The Long Game: How EWB-USA Chapters Engineer Sustainable Water Futures

Two Paths to the Same Goal

Across the world, the pursuit of clean water takes many forms. In some communities, it means building solar-powered boreholes to serve thousands. In others, it means refining a single household filter that keeps one family healthy. What ties these efforts together isn’t scale, but purpose.

For two Engineers Without Borders USA chapters, that purpose is the same: lasting impact through community partnership. In Mondulkiri, Cambodia, Oregon State University students are studying how biosand filters continue to perform years after installation, ensuring that clean water access doesn’t fade once the volunteers leave. Meanwhile, at Masogo Market in western Kenya, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo engineers are expanding a solar borehole system that supplies clean water to hundreds of households, small businesses, and schools which are all managed by a locally elected water board.

Both projects are thousands of miles apart, but they’re guided by the same principle: sustainable engineering isn’t about what you build today, but about what continues to work tomorrow.

Designing for Context

In O’rana Village, Cambodia, clean water begins at home. Each biosand filter, built from concrete, sand, and gravel, sits beside a family’s kitchen, turning cloudy well water into something safe to drink. The filters are simple by design, but their impact depends on careful follow-up. Oregon State University’s Engineers Without Borders USA team returned to test performance, measure water quality, and make sure families know how to keep their filters running. What started as an engineering challenge has become a long-term partnership built on trust, consistency, and shared knowledge.

Half a world away, another chapter is tackling the same goal on a different scale. In Kenya’s Masogo Market, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students are expanding a solar-powered borehole system that delivers water to hundreds of households, schools, and shops. The water flows through elevated storage tanks and into a busy market kiosk. The system is not run not by visiting engineers, but by the town’s own elected water board. What began as a student-led design has evolved into a community-managed utility, complete with plans for new shower facilities to serve local residents.

The two projects couldn’t look more different on the surface, one built for households and the other for a marketplace, but both show what it means to design for context. Whether it’s a simple filter or a complex distribution network, the work is shaped by what the community needs most and what it can sustain for decades to come.

Building Systems, Not Just Structures

For both teams, success isn’t measured by what they built: it’s measured by what stays standing and long term impact. In O’rana, Oregon State’s students realized early on that the biosand filters would only work if the community could maintain them without outside help. So, they focused on training. Each trip included workshops on filter cleaning, replacement sand sourcing, and simple water testing. Over time, that training turned into local leadership. Today, maintenance checks are handled by community members themselves, supported by Cambodian Rural Development Tours, the team’s in-country partner.

In Masogo, Cal Poly’s students faced a different challenge: infrastructure at scale requires management. Rather than rely on visiting engineers to oversee daily operations, they helped the community establish a water board. This is a locally elected group responsible for managing funds, setting usage rates, and maintaining the borehole and tanks. The board meets regularly to track repairs, coordinate with vendors, and plan new projects like the market showers currently in development.

What connects both chapters is a simple truth: engineering alone can’t sustain progress. Filters can clog, pipes can leak, and solar pumps can fail; but systems built with the community, grounded in accountability and local knowledge can keep them running. In both Cambodia and Kenya, the most important outcome isn’t just access to clean water: it’s ownership of the process.

Measuring Impact: The Long Game of PMEL

At Engineers Without Borders USA, every project follows a rhythm: Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning. PMEL ensures that success isn’t defined by the day a system is installed, but by the years that follow.

For Oregon State’s team in O’rana, PMEL means returning to test water quality long after the filters were placed. They measure turbidity, track bacterial counts, and collect feedback from families on how often they use and clean their filters. It’s not glamorous work, just buckets, notebooks, and time, but it’s what turns a one-time project into a long-term relationship. Their findings don’t just inform maintenance plans in Cambodia; they shape how future EWB-USA chapters design filters around the world.

In Masogo, Cal Poly’s engineers use PMEL to guide a growing system. Each trip includes a detailed monitoring plan: testing pump performance, recording tank levels, and surveying water users at the market. The data helps them refine technical choices, but it also strengthens the local water board’s confidence in managing the system itself. The team’s goal isn’t just to measure; it’s to hand over the tools and trust needed for the community to continue that work independently.

Through PMEL, both chapters are learning that impact isn’t static. It changes with the community, the climate, and time itself. Monitoring is how they listen, evaluation is how they respond, and learning is how they grow as both engineers and as partners.

Engineering Futures That Last

Across continents and classrooms, these two projects show that sustainable engineering isn’t just about technology; it’s about trust, patience, and partnership. Oregon State’s students learned that progress can happen one filter at a time, through consistency and care. Cal Poly’s engineers discovered that building for hundreds of people can still be personal when the community takes ownership of what’s created.

Both teams will move on to new projects and new careers, but the lessons stay with them: that good engineering listens first, that impact grows over time, and that real success is measured not by what’s installed, but by what endures.

The systems they’ve helped build in O’rana and Masogo are still evolving; adapting to new needs, teaching new volunteers, and strengthening the communities they serve. Together, they’re reminders of what EWB-USA has always stood for: engineering that lasts because it’s built with people, not just for them.