Merrimack College is a chapter of Global Engineering Brigades, an international movement of university students working alongside local communities and technicians to implement clean water systems in the developing world. Water systems are designed, planned, and budgeted with partner communities and local leaders are identified by the community to serve as the community’s Water Council, which collects monthly water fees from households to operate and maintain the constructed water system. It then takes several months of construction by volunteers, staff and community members to complete and can include several large scale components, such as dams and storage tanks in order to pipe clean water to individual homes. Engineering volunteers specifically work on the design and planning stages of the water projects to ensure that they can later be successfully constructed.

In conjunction with our Water & Engineering Programs, Global Brigades also supports communities with healthcare, economic development and sanitation projects, and uniquely implements these programs in a holistic model to meet a community’s health and economic goals. Our model systematically builds community ownership and collaboratively executes programs with the end goal of sustainably evolving to a relationship of impact monitoring. To learn more, please visit www.globalbrigades.org.