual purpose building. It will function as the school and also as a
community center for the entire village. Thanks to this enhancement, children will
be adequately educated and the stability of the community will be strengthed by creating a sense of unity through a
community center. To learn more about EWB-OU projects visit the EWB-OU website.
WaTER Courses/Curriculum
CEES 5020 Water Technologies for Emerging Regions is offered each spring for both graduate and undergraduate students. The course offers students knowledge about engineering solutions for water and sanitation issues in developing regions around the world. A practical field guide text book, case studies, journal articles, group discussions and hands on projects are all utilized.
Honors 2973 Honors Perspectives - WaTER for Health, Education, Development and Peace. This course brings together honors students from disciplines all across campus to look at the factors trapping the world's poorest people in "The Bottom Billion," the importance of water and sanitation to bringing health, education and development to the bottom billion, and the social, cultural, economical and political challenges to doing so.
Additional courses teaching engineering principles related to water and sanitation are avilable through the college of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science at OU www.cees.ou.edu.
Sooner Village
Sooner Village is a project being jointly planned between OU and Rowan University to offer engineering students the opportunity for real world hands-on projects. In this project, incoming freshman engineering students will be provided with a scenario describing the infrastructure needs of a rural village, along with the cultural, political, social, and economic setting. Students will then be asked to design critical infrastructure components for the community, including water supply, water treatment, water delivery, wastewater disposal and sanitation, transportation and building design. For many students the experience will culminate with an EWB project, wherein the students will actually construct one of their designs in a developing village. This would include raising funds to cover materials and travel costs as well as working with a community to assess their needs and foster a local connection. This type of integrated learning is intended to teach engineering students the practical technical and non-technical aspects of their classroom learning as well as the complexity of infrastructure building in developing areas and the importance of civic responsibility and global awareness.
Graduate Reseach
Graduate students in the WaTER Center focus on research devoted to developing, improving and studying inexpensive and sustainable technologies for the purpose of helping to bring water and sanitation to the billions currently lacking these basic needs. Listed below are a few of the current research topics being pursued.
- Laterite is studied for arsenic removal in Cambodia. Laterite is an abundant, iron-rich mineral in Cambodia and thus has potential as a locally available, and inexpenive technology for arsenic removal in that country. Research is being conducted to determine whether or not laterite is useful for asrsenic removal and what conditions or alterations make it most effective for such. Studies are being conducted to provide a better understanding of arsenic-laterite interaction.
- Various iron-based materials are created and tested for their potential to remove arsenic from drinking water.
- Different types of bone char are tested for their capacity to remove fluoride and/or arsenic from ground water. As part of this research ideal charring conditions are tested and the chemistry of the interactions is studied.
- Precipitation technologies are studied for their ability to remove arsenic or fluoride from drinking water.
- Community education and technology implementation methods are being studied to determine effective and community appropriate methods.
- New types of slow-sand filters are studied for their potential for mass production and use.
- Various materials and combination devices are tested for their potential to remove both microbial contaminants and arsenic or fluoride.
