Engineering Brigades
On an Engineering Brigade, students partner with community leaders and local technicians to design and engineer clean water systems custom-designed for rural communities. They work in remote and under resourced communities who struggle with either nonexistent or dysfunctional water systems.
Water and Sanitation Programming
Global Engineering Brigades, alongside the sister organization Global Water Brigades, supports the holistic model with four core initiatives: designing clean water systems, establishing water committees to collect water fees for future maintenance, constructing designed systems, and creating basic sanitation committees to encourage hygiene and sanitation. This contributes directly to step three of the holistic model.
Example Community:
Las Cureñas, Nicaragua
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The community members of Las Cureñas were experiencing very limited water accessibility. Around 87.5% of the community members collected water in public wells and the rest from a river and some springs. They had to walk to obtain this drinking water, which could be up to 20 minutes on rough terrain. An individual would typically make a trip to the water pump 4-6 times daily, having to carry 10-liter jugs.
From December to April 2018, 1,392 volunteers partnered with community members from Las Cureñas to complete 85% of the pipeline installation. Additionally, a 20-cubic meter concrete water storage tank was constructed. In the final stages, a submersible electric pump was installed to carry water against gravity to homes located at higher elevation, as well as water meters in each receiving home. The electric system installation allows the community access to electricity as well as a water system that can pump to individual households.
In 2018, UVic Global Brigades sent a Medical/Dental Chapter to Nicaragua. They spent one day contributing to the Las Cureñas water project that was inaugurated on September 28th, 2018.
BRIGADE BREAKDOWN
Brigaders have the opportunity to work alongside licensed engineers in the stations outlined below:
