UMD Engineering Students Raising Money to Return to Kenya with Water Distribution System

After a trip to Kenya in 2020 to assess water needs, UMD's Engineers without Borders is raising $30,000 to travel back and drill a well in that village.

DULUTH, Minn.-UMD students in the engineers without borders group are on a mission to help provide clean water in Kenya, and on Friday they were looking for help from the community at hoops brewing in Canal Park.

In 2020, a few students visited Nyansakia in Kenya, a village of about 2,000 people, to assess the village’s water needs.

They found three of the four water sources were contaminated with E.coli. People had to spend many hours a day retrieving water and nearly half the population suffered from waterborne illnesses.

The students were eager to meet their goal and came up with a plan that would provide five clean water distribution points, closer to the village.

Then COVID came along and significantly delayed the group’s progress. Now in May, members of the EWB group are planning a trip back to drill a well close to the village.

Friday night local businesses donated items or a silent auction at hoops which offered various vouchers for donations as well.

“We’re living here at Lake Superior some of the best water you’re going to get we go walk 15 seconds fill up tap water they’re walking 2 hours per day for each trip to get water and they’re making multiple trips a day,” said Abby Norman, President of Engineers without Borders.

The group hopes to be able to reach its fundraising goal of around $30,000 to cover the costs of the project and travel