Belize Open Source - Sustainable Development and Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) in northern Belize, November 2012 briefing for LLNL HOME Campaign

Belize Open Source - Sustainable Development and Engineers Without Borders-USA

(EWB-USA) in northern Belize Patrick Coyle, EWB-SFP; Belize Open Source - Sustainable Development

for LLNL- November 28 – December 3, 2012

Agenda • Overview: Belize Open Source -

Sustainable Development

• Overview:

• Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA)

• Engineers Without Borders — San Francisco Professional Chapter (EWB-SFP)

• Status update: Four EWB chapter projects in northern Belize

• Belize photos • Belize Open Source 40-acre site looking toward August Pine Ridge village

What is Belize Open Source - Sustainable Development?

• Belize Open Source - Sustainable Development, as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, • promotes environmentally and socially sustainable

development • invites collaboration on an open source approach to

develop and participate in a land-based learning and community outreach center on a working farm on 40 acres in northwestern Belize

• partners with EWB-USA to collaborate with EWB chapters on projects

Summary: HOME donations leveraged with matching

Year HOME Pledges

Donations EWB

Matched

August Pine Ridge school

Muffles College

Total Donated

2012 $2060 $1500 $1500 $500 -

2011 $2800 $1500 $1500 $500 $500

2010 $500 $500 $500 $500

Total $5,360 $3500 $3500 $1500 $500 $9,000

Activities: Belize Open Source - Sustainable Development

• Donated 2010 HOME donations of $500 to the three EWB chapters – Google matched donations with $500 to EWB-USA

• From 2011 HOME pledges donated • $500 to emergency construction of a new septic tank

for Muffles College in Orange Walk, Belize • $500 to the three chapters – Google, other EWB-USA

partners matched the donations • $500 to August Pine Ridge school for a public address

system

Activities: Belize Open Source - Sustainable Development (cont.)

• November 2010, updated at LLNL about BOSSD and three EWB chapters working in northern Belize and received pledges of nearly $2.8k - allocated in 2010 and 2011 • Donated $500 to August Pine Ridge school for

teacher's texts and filing cabinet for new classrooms • Donated $1500 to the EWB chapters, got matching $

• Raised ~$2.8k for the first visitors’ accommodations at our 40-acre place to house the CSU EWB teams during their visits to construct new classroom building in August Pine Ridge

Activities: Belize Open Source - Sustainable Development (cont.)

• November 2011, updated at LLNL about BOSSD and four EWB chapters working in northern Belize and received pledges of $2060 – will allocate in 2012 and 2013 • Will donate $500 to August Pine Ridge school to

replace termite damaged wooden classroom windows with metal hurricane shutters

• Donated $1500 to the EWB chapters, got matching $ • Continuing to seek US Rotary club to partner with Belize

Orange Walk Rotary and the CSU EWB August Pine Ridge project

• Exploring conducting LLNL wind energy program curricula with students in August Pine Ridge

• Developing programs to use the Belize property

Agenda • Updates and status: Belize Open

Source - Sustainable Development

• Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA)

• Engineers Without Borders — San Francisco Professional Chapter (EWB-SFP)

• Updates and status: Three EWB chapter projects in northern Belize

• Belize photos

• Road past Belize Open Source 40-acre site toward August Pine Ridge village

EWB-USA vision and mission

Our Vision is a world in which all communities have the capacity to meet their basic human needs

Supports community-driven development programs worldwide through the design and implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while fostering responsible leadership

EWB-USA Growth

2000 8 Members 1 Chapter 1 Project

2011 12,000 Members 250+ Chapters 350+ Projects

• Established in 2004

• 150+ active volunteers

• 6 infrastructure projects

• 5 Appropriate Technology Design Team (A.T.D.T) projects

• Executive Committee and support committees provide chapter management, fundraising, and publicity

EWB-SFP Nation’s 1st Professional Chapter

EWB-SFP Projects and Locations Kenya Water Supply

El Salvador Water & Sanitation, plastic recycling

Fiji Water System

Ghana & West Africa

Cashew Waste Utilization

Guatemala Wind Turbine

Haiti Community Health Clinic and Solar Power

Honduras Bridge Construction & Water Distribution

Nicaragua Composting Toilet

Philippines Rock Crusher

Tanzania Water Distribution & Health Clinic

EWB-SFP Project Process and Commitment

• All projects have a non-governmental organization (NGO) partner acting as a liaison to the community

• Three project phases: 1. Assessment 2. Design and Implementation 3. Monitoring and Evaluation

