Rice University Engineers Without Borders

Nicaragua Water and Energy Project

In March of 2005, the newly formed Nicaragua II team traveled to San Juan de. Sur, a small city on Nicaragua's Pacific coast, and visited with several smaller communities in the surrounding areas to assess their needs and potential projects. In each community, the team spoke to community leaders and families, asking questions about water quality, status of wells and latrines, health problems, and building and electrical needs. After visiting many communities, the team decided to work with the community of Bernardino Diaz Ochoa. The town's main needs included a health center, expansion of their small school, electricity for community buildings, and a bridge for a nearby river to allow crossover in the rainy season. The community members also described many water-related health problems such as diarrhea. The team spent several days in the community, and took many survey measurements, water samples, health surveys, and developed a very strong relationship with the community. The team decided that the optimal project for their first implementation would be a solar powered power system to provide lighting and fans for the school. The team plans to travel to the country in January of 2006 to implement the solar power system and to survey and plan a community center expansion that would allow for the creation of a health center as well as to survey and take further water tests in order to design an appropriate purification system for community's water.

El Salvador
Project

Mexico
Project

Nicaragua 1
Project

Nicaragua 2
Project

Organizational Structure

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