SHPE - Fall 2007 - (Page 22) BROWSER T News of Particular Interest to Society Members CCNY Wins Engineers Without Borders Bid to Improve Honduran Water By Diana Cabral Every spring, the United Nations recognizes World Water Day as a reminder that although most of the planet is covered by water, many people in developing lands lack access to clean water. In fact, according to UNICEF, about 4,500 children die each day from unsafe water. Thus, in 2005, the United Nations launched “Water for Life,” the International Decade for Action. The Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter of the City College of New York knows all too well the meaning of this year’s thematic initiative, “Coping with Water Scarcity.” The team of students, many of whom are SHPE members, recently won a bid from EWB, headquartered in Colorado, to build a sustainable water project in the mountainous village of Nueva Suiza, Honduras. “The most important classroom at City College is our world: planet Earth,” said Joseph Barba, dean of CCNY’s Grove School of Engineering. “There, we apply engineering principles and we learn about social responsibility. This water project in Nueva Suiza, Honduras, exemplifies our student body’s commitment to the global community, applying practical and theoretical skills and developing leadership skills through service.” According to faculty advisor Professor Beth Wittig, “They were awarded the project over some of the best engineering schools in the country because their proposal demonstrated understanding of the technical and cultural issues related to the project, ability to achieve the project and dedication to implementing sustainable designs.” Members of the Nueva Suiza community will benefit from EWB’s sustainable water project. An EWB member from CCNY analyzes water sample results. Rebecca Pizarro, EWB chapter president and project manager for the Nueva Suiza venture, noted that having a good majority of Spanish speakers in the chapter was also an important key to winning the bid. Even so, there were some differences in dialect that at times made communication difficult. For example, the word “bodega” among Puerto Ricans means “deli” and for Plans for New GRE® Test Cancelled ETS has cancelled plans to launch the revised Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®) General Test. While ETS and the GRE Board remain committed to improving the test, GRE officials said they believe problems guaranteeing complete access to the new Internet-based test outweighed the benefits of mmediately moving to the new format. ETS originally planned to launch the revised GRE General Test worldwide in September. Instead, the company will continue to offer the test worldwide in its current computer-based, continuous testing format. The primary reason for canceling the launch of the revised GRE General Test was test-taker access. Plans called for the revised test to be delivered over the new worldwide network of 3,200 Internet-based testing centers. Despite the network’s size, ETS officials did not believe that full access to the General Test for all students could be confidently assured. ETS officials will work with the GRE Board to implement many of the planned test content improvements in the future without the access issues associated with changing to an entirely new test delivered over a brand new testing network. Spaniards it means “wine cellar,” but among Hondurans it means “storage shed.” During the initial assessment trip in April 2006, the team gathered health and water usage information and performed topographical surveys of all potential paths between the spring source and a central location in the community. It also assessed the quality of water produced by the spring source to determine the extent of contamination and learn whether the water would need to be filtered as well as purified. The team returned to Nueva Suiza in January 2007 to begin the first phase of implementation. The project will develop a water capture and distribution system capable of serving the whole community as well as a treatment system to remove pollutants from the water prior to distribution. It also calls for a sanitation program to reduce contamination of the ground water supply from nearby communities caused by wastewater generated by the village. To sustain the project’s success and longterm benefits, the village of Nueva Suiza now has a Water Oversight Board made up of seven community elders and an alternate that communicates with a local Peace Corps volunteer. According to Martin Nolan, who was in charge of the fundraising team for the Nueva Suiza project, the effort was made possible through funding from top donors secured by the EWB fundraising team. Donors included Turner Construction, The Colin Powell Center of Policy Studies, City College Alumni Association and the CCNY Grove School of Engineering. I SHPE R Fall 2007 22
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