Engineers Without Borders at the University of Central Florida has been working with the people of Mare Brignol, Haiti for over three years now. Our current mission there is to bring the people safe, potable drinking water, and generally improve their sanitation conditions. The current water source for the village is a spring which depends upon rainfall in the area. The volume varies considerably from season to season. Individual family members must walk up to seven hours each way to get water. Since residents wash clothes and bathe in the water, and animals are not prevented from defecating in it, the water source is also a source of disease. In order to help the people have access to water, we have designed a system of cisterns that are scheduled to be built in December of 2010. In addition to the cisterns, sand filtration systems have been installed in order to prevent the spread of water-borne illnesses. The sand filters are simple biological filters that do not require electricity to operate, which is good since Mare Brignol is without an electric power grid. Despite their simplicity, however, they are a proven way of removing biological contaminants, such as Escherichia Coli (E. Coli), from drinking water. In addition, there has also been the installation of compost latrines to prevent the contamination of ground water.

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