Last summer, a group of students from Engineers Without Borders at Illinois (EWB) worked to bring running water to a Nigerian village through an EPA-funded project. "It's More Than a Well," a 30-minute documentary which chronicled the experiences the six EWB students in the village of Adu Achi, Nigeria, debuted on the Big Ten Network. (Individual program segments are on the Here & Now: Videos page on the U of I website.)
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Last summer, a group of students from Engineers Without Borders at Illinois (EWB) worked to bring running water to a Nigerian village through an EPA-funded project. "It's More Than a Well," a 30-minute documentary which chronicled the experiences the six EWB students in the village of Adu Achi, Nigeria, debuted on the Big Ten Network. (Individual program segments are on the Here & Now: Videos page on the U of I website.)
More than 50% of the people in Nigeria live without running water. Women and children Adu Achi walk for hours each day to collect water from a contaminated stream 3 kilometers away. But thanks to this group of Illinois students this is about to change.
For some EWB team members, it was their third trip there in an effort to build a safe drinking water system for the community. This time the group traveled with a high definition video camera provided by Illinois' College of Engineering. With camera in hand, the students documented the challenges and daily life in a place so far from home.
In the documentary, the students reflect on the warm welcome they received in the village and the long hours of labor at the work site. They faced ongoing struggles to get supplies in a country with little infrastructure.
"The trip was an outstanding opportunity to field test the students' classroom knowledge of engineering and to help people in need," explained Bruce Elliott-Litchfield, an assistant dean of engineering and faculty advisor for the EWB group. Several students said it the trip was the fulfillment of a long time goal to work in a developing country.
Last April, EWB-Illinois was among the six award winners of the Fourth Annual Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) P3 grant--$75,000 over a two-year period to implement Phase II of a project called "Sustainable Water Development Program for Rural Nigeria."
The EWB students worked closely with the Adu Achi community members to create a vision for the design of the new water system. Students and villagers worked side by side building cement water holding tanks, digging trenches and laying pipe for the new water system. Although most of the team members returned to Illinois at the end of the summer, the village continues to work on the project with input from the students. The goal is for the water system to be operational in the spring of 2009.
"It's More than a Well" is a co-production of the Big Ten Network, the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics and the University of Illinois Office of Public Affairs. In addition to featuring the latest sports news, features, and live coverage, the Big Ten Network also includes timely and provocative programs on University of Illinois academic endeavors. For programs and air times, see the Big Ten Network schedule.
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Contact: Cheryl Weyant, 847/422-3155.
Maren Somers, 217/721-5367.
Alison Davis Wood, Producer, Illinois Campus Big Ten Network, 217/244-7433.
If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.