Baños in Bolivia!

KU Engineers Without Borders is a chapter of a national non-profit, humanitarian organization that partners with developing communities to improve quality of life through the implementation of environmentally sustainable, equitable, and economical engineering projects. In 2008, we began our first international project, partnered with the community of Azacilo in rural Bolivia.

For the past eight years, students have traveled to the community to develop, design, and implement projects focusing on sanitation, health, hygiene and water source development in order to improve the community's condition. We have implemented two projects since then; the Sanitation Project (completed in 2012), and the Water Project (completed summer of 2014). This summer we went Azacilo to evaluate our completed projects, and continued to work on our shower project. We installed a new solar/electric hybrid shower and constructed two solar showers. Just a quarter-mile away from Azacilo, we formed our second international partnership with Colani in the summer of 2012. The neighboring community approached us asking for our engineering assistance. In the summer of 2017, Colani and EWBKU finished the construction of a spring box to collect water from a nearby spring source. Over subsequent implementation trips, a sustainable agricultural water source was completed with the addition of a second spring box, a new design of the conduction line, and repairs to the community’s existing agricultural water tank. This project is still monitored; however, in the summer of 2018 we started a new one, and EWBKU constructed the first eco-latrine in Colani.