About the Community
Chichimuch is a small village in the mountains of southwestern Guatemala overlooking Lake Atitlan. The local water supply was becoming increasingly inadequate in terms of both quality and quantity for the 374 inhabitants of the Chichimuch community, which had been afflicted by intermittent droughts and inconsistent rainy seasons for a few years prior to the project. Namely, the community on average relies on a water supply of around 10.3 gallons per minute, but only 6.13 gallons per minute were provided in the most recent (before implementation) dry season by existing infrastructure.
Project Overview & Results
In 2014, the Guatemala Project team formed to help the Chichimuch community gain access to cleaner water by locating a new water source and providing the infrastructure to transport the water.
The design that the project team settled on was a springbox apparatus installation over a water source at the bottom of a ravine. The springbox collects water and then pumps it through over 220 vertical feet of PVC pipe to the main water supply tank at a rate of 5 gallons per minute using a simple 220-volt water pump. As of the latest checkup in Fall 2020, the project has been successfully distributing far over the required 50 gallons of water per person per day with 99% community satisfaction.
The design continues to operate and provides water to Chichimuch to this day, ending the hardships of locals brought on by water shortages.
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Engineers Without Borders - UIUC 