• Long-term infrastructure projects have a minimum 5-year commitment to the community

• Appropriate technology projects vary in length depending on the requirements of the NGO and community

What’s the connection? • Coyle is founder and a Director of Belize Open Source -

Sustainable Development, a 501(c)(3) non-profit • Member of the San Francisco Professional Chapter

(EWB-SFP) • Serves on EWB-USA West Coast Technical Advisory Team

and leads monthly team review of project applications • Authored EWB application for August Pine Ridge

Community Improvement Program – the new classroom building now completed by EWB-Cleveland State

• Presented at EWB Regional Workshops and EWB International on “Simple, Inexpensive Aerial Photography Mapping with Balloons or Kites” and planning workshops with students in Belize on next visit

Belize Open Source - Sustainable Development and EWB chapters

• We support four EWB chapters working in northern Belize • Cleveland State University, August Pine Ridge • Iowa State University, Trinidad • Lamar University, Chunox in the Corozol District • Texas A&M, San Mateo on Ambergris Caye

• Coyle reviewed their application and is in touch with them to collaborate and support them

The focus of this talk is the EWB Cleveland State University August Pine Ridge classroom building project which is now complete. The team is looking at the next needs to address

Where is Belize?

Belize up close • Belize is small: About 175 miles,

north-south, by 80 miles wide • It has diverse land regions: cayes,

barrier reef, beaches, tropical rain forests, caves with rivers running into them, mountain pine ridge, and savannahs (where we are)

• Belize is small enough and transportation is good enough that a stop at Belize Open Source can be included as part of your itinerary, along with whatever else you choose to do in Belize

• If you visit Belize and volunteer with BOSSD, a reasonable portion of your trip expenses can be tax deductible

How to get involved • Contact me:

• pat@coyles.com • Belize Open Source: http://belizeopensource.org

• SFP-EWB: http://ewb-sfp.org/ • EWB-USA: http://www.ewb-usa.org/

• Individual chapters and projects are accessible through the EWB-USA website

How to donate for matching

I’ve donated to the 4 chapters - websites are ready to take donations

• https://ssl.charityweb.net/ewbusa/pfp/ewbisustudentchapter

.htm

• https://ssl.charityweb.net/ewbusa/pfp/ewbtamu.htm

• https://ssl.charityweb.net/ewbusa/pfp/fundraisingforbelize.htm

• https://ssl.charityweb.net/ewbusa/pfp/lamaruniversityinbelize.htm

Iowa State University

Engineering Without Borders Iowa State University Chapter

Solar Fruit Dehydrator Project

Trinidad and Kings College, Orange Walk, Belize

Building Stage

• In March of 2010 our program built three solar fruit dehydrators and left them each in a different location. – One was left with Trinidad government school, our primary

partner institution.

– Another was left at Kings College high school.

– The third constructed dryer, along with raw material for constructing a 4th dryer, was demonstrated for and given to representatives from the Orange Walk Rotary International organization.

• Each dryer recipient was provided with a manual for the construction and the use of the dehydrator.

Back in the States

• Earlier this semester our group built another fruit dryer at our college so we could practice and get an idea of maintenance issues we might face.

• We plan to rewrite the directions to improve user friendliness.

• On the next slide is some pictures of the construction of our dryer.

Future Plans

• Monitoring trip over Thanksgiving • Observe dryer use and collect data on drying times and

system metrics such as air flow and internal temperature • Equipment will be left in-community to allow a user to

continue testing and observe variations with weather patterns

• Inspect community computer lab in nearby community (Coyle note: this is in the new classroom building in August Pine Ridge, next village down the road) for potential implementation in Trinidad

• Our year-end goal is $5000—will allow freedom of future travel to expand or wind down program based on needs

Thank you for your support for our project.

Dan Voss Samantha Sauerbrei

Kelsey Regan Mark Sanocki Laura Jarboe

EWB-ISU Trinidad Travel Team

26

…building partnerships…

27

…making friends…

28

Our partner community and institution

Trinidad

Kings College

Activities

Projects: • Build and test three solar driers for three primary

schools • Create construction, operation, and maintenance

plans for drier • Construct town sign and school sign in Trinidad • Assess feeding program and school garden for

Kings College • Initiate contact and assess needs at Kings College • Assess two stove designs, determine cooking

needs • Hygiene education – clean hands

Cultural Experience

School Garden and Nutrition

Future Direction: Chemistry Program

Needs: - Experiments that don’t require special chemicals - More space - Better equipment

