Teaming Up with Arup to Solve Water Challenges, Share Knowledge

Our work to provide engineering services to underserved communities in the U.S. and around the world increases climate resilience, addresses the most pressing local infrastructure challenges, and improves people’s daily lives. But Engineers Without Borders USA volunteers can’t do this work alone. That’s why we work in broad partnership with members of the communities we serve, as well as with our engaged corporate partners who invest in meaningful ways to ensure that communities across the world can meet their basic needs.

One such partner is Arup, which collaborated with EWB-USA to design and construct a new water-delivery system to get water over the mountains from a natural spring and distribute it to the community of Chiché, Guatemala. Prior to the project, the community’s 800 residents had to walk for two hours to access a well or purchase water, which was unaffordable for many.

Water – declared a human right by the UN General Assembly – is a precious and increasingly scarce resource that is fundamental to public health and the ability for communities to meet their basic needs. Yet too many communities across the world lack access to safe and reliable water for drinking and other uses.

During the course of the project, Arup’s team realized that in addition to needing a durable infrastructure to the problem in Chiché, they also needed to engage the community to ensure users of the water system had information about hygiene and sanitation.

In communities that lack safe access to water, there are often co-occurring challenges associated with poverty or a lack of resources, as well as a lack of broad community awareness about the importance of hygiene and sanitation. To address some of these barriers in Chiché – and to give other communities access to a valuable resource – Arup created materials to plan and deliver a hygiene and sanitation workshop.

Arup’s step-by-step guide is tailored to delivering workshops in rural communities around the globe. The guide can be used by anyone to plan and deliver a hygiene and sanitation workshop.

Like all EWB-USA projects, the project in Chiché was proposed and co-led by the community. The system was built with the support and involvement of EWB-USA, Arup, and volunteers from the Chiché. It’s truly a system built by the people, for the people.

Thank you to Arup for your commitment to EWB-USA’s mission! It’s an honor to partner with you to empower communities to meet their basic human needs and to equip future engineering leaders to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.