Hydraulic Engineer Team Creates Innovative Rainwater Harvesting System
Volunteers from Engineers without Borders developed a rainwater collection system to provide clean water resources in Mariscal Castilla, Peru. A CS Engineering article summarizes the project and plans for follow up visits to ensure project success.
The Need for Clean Water
Mariscal Castilla is a small village in Peru located on the Amazon River. Why would a village located on the largest river basin in the world not have access to proper water resources?
Even though this village is located by such a large water resource, CS Engineering reports, “industrial and agricultural runoff, combined with insufficient sanitation practices, have unfortunately contaminated the region’s water supply.”
Not having access to fresh clean water negatively impacted the community by causing illness that kept people from work. Villagers were also spending a significant amount of time traveling to collect this contaminated water.
What is the Solution?
In 2017 a Houston based team of Engineers Without Borders traveled to Peru. This first trip involved collecting data and other information including discussions with village leadership.
After returning to Texas, the team spent a year analyzing all the information and came up with design plans for a rainwater harvesting system. These included the tank system in use today.
This rainwater harvesting system took into consideration site location especially in relation to distance from villagers’ homes to collection sites. The system only used common buildings for tanks ensuring ownership to the entire village.
After overcoming several obstacles such as episodes of flooding and site changes due to design demands, the team was able to create an efficient system to provide clean water resources to Mariscal Castilla. Villagers report the system works successfully and they are seeing a decrease in water related illness.
OEI Hydraulic Engineer Team
OEI is an engineering firm founded on water resource engineering and design. Just like the example of the water resource system above, OEI coordinates across many disciplines, navigating political and engineering processes to provide the highest quality solution to any water resource challenge that can be presented to a hydraulic engineer.
Our extensive experience working with a range of clients including permit and zoning coordination demonstrates how we continually apply our expertise to provide communities with sustainable water resource management strategies. These strategies can include hydraulic, hydrologic, or hydrodynamic solutions.
Contact us today to start the process of analysis that results in the better management of your community’s water resources and infrastructure sustainability.