Read Claire and Suraj’s blog during their trip this summer at projectobodan.blogspot.com.

Obodan & Sakyikrom, Ghana EWB Program Ghana pursues three main objectives: to improve the infrastructure of rural communities to address large-scale expansion and health issues, to advocate for better health and ecological practices, and to develop a sustainable ethos of self-improvement in the communities we work with.

Background

Beginnings: The Columbia University Engineers Without Borders (CU-EWB) Ghana Program began in November 2004 when the chapter responded to an application submitted by Dr. Anthony Akunzule on behalf of the community of Obodan, Ghana to EWB-USA. An assessment team was sent to Ghana in January 2005. The team partnered with students from the pilot class, ‘Engineering for Developing Communities’ for the Obodan project. The students synthesized the collected data and designed several facilities to address Obodan’s needs, including a public latrine known as a Kumasi Ventilated Pit (KVIP), an improved water supply system and a rain-water harvesting system on the roof of a school. Since then, the Ghana program has continued to center projects on developing solutions for water management and sanitation issues in Obodan, as well as the nearby semi-urban town of Sakyikrom.

Recent Work: CU-EWB sent an assessment team to Obodan this summer to gather data and conduct preliminary feasibility studies for four potential projects based on a recent needs-assessment conducted by our mentors and Ghanaian partners. With comprehensive site assessment data and four potential projects, the team is ready to begin data processing, analysis and project design.  We have formed teams for each of the projects: water distribution system, rainwater harvesting system, public latrines, and waste management/recycling system.  Our tasks are now to analyze our data and do research to understand the problems we are addressing and brainstorm possible solutions. After this, we will perform feasibility studies for each of the projects and identify one project to focus on for our next implementation trip. The team also ran a successful community needs assessment in Sakyikrom to initiate future work.

Introduction to Communities

Obodan: Obodan is a small subsistence farming community of approximately 1500 residents in the Akuapem South District in the Eastern Region of Ghana located about 8 miles east of Nsawam next to a thoroughfare linking it to the city. Economically, the community is largely dependent on the pineapple and corn farming business. Few people in the community have any steady income and many of the residents are completely reliant on the food they grow and the limited livestock they raise. In January 2005, when CU-EWB first visited Obodan, the community faced very serious water and sanitation problems. The community’s water sources consisted of two boreholes with broken pumps and one hand-dug well. The water was thought to be contaminated and the town lacked any proper sanitation or waste management facilities. They have since made strides towards adequate sanitation and water access, but the community still faces serious barriers to development.

Sakyikrom: Sakyikrom is a semi-urban town of approximately 2000 residents. Like Obodan, it is also located in the Akuapem South District in the Eastern Region of Ghana located directly across the Densu River and northwest of Nsawam. Most of the community members are farmers, relying on crops planted in the flood plain of the Densu River. It is a deeply impoverished community with very high levels of unemployment. Sakyikrom is currently entering a transitional phase as the construction of a major roadway through the community promises to bring commerce, industry, and rapid population growth. Although this new thoroughfare promises growth and development, it will place enormous environmental, civil and social pressures on the greater community. Sakyikrom and its surrounding towns have severe problems with the available potable water sources, inadequate sanitation facilities, and poor waste management practices. These infrastructure issues significantly reduce the quality of life of residents and will be greatly accentuated without proper planning and new facilities to account for a period of rampant growth, which could see the population triple or even quadruple. In August 2008, EWB Program Ghana students traveled to southeastern Ghana on another assessment trip. The students visited the community of Sakyikrom, as well as its three satellite villages (Asante Kwaku, Affumkrom, and Akraman). The students administered comprehensive Columbia University IRB approved surveys for 50 households that addressed water and energy usage, education levels, knowledge of public health, transportation availability, and household-based income levels. Students also identified water sources and took data on lead, bacteria, pesticides, nitrates, nitrites, chlorine, hardness & pH levels. A community needs-assessment forum was held this summer to engage the community at large in a future development initiative.

Current Efforts The recent assessment trip has provided a strong direction for the Ghana team. The trip revealed the feasibility of four potential areas of development: latrine access, rain water harvesting, waste/recycling management and centralized water purification and distribution. Topographical and GIS mapping data has been gathered and will be compiled in the coming months. Additionally, broad community surveys were administered to assess the public health and economic welfare across the village, and this data will be analyzed to determine the social feasibility of these projects. The team plans on drafting implementation designs by the end of the year for a future implementation in the winter or spring. The team will continue pursuing a strong fund-raising initiative to enable these projects. The team’s involvement in Sakyikrom will be maintained, but design has been post-poned to focus on the Obodan infrastructure project. Plans for a sustainable marketplace are still on the table for Sakyikrom, although additional assessment is necessary. Additionally, the team will continue to research solutions to the common ground-water contamination in the area based on household and community-scale slow sand filters and other filtration systems. The needs-assessment of the past summer will be analyzed in the next year to determine the future direction of our work in Sakyikrom.

Community Engagement CU-EWB focuses on bringing sustainable technology and practice to impoverished communities. As such, we ensure that every project that we implement can be maintained and supported by the communities we work in. We make sure to use appropriate, robust technologies that are transparent to local problem-solvers, and we educate local leaders and development committees on the maintenance and proper use of every technology we implement. The Ghana program has been making a particularly strong effort to partner with students from EWB-Ghana and Ghanaian universities in its current design work. CU-EWB is assisting the Ghana Telecom University College student chapter of EWB with a Computer library/IT center project in Obodan, and the team has been deeply involved with the formation and work of the national organization of EWB-Ghana. The team is sharing its design work with Ghanaian teams to foster a productive exchange of knowledge and skills.

Get involved in the Ghana Program!
Meetings: Wednesdays, 10:00 pm, 607 Hamilton
Program Manager: Clayton Dahlman, cjd2126@columbia.edu
Program Liaison: Lucy Stowe, lcs2123@columbia.edu
Program Secretary: Anjali Bains, akb2141@columbia.edu