Engineering students provide water to Thailand Village

And what are we doing these days ??? Completing stupid assignments :(


A group of engineering students traveled to Thailand over Spring Break to help bring a small village clean drinking water. They have returned, deeming their project a success.For months prior to their trip, engineering majors David Cihocki, Robert Cucugliello, Mason DeFrank, Justin Pusey, Christopher Yanavich, Diana Garcia, Steve Hazel and Dana Kaminsky worked on a two-mile long PVC pipe with the help of engineering professors Yusuf Mehta and Jess Everett.It was installed in the village of Pateung, Thailand to ensure the villagers would have access to clean drinking water. Before the installation was complete, they ran out of clean water by early afternoon everyday.

"The project was a success," said DeFrank, a junior civil engineering major.

"The primary thing that we went for was installed and running by the time we left."

The group, along with the help of the Pateung people, installed the two-mile long pipe in a trench down a mountain side. It leads into a 1,000-gallon storage tank which is equipped to supply the people with clean water all day. The villagers helped the students by digging the trenches.

"The villagers got a mile of digging done in a day," said DeFrank.

The students stayed with the villagers in community homes in the Southeast Asian village, which didn't turn out to be what they were expecting.
"It wasn't quite as primitive as we thought before we went," said DeFrank.Although they have no running water, a majority of the 75 houses in the village have electricity. However, most houses have only one outlet and one light bulb per house. Some of the wealthier people have televisions and even satellite dishes.

"When you see all that, you question why we're here. But they still lack basic knowledge," Hazel said. "I felt justified in our project."