Solar Fruit Dryer

Trinidad: Town Sign

Meeting Rotary in Orange Walk Belize

Next Steps

Continued and proposed projects: • Coordinate with Humana-Belize (NGO) for seeds and local resources for

tools to equip Kings College for school garden • Create a textbook drive for Kings College • Assess and initiate stove program business (30-50 stoves / week) • Design and construct bus stop for Trinidad Village • Coordinate with Rotary in Orange Walk to expand Solar Dryer project • TBD – depending on assessment coming up

Lamar University, village of Chunox in the Corozol District update

• Implement a restroom facility for the St. Viatore vocational high school • Performed test to determine water quality, soil type, soil

percolation, water table, land survey (for a percolation field), located a site for the bathrooms

• Formed Memorandum of Understanding with the school – • we will provide materials and design • the school will provide labor, some lodging and meals

• Currently working on alternatives Analysis: our preferred alternative is a standard flush toilet. The effluent waste will be treated by a percolation field

• Established in 2008

• Consists of over 20 current members

• Started our first project in 2009

• Traveled to Belize for the first time in 2010

• Will be traveling to Belize this summer for implementation.

• Our plan is to have our total project ready for submission January 2012 and travel in May 2012.

About Lamar

University Chapter

We have raised about $20,000 so far for our trip (However, there are issues with schedule and the grant from Boeing). We are trying at raising another $6,000 to help pay for members to travel to informational workshops to gain the training they need. The project we have is almost completed, we just need to finish the final design stages in order to submit it for approval.

Location Official Address:

St. Viator High School

1.5 mi. beyond Chunox Village

Chunox – Sarteneja Road

P.O. Box 330

Corozal Town

Ferry

St. Viator Vocational High School

Cafeteria

Water Supply • Water line from Chunox

• Chunox uses reverse osmosis on community water

• There is no water filtration on site

• Supplies Cafeteria

• School Well, pond

• Supplies shower, animals, and crops

Pit Latrine Bathrooms

Texas A&M University; San Mateo • San Mateo is an impoverished community, listed by the Belize

Red Cross as the most impoverished/at risk community in the country

• The land in actuality is a tidal estuary densely populated with mangroves, which is more often than not under several feet of water

• Approximately 150-180 “homes” exist in San Mateo on stilts with no running water, electricity or sanitation. Each “home” is reached by walking a series of elevated “London bridges,” a precarious system of scrap lumber walkways generally no wider than 22” with no handrails

• The community is in desperate need of affordable, potable running water, development of a sanitation system, pathway improvement, roadways, and a land fill, among other needs. EWB-USA, TAMU intends to undertake some of these projects

Randy Nelson, project lead, wrote, We'd be happy to work with you and share information and experiences in Belize as our project develops. To give you an update on our project, we are currently preparing for an assessment trip to San Mateo in January. We expect that we will be working with the community to develop a source of fresh water, but we're keeping a somewhat open mind since this will be our first trip. Our tentative schedule is to try to complete our first project by next Christmas, but that is very much dependent on this first assessment trip. We'll be better able to give you a timeline once we get back. As for fundraising, we are trying to raise $20,000 for the implementation next year. I'm attaching a few photos of the community, and I can send more if you'd like.

Belize Water Sanitation Project San Mateo, Belize

Christopher Kirkland and Briana Herrmann

The Team!

The Community

Water Update • Many changes to the community

have been made over the summer leaving a need for a water filtration system no longer necessary

• The local Rotary Club of Belize has provided the community with 200 Sawyer water filters, which is sufficient enough to provide each home with clean drinking water

• Training for these filters is currently in progress. During our assessment trip this January 2013 we hope to be able to participate in helping distribute the filters to members of the community

A New Need • Contamination of the community's

water lines through leaked sewage has caused unsanitary living conditions. Additionally, waste from vault toilets has run out into the stagnant water surrounding the community (see photo). The previous assessment trip confirmed coliform contamination in the water lines as a result of this practice.

• A septic tank for the community of San Mateo will provide the residents with an improved means to dispose of their waste which will overall provide clean water to their homes and standing water throughout the community. This will reduce the amounts of fatalities and diseases that are currently found within the community.

