Students from S&T’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders spent a week in Santiago, Honduras, in January to complete the installation of a water chlorination system that will help 6,000 people gain access to clean drinking water.

Last summer, the team installed a chlorine pump at one of the community’s three wells as a pilot run for the use of chlorination in the community. It allowed the team to see if its solution was sustainable and acceptable for the people of Santiago.

Team members remotely monitored the system from Rolla during the fall semester by calling water operators in Honduras and contacting Santiago’s mayor. They determined that the system had been properly maintained and that the community had no opposition to the newly chlorinated water.

To complete the system, the students helped the community install two more chlorination systems during the January trip. They then monitored the reduction in biological contamination in the chlorinated water supply.