Get Involved! Looking to get involved with the Guatemala project? Come to our Spring 2007 meetings every Wednesday at 5:00pm in Dow 875, or email Beth Myre, project manager. We are looking for passionate people with any level of experience. That means you!

Special Thanks for Support The EWB-Guatemala team would like to thank the following supporters of our project: Michigan Tech College of Engineering Michigan Tech College of Sciences and Arts

Recent News

February 2007

Travel teams and dates have been set. Well construction will take place from March 4 - March 23. Team 1 (Patrick Miller, Grant Ovist, Laura Oman, Chase Nelson, Juan Morinelli, and Jeff Dambrun) will depart on March 2 and return March 18. Team 2 (Bailey Gamble, Beth Myre, Bryna Fahrner, Matt Kucharski, Sunny Periera, Fritz Burt, and advisor Dave Watkins) will depart on March 9 and return March 25.

January 2007

Our implementation project has been approved by EWB-USA for construction in March of 2007. Based on community input from our November 2006 assessment trip, we will be constructing two hand dug wells in the communities of Fronterizo and Nueva Libertad using a modified design based on traditional caisson lined wells. The wells will be approximately 8 meters deep with a 1.1 meter diameter. They will be sealed with a concrete cap and a direct action hand pump of the Bomba Maya style.

December 2006

The health education/assessment team returned to Houghton safely from their November 2006 trip. View their photos or read their trip report to get all the details of their trip.

La Fronterizo

Fronterizo is small village located in northern Guatemala, close to the Mexican border. The people of Fronterizo have requested our help to bring them a potable water supply. Today, their water comes from a series of “wells” scattered around town. However, these are little more than shallow depressions in the ground filled with muddy water.

Our plan is to first do an assessment trip to ascertain their needs. This trip will consist of three students who will travel to Fronterizo with CCGAP to do an in depth community assessment. We will determine the needs and desires of the people through community meetings, interviews and surveys. Secondly, that group will do an engineering assessment to find the best engineering solution using technology that is appropriate to that village. We will most likely conclude that a hand dug well will be the most appropriate technology, but we will also consider rainwater collection and a pumping system to bring water up from the river. Lastly, we will do a health survey of Fronterizo to figure out what diseases the community currently suffers from.

Once our project has been approved by Engineers Without Borders, a larger group of students and faulty members will travel to Guatemala sometime in late summer or early autumn to supervise construction of the project.

Through this project, we hope to improve the overall health and well being of the community by reducing the incidences of water born diseases, reducing child mortality, ensuring environmental sustainability and help improve their economic situation. CCGAP and the MTU chapter of Engineers Without Borders will make subsequent visits to Fronterizo after the completion of the project to ensure its long-term sustainability. However, the people of Fronterizo will be ultimately in charge of all aspects of the project, instilling a sense of ownership and ensuring its long-term success.

History and Demographics

Fronterizo was established on May 10, 1995 by Guatemalan refugees returning from Mexico where they had fled during Guatemala’s Civil War. It is made up of approximately 300 indigenous people from all over Guatemala. The citizens are predominately of Mayan ancestry, but they speak Spanish within the community. A large percentage of Fronterizo’s population is less than 18 years old since most of the working population must leave the village to work or for continuing education.

The main economy in Fronterizo is subsistence farming using slash and burn agriculture and selling items on a nearby Mexican highway. However, remittances are becoming more and more common as many of its citizens are working abroad in Mexico and the United States.

Their political structure is highly democratic.

Fronterizo is located in a remote region of Guatemala close to the Mexican border on the Rio Ixcan. It is a 14 hour bus journey from Guatemala City (on a good day). Access to is limited to a rafts which the villagers use to transport people and goods from the road across the river.

CCGAP After the civil war the citizens of Fronterizo were worried about continued persecution so the Copper County Guatemalan Accompaniment Project (CCGAP) was founded. CCGAP's role was to act as protectors for the village during the unstable period following the civil war. To date, CCGAP helped Fronterizo obtain a day care center, sanitary latrines, mosquito nets, cooking pots, medicines, and scholarships.

Jon Mellor Jonathan Mellor Jonathan Edward Mellor EWB engineers without borders guatemala water wells appropriate technology michigan technological university fronterizo ccgap copper country guatemalan assistant project