SUN-DRIED WATER: Engineers Without Frontiers member Fermin Reygadas has spent time down in his native Baja, Mexico setting up low-tech, inexpensive solar stills to purify drinking water for small, rural schools. The group is also doing projects in China and Lake Merritt.

Berkeley’s Engineers Without Frontiers chapter is making an impact both locally and abroad

The Berkeley chapter of Engineers Without Frontiers doesn’t have to send its engineers as far as China or Mexico to find communities in need of technical assistance. Students with a fear of flying or an expired passport can contribute just next door in communities near Lake Merritt in Oakland.

“The primary mission of our organization is to help underserved communities wherever they are, and the Lake Merritt project qualifies,” says the organization’s president, Environmental Engineering Ph.D. candidate Kate Hucklebridge.

The group is working with the Lake Merritt Institute on water quality testing to find out where the excess nitrogen in the lake is coming from. Nitrogen, typically a runoff from fertilizers used to treat grass, encourages the growth of algae blooms in the lake, which pose both an environmental and aesthetic nuisance. By testing sites where water runs into the lake, they hope to pinpoint the source and thus focus efforts to reduce the nitrogen in the lake.

Projects done in developing countries must adhere to the group’s core principles. The technology used in these nations must make economic sense and be logistically appropriate. They should be cost-effective, easy to obtain and a snap to use.

Fermin Reygadas, a grad student in the Berkeley Energy and Resources Group, along with an interdisciplinary team, is using basic solar stills to purify drinking water for rural schools in the Baja region of Mexico. The stills use sunlight to evaporate brackish water. The steam rises to hit a glass panel, where it condenses into purified water and runs off into a receptacle.

While the technology isn’t new, it’s perfect for supplying water to tiny schoolhouses in sparsely populated, remote fishing villages. The solar stills are easy to use, low tech, low cost and use locally available materials.

Some of the ideas for the group's current five projects come from networking, but most are proposed by members themselves.

While there’s never a scarcity of ideas, the group is constrained by limited funds and manpower.

“The question is always how thin can we spread ourselves,” says Hucklebridge.

Besides research projects, the group also offers internships and is sending three students to China this summer.

The internship is with PlaNet Finance - China, a nongovernmental organization that supports and encourages rural microcredit organizations. The Berkeley students will give follow-up computer training and design Web sites for rural microlenders to help them attract donors and network with each other.

The group is currently fundraising, planning a raffle and asking people to donate airline miles to help send these students to China.

Besides internships and research, Engineers Without Frontiers also sponsors speakers, hosts panel discussions and even organizes hikes. And they are always looking for more members to take on challenging and sustainable engineering issues.

For more information go to www.ce.berkeley.edu/~ewf/

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