Engineers Without Borders FY23

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.

In summer 2019, 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. In 2020, the team worked on a feasibility study for the irrigation system and conducted further research to determine how we can best meet the community’s needs. Due to the travel restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic, we began a remote implementation in Summer 2022 and hope to send our team to Sunuka for an assessment trip of the irrigation system this Winter.

Water Irrigation in Tanzania

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.

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 the 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.

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. However, due to the pandemic, the team worked on a remote implementation this summer with the assistance of text-to-image software designed by the Business subteam. With your help, we hope to send our team to Sunuka this Winter to assess the progress of the system and potential extensions that can aid the community.

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.

How You Can Help

Your support will help our project become a reality, and we are so excited to see this irrigation system to completion in the coming months. Any support given will greatly help our team cover the costs for our assessment trip in Tanzania this Winter. Members of EWB-Cornell 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 educational experiences of our members through community outreach, global involvement, and fulfilling engineering projects. 100% of the funds from this crowdfunding campaign will go towards our projects. Only with your help can we make this a reality.