Implementing Sustainability

Yesterday, I saw a “Sustainability is Sexy” T-shirt for the first time and became convinced that the idea of sustainable development is going to meet the same tarnished fate as Che Guevara, CBGB, and even Frankie (of “Frankie Says Relax” fame). If so, what does that say about the people who spend so much time working on sustainability projects? After working my ass off for a week, researching possible economic development strategies that utilize new engineering—yes, I said engineering—concepts, I didn’t quite know what to make of a Joe Schmo claiming all of it was “sexy” via message tee.

The Columbia chapter of Engineers Without Borders, which gears its focus toward sustainable engineering in developing communities, is one of the most active student chapters in the United States. Its two current projects, located in developing communities in Ghana and India, have been underway for several years now. One of the biggest misunderstandings about the group, however, is that it only detachedly creates engineering designs for implementation, when in reality, the goal is so much bigger.

The current CU-EWB project in India is located in the village of Purna Guma in the eastern state of Orissa. The daily worries of the people of Purna Guma, who live below the poverty line (less than $1/day), include finding work, growing enough food to feed the community, and worrying about infection from malaria, malnutrition, and poor hygiene. When four members of the team had a site-assessment trip to the state of Orissa for six weeks over this summer, they discovered that the members of the community felt dejected and hopeless. Not only are they statistically poorer than any other region in India, but, if asked, they will tell you that they are also the most ignored by the national government. With everything that is working against this community, it is easy to see how it might have given up hope of improvement. CU-EWB has a team working to implement a micro-hydro power turbine in a river in the village, in order to generate enough energy to propel the community toward an improvement they no longer believe in. Micro-hydro turbines are the least environmentally-invasive method of power generation that can be placed in locations as remote as eastern India—the water is deviated from the natural stream, run through the turbine to generate power, and then placed back. The team working on this project is also working with a local NGO, Gram Vikas, that has experience in this type of endeavor.

Though it might seem that this project is only about generating power for a community, there are far more initiatives that are being taken to ensure sustainability within the community. EWB’s moniker may imply that it is exclusive to engineers, but this has proven to be ironic as there are now concerns and efforts seeing to the health, economic, and social needs of the community. The group’s site-assessment team discovered that there is an abandoned health clinic in the community with space for local proper care. But with no staff, medicine, or instruments, infected members of the community have to travel four to five hours for the nearest health facility. Similarly, a building supposed to be the school for the community has no staff or textbooks and is therefore nothing but an empty building. The CU-EWB team is currently factoring in an allotted amount of the energy generated by the turbine toward powering a refrigerator for vaccines. It also has an initiative for contacting local doctors and finding incentives for them to come and staff the health clinic. Additionally, there are two subgroups within the project: one devoted to designing a creative project that can benefit the members of the community on an individual level, the other devoted to finding economic sustainability with use of the excess electricity (improved agricultural or irrigation techniques). Needless to say, all of these efforts rake up quite the cost. The project has applied for and won the Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) seed grant of $10,000, and it will be vying for the second-round competition grant of $75,000 this April in Washington, D.C. Aside from competing for large grants, the project group is also fundraising by teaming up with other Columbia student organizations to receive donations, including the proceeds of the Hindu Students Organization’s annual Diwali dinner on Nov. 10.

Though it may seem that a group of engineers would not be able to do so much to help a community that is halfway on the other side of the world, the combination of rudimentary engineering and a genuine wish to raise the health, economic, and social will of a community of people prove this not to be the case. In fact, it is the very definition of sustainable development. Hmm, maybe those T-shirts are onto something after all.

The author is a senior in the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science majoring in earth and environmental science.