Courtesy photoThis summer, a team of two Cal Poly faculty members and five students traveled to Malawi for two weeks to teach rural villages sustainable irrigation practices.
The class, “Appropriate Technology for Impoverished Communities,” brought together students from different majors who are passionate about improving communities around the world, said Blayne Morgan, an environmental engineering senior and team member.
Before going, the students studied impoverished communities, world hunger and the causes of poverty.
Other team members included Diane Long, retired political science faculty member and team leader, Rod Hoadley, industrial and manufacturing engineering faculty member, social sciences graduate Kaitlin Chandler, earth science graduate Bridget Hill, and animal science senior Grace Wetmore.
After a village chief gave her a piece of property, Atwater said she became curious about how to implement sustainable development in a poor African country.
“I really wanted to include Cal Poly students in my development project,” she said.
The goal was to assess the needs of a particular community with appropriate technology.
“We originally researched small-scale irrigation to increase crop production,” Atwater said. “We were looking for a way to introduce irrigation in way that was sustainable – meaning human-powered.”
The team came up with a bicycle-powered water pump called a “ped-a-pump,” after discovering that certain villages in Malawi didn’t have irrigation and could not grow enough food. The pump allows villagers to pump their own water.
After crafting the device, the team needed to raise enough money to take the trip, which was estimated at $3,600 per person.
They raised the money by asking for donations from family and friends, writing grant proposals and holding a California Pizza Kitchen fundraiser.
Once there, the team demonstrated how to use the device to inhabitants of several different villages.
Since women are primarily responsible for feeding the families, the team wanted to promote the ped-a-pump to them especially.
“It was well-received, though we did run into challenges we didn’t anticipate,” Atwater said. “For instance, many of the villages were so poor that they had never had a bicycle, the bicycles had chains falling off or the pedals were stripped.”
Some of the women asked the team if a hand-crank could be added to make it more accommodating.
The team also joined forces with Compassion Ministries Development Program (COMDEP) a Malawi-based aid organization. The team helped COMDEP out with other projects and the two groups were able to pay for a topographic survey of 16 hectares of land.
“The survey will be done by the ministry of irrigation and that data will help design the irrigation strategy of that region,” Atwater said. “This will help multiple villages.”
The files from the survey will be available in four weeks. Currently, the Malawi team is looking for agricultural engineering, civil engineering, or another class that would like to receive the survey and assist with the designs for possible senior project credit.
Atwater and Morgan stressed that although the Malawi team is under the university Honors Program, it is not exclusive to honor students.
Plans for another trip to Malawi in summer 2009 are in the beginning stages.
To find out more about the Malawi team and their plans, pictures and sponsor, go to sustainableuniverse.org.