Household Septic System

• We are currently arranging plans for our assessment trip this January 2013 to scope the site for a potential household septic system

• A local sanitation engineer has provided us with a septic tank design that was intended for mainland conditions. However, due to San Mateo's environmental challenges, this design will not suffice under the areas mangrove swamp. Therefore, we anticipate a mound septic system

San Mateo

August Pine Ridge, Belize

School Building Update

Cleveland State EWB project • The new school building provides additional space for the

current overcrowded school that serves approximately 450 students and serves as a hurricane shelter for the general community • A project-specific assessment trip was completed in

May 2010 and the floor plan for the school was finalized and approved by the community

• Data on building material quality and availability was gathered along with material prices

• Detailed site soil samples were collected and shipped to CSU’s campus for laboratory tests. Soil characteristics were incorporated into the school building’s foundation design

• Soil characteristics for a leach field for the school building’s septic system were evaluated

Cleveland State EWB (cont.) • The skill level of local labor for construction was assessed • A Belizean Civil Engineering firm agreed to help the

chapter with construction in Belize, paperwork required by the Central Building Authority (CBA) to secure construction approval and building codes used in-country

A Preliminary Design Report (PDR) with all necessary design calculations and construction documents was submitted to EWB-USA for review and implementation was approved

PDR submitted for approval

Floor plan – classroom building

Cleveland State EWB funding • The preliminary estimate for construction, furnishing and

outfitting the school was ~$150k USD • The community agreed to raise $100k in cash and/or

in-kind contributions (including labor) • The CSU Chapter agreed to raise up to $50k

(Coyle/BOSSD helped in modest amounts) • The community applied for funds to the Belize

Natural Energy Trust (a fund organized by an oil company) for $50k and to the Social Improvement Fund (an international development fund in the Caribbean)

• (as of early August, the cost to date was ~$134k, with $61k from Belize and $73k from CSU EWB)

• Construction began in April, 2011 and is now complete

CSU Project Manager/ Site Engineer and APR School Project Committee Chairman Julio Magaña at the completion of the project.

Classroom tiled and ready for use. The door is only open when the building is utilized as a hurricane shelter by the community. Similar doors allow passage throughout the building in safety.

Not everybody could be listed. We wish to also thank BASF, Parker Hannifin Company, and Belize Open Source, to name a few more.

While in Belize the leaking roof on the existing school was repaired. No more leaks. The black of the roof is the build up of ash from the burning of sugar cane. Because of the slope on the new school, each passing rain helps to keep the roof clean.

Anemometer installed on the roof of the other school building. Data collected by the students of APR is emailed to CSU engineering students working closely with Dr. Majid Rashidi and his wind amplification turbine system to properly size the wind turbines.

CSU Students Amy Kalabon (left) and Alice Summerville (Right) level stone for the leach field on the school property.

Completion of pipe runs to septic tanks behind the school. At this time the tanks are sealed and the pipes all covered.

Distribution box walls poured, top was added the next day and everything is now covered with fill material.

The leach field with all the pipes set awaiting the final cover of 18 inches of soil.

More CSU photos

CSU next steps

Rich Obratil wrote, so on to our latest project. A team of students is working on designs for the water treatment. The goal is to get 1/2 dozen options together and take them to Belize in January. Working with the water board and the community project committee a final decision can be made and the final design work will begin. When the design is completed we will then have a better idea how much the project will cost. I'm working with the Cleveland Water Department to acquire water meters for August Pine Ridge as part of our first phase. Students are working with Dr. Majid Rashidi and his wind amplification turbine system to examine the feasibility of wind energy. We are working to raise money for a trip to Belize in January (2-9). We are examining your aerial mapping presentation and may utilize some of the ideas to help with the refurbishing of the distribution system.

CSU prior photos

Blanca Torres wrote, “The aerial photo mapping seems very interesting. I shared with my children and sisters the images of our village I found in the link and they just loved them. As I mentioned, I welcome these opportunities where I can involve my students in new learning experiences. I am very interested in exposing them through your mapping project. We feel pride in having our community appear in internet pages and more if we are involved in getting those images.

Cleveland State EWB update • Rich Obratil wrote, one of the classrooms in use at the

moment, it's nice to hear some of the students referring to the building as "beautiful”

• The Social Investment Fund (SIF) has donated everything but labor for the computer lab so we have started to paint the computer room today

• The estimate to completely finish the school, is about BZ$65k (US$32.5k) - BNE Charitable Trust is looking over the estimate and will let us know how much they will provide, right now they have committed to BZ$15k and the Ministry of Education BZ$5k

• An inauguration for the building might be in mid-March • The chapter is beginning to gather resources to begin

designing for the water project

Belize photos

• Emphasis is on a February ’10 circuit from: • Belize City to the Mountain Pine Ridge, San Ignatio and

Spanish Lookout • North to Orange Walk Town to August Pine Ridge • Back to Belize City with stop to look at fish farming at Sand

Hill