Kibuon Water Supply Project
In the Spring of 2019, the Harvard Engineers Without Borders project team began a new project. The team spent a lot of time researching communities that put in requests before deciding on Kibuon. Later that Spring, the newly formed Kibuon project team sent a travel team to the community to assess the community's needs and the feasibility of implementation. This trip proved to be successsful.
The travel team weighed 2 options for implementing a water system in the community, and decided upon a borehole well instead of a rainwater catchment system due to the number of people that are need of a clean, water source and the few community buildings that would be able to support rainwater catchment. In the Fall of 2019, the whole project team worked on analyzing the data that the travel team gathered and decided on a location to drill a borehole well.
In November 2021, the team completed a remote implementation. Through close collaboration with Julius Amara, Paul Olang’o, Norman Mugisha (EWB East Africa) and the drillers at WECCO (Wuoth Ogik Education and Charitable Community Organization), the team drilled a borehole and installed a hand pump at the Kater borehole site.
In the summer of 2022, the Harvard Chapter completed its second assessment trip. During this trip, the chapter met with community leadership, conducted household surveys to re-assess water demand and current water purification practices, interviewed medical professionals at local dispensaries, and met with local drillers to assess the Kater borehole and make plans for the construction of the Kawegi borehole.
During the summer of 2023, the Harvard Chapter completed an implementation trip. During this trip, the chapter addressed water quality issues that had developed at the previously installed Kater Borehole—replacing rusting piping so as to improve water quality. Additionally, the chapter oversaw the successful construction of a new borehole at Kawegi, thereby enabling hundreds of people surrounding the Kawegi pump to access ground water. In January 2024, an assessment trip was conducted to meet with the community and analyze the possibility of creating a water distribution system at Kawegi.
After finalizing analysis of the system, the team returned to Kibuon in January 2025 to implement the next phase, which included replacing the hand pump at Kawegi with a solar pump, as well as constructing a kiosk at the site to electrify the system. Additionally, the team conducted additional household surveys to scope potential kiosk sites for the continued expansion of the Kawegi system.
