The Howard University chapter of Engineers Without Borders has completed a project in northwestern Kenya that will bring clean water to rural families in the area. The “Water Is Life” project began almost five years ago in the village of Choimim where there was no plumbing and very few homes with electricity. Rain water was collected for general use and there was little or no filtration resulting in a high level of water-borne diseases such as typhoid and cholera.
Over the years, 27 Howard University students and Howard faculty have traveled to Kenya and developed a new rainwater harvesting system and installed bio-sand filters in a large number of village homes. Testing of the system found that the new system eliminated nearly 100 percent of the contaminants in the water.
