The student chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) at Missouri University of Science and Technology is heading to Tacachia, Bolivia, before the start of the fall semester to install a potable water system that will provide access to safe drinking water for the Andean community.

The team will arrive in Tacachia on Sunday, Aug. 3, and return on Sunday, Aug. 10. The students plan to assess the current water transportation project’s status and the progress that the community has made toward routing water from a nearby spring to its storage tanks.

The EWB group will also check the performance of several water pumps that they have installed and monitor the status of the water distribution line and biosand filters that are currently in place in Tacachia.

Missouri S&T students have been traveling to Tacachia for more than five years to complete a number of projects. In addition to running potable water to the community homes, the group is currently working to save residents’ farmlands from erosion by the local Rio Palca.

On this trip, the team will be joined by two public health graduate students from the University of Missouri-Columbia, who will conduct a community wide health survey. The following Missouri S&T students will travel to Bolivia:

Brooklyn Collins, a sophomore in business and management systems from Phillipsburg, Missouri

Joe Collum, a sophomore in civil engineering from Charleston, Missouri

Chelsea Eckert, a senior in aerospace engineering from Juniata, Nebraska

Alex Ennis, a senior in geological engineering from Wood River, Illinois

Pavel Galchenko, a senior in aerospace engineering from Green Ridge, Missouri

Mikayla Molnar, a sophomore in nuclear engineering from Columbia Station, Ohio

Jordan Thompson, a sophomore in geological engineering from O’Fallon, Illinois

Alex Trampe, a junior in civil engineering from St. Louis.