After nearly a decade of work, a small Guatemalan village can now count on clean drinking water thanks to the Missouri S&T student chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB).

EWB first traveled to Nahualate, Guatemala, in 2008 as part of a volunteer project to design and build a public water system. This past August, a delegation from EWB’s S&T chapter returned to Central America to mark the project’s official completion.

The Guatemalan agricultural community’s 500 households and 3,000 residents had previously relied on shallow wells for their drinking water.

Students from S&T’s EWB chapter visited once or twice a year to work on projects like installing water meters, pressure valves and distribution lines; designing and constructing an elevated storage tank; and helping residents obtain public services by navigating the local bureaucracy. Pictured from left to right: Chad Barton, a junior in civil engineering, and Todd Williams, CE’95. A fundraising challenge is available to support EWB. Contact Tory Verkamp at verkampv@mst.edu for more information. Photo by Elysia Sparks