Access to Water - Irrigation for Tanzania

                                     The Problem

Easy access to water is a commodity most people living in the developed world take for granted. However, many people in the developing world do not have the same access to this necessity. 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 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.

We had our first assessment trip in June 2018, and in April 2019, four of our team members traveled to Tanzania for our second assessment. The primary goal of the assessment trip was to collect data that will be used in designing the final irrigation system.

                                      Our Solution

To enable the community 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 small pump, we 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 will have the opportunity to reach its maximum potential. 

Easier access to water for irrigation would partially relieve the burden many farmers have to go through to retrieve water. With an irrigation system, the community in Sunuka, Tanzania would benefit from higher crop yields which will stimulate economic growth within the community and its neighboring communities. 

After two years of hard work, our team is finally ready for implementation and are working hard to finalize the design. To ensure our plans can become a reality, we would appreciate your help.

                                     Who We Are

Engineers Without Borders - Cornell is a group of passionate and highly motivated students who aim to create long-lasting solutions to problems in international communities. Members are given the opportunity to nurture their creative and technical expertise by designing and implementing sustainable engineering projects. Through collaboration with communities in developing countries around the world, our members are exposed to diverse cultures while gaining academic experience outside of the classroom environment.

This past summer, four of our team members traveled to Sunuka, Tanzania to meet the community for the second time and collect the necessary data to design an irrigation water system that will alleviate some of the community’s concerns. This upcoming semester the team will be working on a feasibility study for the irrigation system, as well as doing further research to determine what other courses of projects can help the community and what additional information we need to collect on our next assessment trip in order to finalize an irrigation system design that can be implemented.

This upcoming summer, we will be undertaking our second assessment trip in Tanzania in order to finalize our data collection. Your support will help our team cover the costs for our next trip to Sunuka in June 2020. 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.

Your support will help our team cover the costs for our next trip to Sunuka in June 2020. 100% of the funds from this crowdfunding campaign will go towards our assessment trip. In addition to covering the costs of translators, driver, fuel, pumps, solar panels.