Hello Everyone!
The last time I used this blog I was blabbering about my
time abroad for a semester (sporadically posting of course). I am excited to
add information about a different sort of trip, one that I could not be more
excited for!
This summer I will be traveling to Mali, Africa! A handful
of students at UIUC and I will be traveling to a small village, Konilo-Coura to
help provide solutions improve their access to clean water.
I’m sure you want to know more if you’ve made it this far so
here are some questions I would ask myself (answers too, duh!)
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- You must be lying, Google Maps says “Konilo-Coura” doesn’t
exist.
I’m not lying. Konilo-Coura is a small village located
North-East of Mali’s Capital city, Bamako (in the south-west part of the country).
Konilo-Coura has about 1000 residents and the main source of income for people
is through farming. The village has no roads leading to it, and no access to
electricity (probably why it isn’t marked on Google Earth). The village’s water
supply currently comes from the 19 hand-dug wells, one of which is improved
(this means it has a seal on top, ceramic walls, and a hand pump to draw
water). Because google maps doesn’t know, here is the location of the village:
- How the heck did you get involved in this?
Well, it all began last semester when I took a class my advisor
suggested – Engineering 315: Mali Water Project. The class was quite different
to most other classes because we were doing work that would actually be put to
use. We did a lot of work for developing solutions and much of the grunt work
required to develop these solutions. The class is ongoing, so by the time we
got started there was already a few semesters of work that we needed to get
caught up with. We also had to be extremely through with our own work as we had
to pass it on to the semester of students that are currently in the class.
- Ok, so what are we dealing with here?
Currently, the village uses hand dug wells that do not offer
any protection to the water supply they contain. This is a major problem during
the rainy seasons, when the area becomes flooded thus washing the waste from
the livestock into the wells. This among other ways of contamination cause an
increased risk of various illnesses.
Additionally, the hand dug wells are not very efficient ways
for the villagers to gather water. The villagers are thus required to make
several trips a day to collect water for their households, taking time away
from other activities.
- What the heck are you trying to do?
The end goal is to establish a sustainable system for
construction of household water filters (specifically biosand filters) as well
as to set up a solar powered water distribution system.
The biosand filters are basically a cement box, filled with
layers of sand and gravel of varying diameters. Water is poured in at the top,
trickles down through the gravel and sand, and - with the magic of
biology/chemistry - results in clean water ready for use. Hooray!
The water distribution system will use a solar powered pump
to draw water from underground and into a storage tank. From there the water
will be accessed by the villagers through a spigot in the ground (much easier
than having to haul up a bucket of water from a well).
The biosand filter and the general distribution system plan look something like this:
- Ok well that’s pretty neat, but why are you going there?
Well there are so many components to this project that need
to be taken care of. We are still working on the specifics but loosely, our
trip will involve:
-
Making a few biosand filters with the community
- Meet
with the committee in charge of water (for planning of things – lots of things)
-
Collect data (water tables and quality tests, rain falls, ect.)
- Hold
Workshops (clean water importance, good hygiene habits, maintenance of the
biosand filters)
- You are crazy. How can you do these kinds of things?
Yes, I am indeed crazy. And the reason I can do these things
is because I have been extremely blessed. It is my passion to help people who
don’t have the same luxuries I do and I hope to continue to do projects such as
this one in the future, whether as a job or just as a hobby. This trip is such
an amazing learning opportunity for me, and I can’t wait to share all my
stories with everyone!
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I hope I was able to answer most of the questions you all
may have, but please ask away if I forgot anything! I spent a semester elbow
deep in information about this project, so I look forward to being able to
share this information with you all!
