tce

INTERVIEW

Engineering development
Helen Tunnicliffe finds out how engineers
are improving the lives of some of the worlds poorest people

NGINEERS are a technical bunch,

highly skilled at using state-of-theart equipment and expertise to solve
complex problems, improve processes and
develop entirely new ways of doing things.
But what if the high-tech kit isnt available?
What if there isnt much money to build it?
Well, it turns out, engineers are pretty good
at that too.
Every year, engineers be they chemical,
mechanical, civil, electrical or from any other
discipline travel out to deprived areas in
the developing world to provide clean water,
better houses, and renewable electricity,
and help grow more crops and improve
sanitation. Here we look at some of the good
work being done around the globe.
Many engineers volunteer to travel with
charities that organise projects overseas,
one of which is Engineers Without Borders
UK (EWB-UK) see [Link] for
more information. The charity was set up
24

in 2001 at the University of Cambridge by

two undergraduates under the guidance of
Parker Mitchell, who founded Engineers
Without Borders Canada. The first project, in
2002, was in Pondicherry in India and now
volunteers are sent out to schemes all over
the world.

Every year, engineers be

they chemical, mechanical,
civil, electrical or from any
other discipline travel
out to deprived areas in the
developing world to provide
clean water, better houses,
and renewable electricity, and
help grow more crops and
improve sanitation.

[Link] april 2014

EWB-UKs head of international

partnerships Jennifer Byram is responsible
for building and maintaining relationships
with the organisations that run development
projects. The charity doesnt run projects
itself but will instead receive proposals from
partner organisations requesting volunteers.
Many of the organisations that EWB-UK
works with are quite small, but Byram says
that this can in fact be an advantage.
Volunteers really get a sense of
community. If theyre living and working
within an area where they might be the only
overseas support, bringing in different skills
and knowledge, they really feel as though
theyre making a difference, she says.

who goes and why?

Byram says that many who go abroad with
EWB-UK have been involved with the charity
for a long time, through university societies
and committees or the national executive.

CAREERS
INTERVIEW tce

h
Catc

in
g

ps

Sarah Button tells tce about Raincatcher, a charity that

builds rainwater harvesting systems in rural Tanzania

raindro

Raincatcher teaches local

builders to construct the
tanks so they can maintain
them and build more in the future

SARAH BUTTON is 25 and a

process engineer working
on substitute natural gas
at Johnson Matthey Davy
Technologies. Button, however,
moonlights as an international
development worker, and it was
for this that she was named
IChemEs Young Chemical
Engineer of the Year 2013.
She didnt start out wanting to be a
chemical engineer, however.
I travelled quite a lot with my family
when I was growing up and meeting
people in Africa and Asia children
especially who didnt enjoy the home
comforts and luxuries that I had left me
with a sense of injustice, and I wanted to
do something about it, she says. I had
no idea what.
The what turned out to be chemical
engineering. After beginning a chemical
engineering course at Imperial College
London, Button became involved with
the student chapter of EWB-UK and
soon ended up on the committee. The
group received a proposal to build
three rainwater harvesting systems on
community buildings in rural Tanzania
and decided to go ahead with it.
Fundraising in the first year alone reached
14,500 (US$24,000) through events like
sponsored walks and band nights, and
including a donation from a charity called
Raincatcher. It had started a rainwater
harvesting scheme in the same village
in Tanzania but had stalled. Button and
another Imperial student later became
trustees of Raincatcher and all the
projects are now run through the charity.
The most important thing is that the
technology is simple and can be used
by local people, and Button says its
still something new recruits struggle
[Link] used to thinking about the
latest technology, but thats simply not
appropriate on a mud hut in rural Africa.
It doesnt work, and itll get stolen for a
start, she [Link] systems are generally
installed on public buildings. Guttering is
placed around the roof to catch rainwater,
which is channelled into sealed, steelreinforced concrete tanks. These can hold
46,000 l of water and measure around
5 m in diameter. Standard domestic-scale
systems have a capacity of 2,0005,000 l,
while the smallest are around 200300 l.
Research after the first programme
has led to subsequent systems being

fitted with a first flush system. In the dry

season, the roof can get very dirty, so
water from the first rains is not collected
in the main tank as it is not suitable for
drinking. The first flush system can either
be manual, where someone moves a pipe,
or automated.
Were not even talking about
something as complicated as a valve
here, says Button. For example you can
have a pipe that fills with water with a ball
that floats on the top. When it reaches the
top, the water is directed into the main
tank.
As ever, the key is appropriate
technology. None of us had any
experience in international development
but when we got there we quickly realised
that you cant just build a tank and leave it
there, says Button. We saw lots of other
development projects, including rainwater
harvesting systems, that were unused
because they were broken.
The secret was getting the local
residents involved. The tanks were built
by local craftsmen, or mafundi, under the
instruction of the EWB-UK/Raincatcher
team, in such a way that they would be
able to build them again themselves.
Button and the team also helped to set
up committees to look after each system
and instigated a programme whereby
local people contributed to a fund to
maintain them. The tactic paid off. In the
area the team visited two years ago, six
more rainwater harvesting systems have
been built. Raincatcher is planning a sixth
trip to Tanzania this year, and Button says
they hope to expand in the future. The
charity also wants to find new ways of
evaluating the success of the scheme,
which she says can be hard to measure.
If its on a school, is it going impact
attendance or increase grades? If
people took water from a well before
the tank was built, it takes time to work
out whether the water is making them
healthier or not, says Button.
She adds that they would also like to
find better ways to educate people about
the importance of hygiene, in a country
where illness is still often put down
to curses, and set up undergraduate
academic research programmes.
Visit [Link]/videos to watch
a short film of Button talking about her
work with Raincatcher.
[Link]

april 2014 [Link]

