At the close of 2023, the Engineers Trust was delighted to award the Engineering Outreach Grant of £5,000 to Just A Drop , enabling their engineering project in Libeko, Mumbwa District, east Zambia that contributes key relief from the region’s poverty.  Just A Drop needed financial support to facilitate the rehabilitation of a broken borehole, to provide safe access to water for over 282 people. Libeko, Mumbwa District, is a remote rural setting with a poor, disadvantaged community;  who are presently required to take their water from a dirty pond 1.5km away, and is highly suspected to be causing sickness. The broken borehole was constructed without community participation and the use of iron pump pipes has resulted in corrosion which has not been repaired or maintained.

Just a Drop approaches the engineering differently. It undertakes a technical assessment and flushes the borehole to remove any sediment from its base and fine particles in the gravel pack. Flushing continues until the discharge is clear. The borehole is then pump tested to establish the yield and drawdown.

The borehole is repaired replacing the corroded pipes and when needed, a new platform is cast, and pump is installed. Just a Drop uses uPVC riser pipes with stainless steel couplings, so these rapid corrosion problems are avoided in the future, which provides long-lasting boreholes and reduced maintenance costs.

It’s usually communities like Libeko who struggle to receive funding as they’re more difficult and costly to access. Families are desperately poor and with rainfall being increasingly erratic, this pushes people further into poverty. The clean water provided by this project will reach the most marginalised of people; reduce time previously spent collecting water and the risks relating to this, while reducing sickness, enabling the community to instead spend time generating a living, going to school, and building strong livelihoods, all elements that drive communities like this out of poverty.

The Engineers Trust Grant forms a significant part of the total cost of the project which is expected to complete by August 2024. More detail on the project will be available when the project is complete.

Alongside this grant, for the first time this year, two runner up awards were made by the Engineers Trust; each for £1000.

•           The first runner up award was made to the Zambezi Sunrise Trust dedicated to the relief of poverty and support of education in Zambia. The £1,000 grant is being put towards the construction of an insaka at Linda Community School, Livingstone, Zambia. An insaka is a traditional circular thatch roofed gazebo used by the community for schooling and holding meetings in the evening for community projects.

•           The second runner up award of £1000 was made to BuildAid, a construction-based charity that supplies pro-bono professional advice, services and funding for non-profit and community organisations worldwide. It has developed sand dam technology to provide water, associated infrastructure works, provision of seeds and full agricultural, hygiene and management in Kenya.

We were also able to connect other entries with support from private donations from within the WCE members, meaning the Company’s reach and support this year has touched hundreds of people in poverty in a time of increasing disruption from war, climate change and corruption across the global. We are thankful for the continued support from the members of the Worshipful Company of Engineers and look forward to seeing next year’s entries.