Hi all!
Despite a recent Ebola scare in January with two confirmed cases, Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola transmission on March 17th. This was 42 days after the last confirmed case tested negative, which is twice the incubation period of the virus.
Our contractor, World Hope International, was recently able to send their in-country hydrogeologist to the Dele School. After speaking with school officials and scouting the site, they believe it is a promising location for their drilling equipment.
Here in the States, we’ve been working on applications for a few specific grants, as well as developing education resources to be distributed to the students and teachers at the school during our visit.  We have also completed making minor revisions to our Health and Safety Plan as per the request of the EWB-USA Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and have rendered 3D CAD drawings of a well cap that will need to be constructed to protect the borehole post-implementation.  Additionally, travel team applications were distributed to members and reviewed. We are excited to announce that John Merrill (ENE), Danny Sodano (ChemE), and Ryan Winston (Mentor) will be traveling this summer to Sierra Leone for our well implementation!
This past week, our chapter was able to send four student members to the EWB-USA International Summit in Denver, Colorado. Included in this group were John Merrill (ENE) and Nora Onstad (BAE), both from our project team. According to the students, it was an inspiring and exciting event where they were able to share our chapter’s work and network with like-minded students and professional engineers from around the country. Travel to the event was made possible through funding from the NC State Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering and the NC State Engineers’ Council. Â
If you are interested in becoming involved with the Sierra Leone Water Systems team, hearing more about our project, or are interested in learning how to contribute financially, don’t hesitate to contact us at slw@ewbncsu.org!
Until next time,
SLW Team