May 2019 – Water Project Trip

In May 2019, four engineers from Boston traveled to Ocotal to begin construction of a water system for this 400-person community. Initial project assessment and data collection was started in 2015 by the Northeastern University Student Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, but ACTS will be completing the project.

The team worked with community members from Ocotal, ACTS partners from El Rosario, and a pair of local masons to begin construction of filters and catchment structures to capture natural springwater from a mountain three miles from the village center.

Next steps are to design and install piping to get the water three miles to Ocotal and the adjacent community of Potrerillos, build a pipe bridge to get the water across the Locomapa River, build a water storage tank on a hill near the village center, and construct a distribution system to bring this clean water direct to every home.

While in El Rosario, the engineering team also consulted on infrastructure issues in El Rosario, including the community’s water system, the ACTS bunkhouse kitchen, the Dental Clinic water purification system, and collected farming data for ACTS’ work on climate adaptation.

ACTS would like to thank the alumni of the Northeastern University student chapter of EWB for many past years of service to the communities we work with, and for providing much of the funding for this trip in the form of personal donations.

Heading off to a long day mixing concrete.

Planning the work.

Digging a foundation hole for one of the spring boxes. Most of the water is bypassing the hole through the white pipe spanning the photo.

Screening sand and gravel for the underground filtration system.

One of the spring boxes almost complete.

A view inside the springbox, with clean water starting to flow!

Sunset at the bunkhouse.