OUR HISTORY

EWB–USA began in San Pablo, Belize, a Mayan village of about 250 people. In April 2000, Angel Tzec, a representative of the Belize Ministry of Agriculture invited Dr. Bernard Amadei, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, to visit San Pablo to examine the possibility of designing and installing a water delivery system to the village.

Since the village had no electricity, running water, or sanitation, and because most villagers worked at a nearby banana plantation, the responsibility for carrying drinking and irrigation water from a nearby river to the village fell to the village children. Confident that a water project would help improve the quality of life of the villagers, and strengthen their ability to maintain their community and their culture, Professor Amadei returned to Boulder. There, he recruited eight University of Colorado students in civil and environmental engineering, as well as Denis Walsh, a civil engineering expert from Boulder.

The team set to work considering the options for San Pablo and settled on a ram pump as the most efficient, sustainable design under the local conditions. A waterfall with 6–7 ft of head provided the energy necessary to drive the pump. The water distribution system consisted of a water intake structure, a ferro-cement drive tank and a storage tank connected by a network of about 3,000 ft of PVC pipes. The pump was able to provide a steady flow of 1 gal/min to the village storage tank located about 120 ft above the river level.

The entire project was completed at a cost of about $14,000 during May 2001 with the help of the local community. But more than that, it demonstrated the potential of professional and student engineers working together to help a local, underdeveloped community create a sustainable solution. All the necessary elements were in place for support: an important public entity, the Department of Agriculture; the San Pablo community; and a skilled engineering team.

Based on this successful experience and a lifelong ambition to direct engineering to the solution of development problems, Dr. Amadei invited a group of University of Colorado faculty, professionals, and students to launch Engineers Without Borders - USA. Generating excitement throughout Colorado, EWB-USA has already made substantial progress in becoming a reality.