UCalgary students construct water storage facility for village in Costa Rica

A University of Calgary student group has helped to improve the water quality for a small village in Costa Rica.

The small village of Taus, Costa Rica, is drinking much cleaner water, thanks in large part to a group of students from the University of Calgary.

“This town’s current water source was depreciating, and it needed to be revamped. It was very old,” said Caden Kjelgren, who is entering his third year of mechanical engineering studies.

“While we were on the grounds, we managed to greatly repair the storage tank. We managed to begin the implementation of sedimentation, a new water source capture tank, and that new water source would more than double the town’s water capacity and water flow.”

The village’s system had been in place for 35 years.

Kjelgren, along with nine other students and one adviser, made the trip south in May.

They documented the one-week visit and helped frame and pour concrete for a new water storage facility, installing new water pipes and filtration systems so locals can have fresh water.

“The Costa Rica project really provided me with an opportunity to see kind of how engineering can have a real-world impact,” said Owen Thurbide, who is entering his final year of mechanical engineering studies.

“It was an opportunity for me to apply engineering skills in a real-world setting. Also, being able to help other people and address water insecurity, which is important to me.”

The idea began through Project90.

It’s an engineering club that was first started in 2011 at the U of C’s Schulich School of Engineering and focuses on engineering projects that can benefit humanity.

“Approximately 10 per cent of the population in the world receives 90 per cent of the engineering benefits,” said Kjelgren.

Project90 focuses on the other 90 per cent of the population.

“Being on the ground and being able to communicate with the locals and see how much water is important to them … they often described it as like a source of life," said Thurbide.

“And one of the locals described it as like where a town starts is where the water system is.”

The aqueduct is in place and has helped the community with flow and taps not having any water.

Project90 admits the adventure was costly, but the students had funding help from the university and charities.

Project90 is looking for sponsors to help with future endeavours.

The group did run into some structural problems in Costa Rica when building on the land.

“It’s all about applying what you learn in classes, applying them to real-world problems,” said Ahmad Ghasemloonia, associate dean of students at the Schulich School of Engineering.

“But generally, that’s a good lesson for our students—that they realized that what you know from textbooks (and) what we know in classes could be very, very different once it comes to application.”