Details:
Washington University in St. Louis engineering students have spent the last two years traveling to the Mekelle School of the Blind located in Kebelle 05 in Ethiopia's northern region. Guided by faculty, John Murphy and Robin Shepard, of the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, students set up tasks for each trip ranging from assessing the water needs of the school and surrounding community, to performing tests on groundwater and drinking water sources, and ultimately building a new water tower.
The purpose of the most recent trip (January 2013), was to finish improvements on the water storage and distribution system at the Mekelle School for the Blind. The engineering student team was able to connect the city water system to the 10,000L water tower which was built during their last trip.
The water tower and storage system is critical to the school during the dry season, when water can be shut off for months at a time. The students also installed a pump into the well located on the school's campus. Now the school and surrounding community will be able to utilize water from the well during the annual 10 month dry season.
Jennifer Head, engineering student in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering says,
"The water distribution network brings well water to the showers, laundry and four agricultural areas. The hope is this will allow the school to spend less money on city water, raise showering frequency for 96 students and increase agricultural production."
"The water distribution network brings well water to the showers, laundry and four agricultural areas. The hope is this will allow the school to spend less money on city water, raise showering frequency for 96 students and increase agricultural production."
Other students that took part in the trip included Troy Harrington (EECE), Todd Bergman (CE), Joe Riley (CE), Chris Bell (MEMS), and Ryan Blumenstein (MEMS). In the Fall 2012 semester, these engineering students spent their time designing a water distribution system using WaterCAD and Bernoulli's Equation. The Chapter is now working on designing an electrical distribution system. Their next trip is scheduled for January 2014.
The trip was funded in part by a general contribution from the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering.
Abstract:
"The hope is this will allow the school (Mekelle School of the Blind) to spend less money on city water, raise showering frequency and increase agricultural production."
ImageUrl: http://eece.wustl.edu/ContentFiles/Images/tower_news_article_72.jpg
DateAdded: 2/8/2013