Guest lecture: Engineers without borders

On Tuesday we had the pleasure to welcome the NGO Engineers without Borders in our department.

The students of the bachelor and master program Environmental, Process and Energy Engineering heard a presentation about the main focus of the association and especially about the two current projects in Nepal and Tanzania. The association was represented by the two volunteers Joshua Gutwald and Marianne Nestle, a recent alumna of our bachelor's and master's program.

The "Rago Ciao" project in Nepal is concerned with the re-establishment of a usable water supply for local agriculture. After the great earthquake in Nepal in April 2015, the water supply in the village of Raghuchour was partially destroyed.  Together with the local population, the water pipeline for agriculture is being reconstructed. The population will be strongly involved already during the execution phase. In order to ensure the functionality of the pipelines in the future (e.g. through regular maintenance work), the establishment of a local water cooperative is also being considered. In addition to the technical execution, discussions and workshops regarding health and hygiene are planned with the help of local NGOs.

The "Eramatare" project is currently being realized in Tanzania. The focus of this project is the construction of a new, sustainable water pipeline that is characterized by the use of existing local resources and is to be maintained over the long term without the need for complex maintenance work. This water pipeline should ensure a reliable water supply without relying on complex engineering.

Engineers without borders is a non-profit association for technical development cooperation, which is divided into four regional groups: Tyrol, Vienna, Graz and Leoben. The aim of the association is to provide sustainable solutions to give people in their partner countries access to basic infrastructure in order to improve their quality of life. In addition, they also try to provide a know-how transfer to these solutions.