Beyond charity

Relief work: Simple design solutions are revolutionizing the undeveloped world one grateful village at a time | Mark Bergin

Agou Avedje, a 600-person village in the western African country of Togo, is indicative of many small communities in undeveloped parts of the world. Disease and malnutrition are endemic due to lack of sanitation and limited access to clean water.

Tragically, such problems are not primarily for lack of financial or material resources, but for lack of knowledge. The solution: simple engineering ingenuity.

The Denver Professionals Chapter of the international relief organization Engineers Without Borders (EWB) began providing such answers of design last year. A team of engineers helped the village construct a public latrine, one that uses ash from the villagers' cooking fires to block odor and speed composting. Next, the Denver chapter aims to develop systems for collecting drinking water in a community now reliant on contaminated wells and inconsistent rivers several miles away.