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Water is a vital resource that we all depend on, but many people in the developing world do not have the same access to this basic human right. The community of Sunuka, Tanzania depend on their fields for their food and income but are forced to rely on unpredictable rainfall to water their crops. During the dry season, with so little rain, farmers are tasked with the burden of bringing water from wells miles away, costing them valuable time that could be spent tending to their families, crops, or livelihood.
The Solution
In order to provide the community of Sunuka with instant access to water, Engineers Without Borders - Cornell is designing a gravity-fed irrigation system to transport water from the Rugufu river. Using a pump, the system will raise water from Rugufu river to a higher elevation. From this point, irrigation canals will direct water to the fields. With the ability to transport river water to nearby fields, agriculture within the community will reliably receive water which will increase crop yield. To do this, we will be traveling back to Sunuka, Tanzania for a second assessment trip.
How You Can Help
Your support will help our team cover the costs for our next trip to Sunuka in April 2019. Members of EWB have the opportunity to nurture their creative and technical expertise by designing and implementing an irrigation system to better the community of Sunuka. We are striving to create a long-lasting solution in Sunuka just as we did with our last project in Calcha, Bolivia (you can see our archived blog from our work in Calcha here!).
With your help, this irrigation system will empower Sunuka and the surrounding communities. We hope that you will join us in making this a reality.
Your donation will cover the cost of a day’s worth of food in Tanzania for our team members. Meals include yams, rice, sweet potatoes, fish, papaya and chai tea.
Your donation will cover the cost of drinkable water for EWB members visiting Tanzania. Our members will be spending most of their times outdoors in the sun, thus clean drinking water is important!
Your donation will contribute to the costs for assembling the pump and buying materials such as concrete and hardware tools, without which, our project cannot be completed.
Your donation will contribute to the costs of piping in order to build the irrigation system. The piping will span the large agricultural surface area in Sunuka, Tanzania.
Since Tanzania is a multilingual country, your donation will cover the cost of a language translator for duration of our assessment trip. The translator will accompany our members who travel to Tanzania on future assessment trips, and act as a means of communication between the team and members of the community.
Your donation will cover the fuel costs for the transportation van that will transport EWB members while in Tanzania. The van will transport EWB team members to and from neighboring communities.
Your donation will be used to hire a driver, who will transport EWB team members across Tanzania throughout our assessment trip this summer.
Your donation will cover the airfare cost for two EWB members to Tanzania. Our team members will be collecting data about the area so we can design a functional irrigation system. They will be working alongside individuals in the community to make sure this project is successful and sustainable.
Your donation will cover the airfare cost for all EWB members traveling to Tanzania.