hello, again
It’s been a while since I’ve been back from Tanzania, but due to a trip to India, a temporary revival of this blog seems in order.
This past fall, I took a class through the Honors Program and the College of Engineering entitled “Millennium Development Goal 7: Ensuring Environmental Sustainability.” It was open to all majors, and had everyone from environmental studies students completing their capstone project to students studying fields including design, engineering, and business. The class explored many different topics regarding global development, focusing mainly on potable water. Lectures on topics including biomimicry and social entrepreneurship offered unique approaches and perspectives on making potable water - and other life essentials - available to a global population.
The primary work of the class involved splitting into groups to develop a project in collaboration with NM Sadguru, an NGO (nongovernmental organization) that has been working in Gujarat, India since 1974. They have done a great deal of work in the region on water access, working with lift irrigation, check dams, and installation of wells. Recognizing that water access has been well-established thanks to the dedicated work of Sadguru over the years, our class chose to focus on sustainable use of this water, pursuing specifically the topic of drip irrigation. For the length of the quarter, we explored the various social, economic, and environmental aspects of the use of drip irrigation in agriculture, working to develop an affordable system that could be used by subsistence farmers in Gujarat. At the end of the quarter, a group of eleven of us traveled to India to share our work with Sadguru, and more importantly, to learn from the organization and the farmers with whom they work about all they have done and what they hope to do as we carry our relationship into the future.
I hope that by looking through some of the photos from our two weeks abroad, you might be able to gain a nice glimpse into our experiences.
