Earlier this month, a team of students from the UMR chapter of Engineers Without Borders traveled to Bolivia. The students traveled to Bolivia's rain forest region to assess the needs of Rio Colorado Technical Agricultural High School, which -- despite its rain forest setting -- lacks a safe a sustainable water supply (see Water Wanted from last month's blog). The team plans to build a system for the school on a return trip next spring.

While in Bolivia, the group also visited a tiny village deep in the Andes Mountains to check on a latrine project they worked on last year.

Now, they're on their way back from South America. Team member David Longrie of Grover, Mo., a senior in civil engineering, filed this brief report from the nation's capital, La Paz.

Hello from La Paz, Bolivia!

The team has just completed our assessment of Rio Colorado school. After discussing with the parents and faculty of the school, we have decided on drilling a new well and providing an alternative power source to help supply power longer than the 3 hours daily.

We have also just returned from Inka Katurapi where our team in May built a composting latrine. The village has kept up its side of the deal and has begun work on the second latrine.

We wish you all the best from Bolivia.

The Rio Colorado Team

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The lush rainforests of Bolivia provide a picturesque educational setting for the 250 students studying at the Rio Colorado Technical Agricultural High School. But ironically, despite the campus's 400-acre, rainforest location, the school is struggling to provide enough water for its students, who stay in dormitories on campus and go home only on weekends.

That's why -- at a time when most college students are packing up to return to campus -- a team from UMR's Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter is heading to Bolivia next month. The UMR team’s goal is to gather enough information about the water supply and geology surrounding the campus so they can return next spring and develop a safe and sustainable water supply for the school.

This is the fourth project for the UMR EWB chapter, which was formed on campus in 2004.

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