SEAS crosses the seas to help rural West African community

Move over James Bond-- Penn Engineers are the new heroes.

On Jan. 4, a four-member team consisting of a professor, a hydro-geologist and two undergraduate engineers chosen by Penn's Engineers Without Borders program travelled to Cameroon, a country in West Central Africa, to bring sanitary water to the village of Gundom.

The entire trip spanned 10 days, but the team only had four days to work on the project since several days were spent traveling.

Originally, the trip was planned as a follow-up visit to the neighboring village Kob, where Engineers Without Borders worked on a similar project last year during winter break. However, after seeing the progress made on the Kob project, the team proceeded to tackle an even greater challenge - Gundom.

Because of Gundom's mountainous geography, in the past, villagers - often children - had to walk 30 to 45 minutes to reach a spring for water, which was usually contaminated, explained Engineering junior Davesh Shah, one of the two students who went on the trip. They used the water for drinking, cooking and farming purposes, and villagers have suffered from diseases like dysentery and typhoid.

The team's goal was first to identify spring sources and then to provide reliable water to as much of the village as possible.

"The hardest aspect of the project was meeting the very high expectations of the villagers," said Engineering freshman Paul Masafu, the other student participant. "Many expressed a deep interest in the project and its completion."

Shah added, "It was sad that there were so many houses you couldn't provide water to because of their geological locations. You had to say no to people after getting to know them and their daily difficulties."

Other difficulties included time constraints - Shah said, "We had to stop working around five or six in the evening when it got dark. Since there was no electricity, it was pretty much a game-over situation."

The trip also tested the team's physical mettle. The group had to hike 1600 meters to get to the top of the mountains, traveling only unpaved roads and carrying all their equipment, Shah said. At first, the team wanted to take motorbikes. However, given the immense height and dangerous conditions, this mode of transportation was quickly ruled out. The group then decided to take a car up the mountain, but the 2-wheel drive car rolled back down after being driven up about 30 meters, Shah said. With no other option, the team had to hike.

Despite difficulties, the group felt the trip was a success, Masafu said, and a follow-up trip will likely take place during spring break. Corporate sponsors - such as Johnson and Johnson and Boeing - have made large contributions to finance the upcoming trip.

Masafu added that, given the chance, he would definitely return.

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