For the fifth consecutive year, students in UNM’s Master’s of Water Resources (MWR) capstone field problems course traveled to Honduras to help build a water system for the residents of Brisas de Rio Negro, a village in northwestern Honduras near the Guatemala border.
Photo: Water Resources Program Director Michael Campana.
Students Alyssa Neir, Geoff Klise, Tara Putney, Mariana Padilla, Shannon Duran-Dinwiddie, Andrew Robertson, Mark Mendenhall, Christian LeJeune, Leeanna Torres, and Julie Arvidson joined instructor Dr. Michael E. Campana, director of the Water Resources Program (WRP), for almost three weeks in the Latin American country during June.
Erin Carroll, Campana’s Earth and Planetary Sciences master’s student and MWR student Chris Casey, a member of the 2004 team, also participated. Casey will spend all summer in Honduras assessing the previous years’ projects as part of her master’s research.
Students worked side-by-side with villagers to build a gravity flow system to supply potable water to about 30 homes in the village of 200 people. During their stay, students helped construct a small concrete dam, a 5,000-gallon ferroconcrete storage tank and laid the main water line from the tank to the houses.
“We accomplished more than previous classes did,” said Campana, who estimated that 70 percent of the project was completed when they departed. “The reasons for the high completion percentage were a smaller, more compact village and better weather (less rain) than on previous trips.”
As in past years, the students worked hard and impressed the villagers with their diligence and industriousness.
“The villagers know what we have in the United States and that we give up a lot of comforts when we visit them. They are very appreciative,” said Campana, who says that he never ceases to marvel at the work of the students. One villager couldn’t thank Campana and the students enough, and cried when he said that he and his family would never forget the visit.
The water systems work is a joint project among UNM’s WRP, Hondurans Alex del Cid Vásquez (who designs the systems and organizes the villagers) and Rolando López, and SANAA (Servício Autónomo Nacional de Acueductos y Alcantarillados), the Honduran government agency responsible for rural systems.
The students’ work did not end with their return to the states. They are now working on a journal article, a proposal to expand the project and seek more funding, and PowerPoint presentations.
“Their proposal will form the basis of a submission to a foundation”, Campana said. “We have no more funds for future years, and we believe this is a program worth continuing.”
Private donors, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Intel Foundation funded this year’s trip.
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821
Posted by scarr at July 8, 2005 10:39 AM