25

tce

INTERVIEW

Social innovation in South East Asia

Noel Kristian, lecturer at Singapore Polytechnic School of Chemical and Life Sciences, reports
on how his students are using their skills to help others in need
Every March and September I lead a
group of 25 students from Singapore
Polytechnic (SP) together with their
peers from partner institutions in
Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and
Vietnam on a 14-day expedition
called Learning Express to villages in
South East Asia.
On the last trip, one group explored
better ways of making sorghum syrup
in Banjararum village in Yogyakarta,
Indonesia. Another explored ways of
making tapioca crackers in cottage
industries in Polengan village in
Magelang, Indonesia. The teams
conduct ethnographic studies to learn
about the local community, their way
of life and culture before proposing
solutions that build on their strengths.

sorghum
The sorghum syrup project team worked
with the Banjararum community to
improve syrup production, traditionally
made by boiling sorghum juice in a pan,
which maintained the social aspect of the
process (pictured, below left).
Their proposed solution is to enhance
the existing pan and traditional wood
stove, for more efficient wood combustion
and lower smoke production (below, right).
They optimise the air intake, circulation
and heat transfer, and ensure that the
wood can be replenished easily and safely.
This idea uses the fundamental knowledge
of chemical engineering.
The design was co-created by SP
students, Banjararum villagers and local

university partners, so the villagers

have some ownership of the project. No
specific training is needed in terms of
operation and mechanism because the
new design is based on familiar methods
and lifestyle of the villagers.
The programme is not about earning
rewards or grades. Its about using
our skills to help others in need, says
second-year chemical engineering student
Robin Lim.

tapioca crackers
Tapioca crackers are a popular snack
which women from Polengan village sell
for side income. The team discovered that
squeezing water from strips of tapioca is
a laborious process, taking two people up
to three hours.

(Left to right): Banjararum villagers gathered around a traditional stove; The students design for an enhanced pan and stove allows more
efficient wood combustion and lower smoke production

Placements have included

projects to provide safe
drinking water in Uganda, to
install rainwater harvesting
systems in Mexico City, to
adapt electrical devices in
Bangalore, India to run on
solar power, and to develop
STEM teaching in Sierra
Leone.
26

I think a lot of people are really passionate

about EWB and the placements programme is
the pinnacle of that, she says.
Three-month placements attract
undergraduates with an interest in
international development, while six- and
12-month placements tend to attract recent
graduates or those wanting to take a career
break. This can be in the form of a sabbatical
arranged through their employer, or after
leaving employment, as a stepping stone to a
career in international development.
Any kind of volunteering, particularly with
an organisation with a reputation like EWB, is

[Link] april 2014

very good for peoples personal development,

as well as their professional development,
says Byram.

types of programmes
EWB-UK has several different programmes to
take volunteers overseas. The international
placements programme is the main one,
with projects lasting three, six or 12 months.
The recruitment process is quite rigorous,
according to Byram.
There is a huge variety of projects. In the
latest recruitment drive one year-long project
looked at improving sanitation and providing

CAREERS
INTERVIEW tce
It took ten days for the students to
design a machine that does the same
job in half the time and with less effort.
Now all the villagers need to do is put the
strip in the machine and turn its handle
(pictured below).
Ive learnt theory in school, but I
have never seen the real purpose in
learning these theories and this is it, this
programme makes me more motivated to
learn since I see a real purpose, says
Darryl Ng, a Diploma in Chemical
Engineering (DCHE) student on the SPs
Learning Express programme.

other benefits
As a result of this instant experience,
the learning exercise is more likely to be
personally meaningful to students and
to generate emotional consequences, to
challenge values as well as ideas, and
hence to support their social, emotional
and cognitive learning.
I have made new friends from
Indonesia, Japan and Singapore and
we learn how to work together by
appreciating our cultural differences,
says Phan Thanh Lap from Duy Tan
University, Vietnam.

This learning exercise is

more likely to be personally
meaningful to students
and to generate emotional
consequences, to challenge
values as well as ideas, and
hence to support their social,
emotional and cognitive
learning.

(Top to bottom): Manual squeezing of tapioca strips can take two people up to three hours;
The students device makes this process a simple handle-turning exercise

safe drinking water in Kampala, Uganda. Two

six-month projects aimed to install rainwater
harvesting systems in Mexico City and adapt
electrical devices in Bangalore, India, to run
on solar power. Shorter three-month projects
included developing STEM teaching modules
in Sierra Leone and creating a wireless
network to connect 14 schools in rural Nepal.
The member-led partnership programme
is run by EWK-UKs university branches.
Students from these branches will submit
proposals for overseas projects for a group of
no more than five volunteers, which must be
approved by a review panel.

Were able to have a much more farreaching effect with these partnerships,
because more volunteers can go out, says
Byram. Our own placements programme is
relatively small.
The EWB Professionals Programme recruits
volunteers through EWB-UKs corporate
contacts, while the Future Relief Workers
Scheme recruits more experienced volunteers
in conjunction with disaster relief charity
RedR.

while the Australian organisation has been

active in Asia and the US and Canadian
organisations concentrate on Latin America.
However, as Byram has shown, EWB-UK has
diversified, and its keen to go further.
More placements appeal to different
people with different interests and different
skill sets, which is very positive, says Byram.
As evidenced in these examples, engineers
have much to offer the developing world.

tce

expanding the reach

EWB-UK has traditionally focussed on Africa,

htunnicliffe@[Link]
april 2014 [Link]

27