April 2026 ASCE-NH Section Lunch & Learn Webinar
April 2026 ASCE-NH Section Lunch & Learn Webinar
Engineers Without Borders – New Hampshire Professional Chapter
By Jeff Benway
On April 1 st Jeff Benway, PE gave a presentation to ACEC-NH about Engineers Without Borders( EWB), what it is and the work that the EWB-New Hampshire Professional Chapter is doing in Uganda. Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit organization that implements sustainable, community-driven engineering projects, such as water supply, sanitation, and infrastructure, in underserved communities. The local chapter of EWB is the New Hampshire Professional Chapter( NH-PRO). The Chapter members are engineers and scientists that work in New Hampshire and have volunteered their time. The EWB project process includes steps to assess the conditions in the community, perform an alternatives analysis to find the best solution to the community identified need, construct the selected solution, and return to the community about a year later to monitor the performance of the constructed solution.
NH-PRO is currently engaged in projects in Uganda focused on providing communities with reliable access to clean water. To date, the chapter has successfully installed wells in eight communities and is actively working on projects in two additional communities.
Uganda is a small country( 93,104 sq mi) in central Africa. Its population is 45.9 million people as of 2024. The population is relatively poor, with 16 % earning less than $ 1.25 / day. Access to clean water is a big issue in the country with 81 % of the population not having access to an improved water source.
In October 2016 a team of four professionals traveled to Uganda to assess the community. The team learned from our in-country partners that we were going to visit nine villages, not just one as NH-PRO originally thought. During the assessment the team gathered information about water usage, health of the community members, condition of the water source, etc. In each village the team was warmly greeted by the villagers with singing and dancing. With assistance from our in-country partners, we asked community members a series of questions.
We then traveled to the water sources and tested the water for fecal contamination. Seven of the eight water sources we tested indicated the presence of E. coli in the water source. Often the water sources dried up in the dry season. There were long walks to most of the water sources( 1-2km, significant wait times at certain times of the day and most of the water sources did not meet the community’ s needs. Based on the team’ s assessment and testing, we concluded that our objective was to provide a reliable, clean