GeoEngineers has awarded a $2,500 grant to the Engineers Without Borders USA Oregon Institute of Technology Chapter (EWB-USA Oregon Tech Chapter). The grant will support the chapter’s next phase of its Hanga Clean Water Project in Tanzania, Africa. The project will help provide clean drinking water for a health care center, four schools and the hub of the Tanzanian Hanga Village. The village currently has no clean drinking water, and the surface water available to them is contaminated with biological pathogens and suspended sediment.
“It is vital that companies like GeoEngineers and geoprofessionals do more to support communities around the world,” said GeoEngineers’ Principal Geologist Dave Cook, LG, CPG, a lifetime member of EWB-USA who serves on its Board of Directors. “GeoEngineers has been a proud supporter of EWB-USA for many years, including supporting various student chapters. This grant is one of several we have made to Oregon Tech for their important work in Tanzania,” Cook added.
This June will mark the sixth trip to Tanzania for the EWB-USA Oregon Tech Chapter. The previous five trips were made every year starting in 2009 to assess, implement and construct a slow sand filter to treat water for the Hanga Village. The immense scale of the project required the team to break construction into four phases starting in 2011. The fourth phase that GeoEngineers is helping fund will allow the team to complete the slow sand filter by installing manifold to move water to and from a pipeline built in previous trips. The team will also install a cover to protect the filtered water from the sun and rain.
Find out more about the Hanga Clean Water Project by watching the EWB-USA Oregon Tech video above.