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Background Information

Guatemala is a small country situated directly south of Mexico. The population of near 13,000,000 finds itself as with many social issues and as one of the 10 poorest countries in Latin America. Guatemala is a diverse nation in both culture and climate. Culture varies greatly between the urban areas near Guatemala City and the more rural areas that comprise most of the country. Evidence of the Mayan heritage appears widely throughout the rural areas. Nahualate is a community of around 4500 people whose only water source is hand dug wells and a river contaminated with waste. There is no reliable source of water. EWB-S&T plans to work with the community to resolve this issue.

Fall 2008 Site Assessment

Between November 22-26 a team of students traveled to Nahualate, Guatemala to investigate a new water distribution project. The group spent it's time in the community meeting with community members and leaders, sampling water quality, and gathering data about the community.
The people in Nahualate had formed a water committee and began taking steps toward a water system for their community. Nahualate is a largely agricultural community of about 500 homes.
The current sources for drinking water are shallow wells that fall short of acceptable quantity and quality. A local engineer developed a preliminary plan for the project, but the plan proved incomplete and too expensive.

Winter 2010 Site Assessment

In early Janurary of 2010, a small group of students and faculty traveled to Nahualate to do a large amount of surveying and water quality testing. The surveying allowed them to verify their prelimary designs and collect data to complete the design of a full fledged water distribution system to serve the entire community. They also held meetings with the community to allow them to bring up any new concerns that had come up since the team's last vist.

 The team is now phasing out the stages of construction and completeting the final designs. The next step is to finish fundraising for a project that will require an elevated steel tank and over 6km of PVC pipe.