Kalinchok Project
Tap Team​
The lack of access to drinking water continues to be a critical issue in Kalinchok, Nepal. The EWB-USA CU team has been working with the Namsaling Community Development Centre (NCDC), local government officials and community members to design tap-stands to improve water access throughout the community. The team has designed a community tap-stand at Balodaya High School in order to better meet the needs of the students that will be implemented in Summer 2018. The team is also working with the rural municipality of Kalinchok to implement and monitor 2-3 single home tap-stands as part of the “One Tap, One Home” initiative. The team will continue with these water access projects and plans to implement filtration systems in the near future.
Latrine Team​
Currently, girls in the community are unable to regularly attend school while menstruating. The menstrual hygiene management (MHM) latrine will empower girls by providing the resources to better manage menstrual hygiene while at school. The MHM latrine will be implemented at Balodaya High School in ward one of Kalinchok, which will help alleviate the complications of attending school during menstruation. In order to incorporate MHM and sustainable features, there are three overarching design features that are the focus of this assessment. These include: the type of waste management, MHM features of the latrine, and MHM sanitary products. The latrine itself will be designed to function based on current culturally acceptable designs, such as use of a charpi (a squatting toilet) as a toilet and a separate urination room. We will also be holding educational workshops about making sustainable pads, and will be working with the rural municipality to refine and then implement the project throughout all seven wards of Kalinchok.
Drone Team
Our team is also working with CU ATLAS (Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society) and Kathmandu University to map the entire rural municipality using high-resolution drone mapping. Our students have the opportunity to work with and learn cutting-edge technology such as how to process data and present the data in an understandable format to engineers, educators, and community members. We are leading the way for drone technology in development work. The drone maps are then used by our two design teams, and they save weeks of time that would have been needed for traditional surveying techniques. The data collected from drone mapping can also be used for research on water source mapping and earthquake preparedness. This summer, we have a grad student through the EDC program also continuing to supplement our existing drone work.
