The Review

Issue date: 10/16/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy of Engineers Without Borders Engineers Without Borders went to Africa this summer.

A path opened up for the vehicle and the group found themselves encircled by a crowd of singing and clapping Bakangians. As the team exited and stood, they heard the drum and gourd percussion from a group of men and the cheering and singing of women.

This account comes from professor Steven Dentel's blog, titled "Engineers Without Borders - University of Delaware."

University students, with Dentel, represented the group Engineers Without Borders not at a local festival but instead in the midst of a water fair 2,000 miles away in Cameroon, on the west coast of Africa.

Dentel, a civil and environmental engineering professor, is the faculty advisor to a team of four university students and a professional hydrogeologist who traveled to Bakang, Cameroon with the goal of improving the town's water crisis.

Julie Trick, project manager for Cameroon, recalled the warm welcome the team members received on their first visit to Cameroon this past June.

"We thought it was going to be a town meeting with maybe 10 to 20 people," Trick said. "It ended up being hundreds of locals to welcome and thank us for being there."

Due to the United State's abundant usage of water, many people do not realize countless countries in the world are struggling with a horrible water crisis.

On average, each American uses up to 176 gallons of water every day. Brushing teeth, watering lawns, washing cars, showering and washing dishes, all with clean and easily accessible water, are luxuries that Americans take for granted. The average African family uses approximately 5 gallons of water each day. Walking than 200 miles a day collectively and carrying heavy, often polluted water back to their homes, African families do not know where their water comes from.

In the spring of 2006, a group of students formed the Delaware chapter of EWB. In less than a year, the group made strides and is setting its current goals high. Their first project is in Bakang.

Bakang, a village in the town of Bamendjou, is located in the western province of Cameroon. With a population of approximately 3,000, Bakang has no useable or affordable water supply. The water that is needed to drink, cook and clean with is brought to the village by women and children who travel an average of 6 kilometers, or more than 3 and a half miles, to retrieve it from shallow pools. Because the women and children of the village spend hundreds of grueling hours collecting water each day, education, field and housework often lag as second priorities.

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