| Peo Pro Bono China Outreach |
|
August 24 - September 7, 2001
Dr. N.K. Becker, P. Eng and his
colleagues were able to engineer and supervise the removal and replacement of a
burned-out pump, deep in a rural village of Shiwenggou that has been without a
safe drinking water supply for more than a year.
|
|
Shiwenggou Village once again has a safe drinking water
supply. Dr. Becker and his Outreach Team successfully engineered and supervised
the removal and replacement of the burned-out electric pump in their deep well
during the 3 days that they spent in Jiushan Township. The work was completed
well under the budget that they submitted to the Beijing Embassy following their
first Outreach Trip in March 2001.
|
|
|
The smiles on the faces of the
villagers, the local
officials, and the Team in the photos tell the story. The profound impact that
their participation in this Peo Pro Bono Outreach has had on the 6 students on
the Team (from the University of Windsor, the University of Ottawa, Ryerson
University and University of Toronto) is evident from their enclosed comments.
|
|
|
|
During their second Outreach Trip, the volunteers built on
the foundations laid by the first team. The scope of work that they accomplished
during this trip is summarized below.
- They re-attended at the embassy in Beijing, presented Mr. Henri-Paul
Normandin, Counsellor, Head of Development Section with a copy of their
feasibility study and requested his continued support of their Model
Drinking Water Project
- The students toured the campus, laboratories, classrooms and
dormitories of Jinan University with representatives of their Civil
Engineering and Architecture Department; were warmly welcomed by their
Deputy Chancellor, their Director of Foreign Affairs and other
officials; met with the Deam, Vice-Dean and other professors who will be
working on the project; and met with 3 undergraduate engineering
students who hope to work on this project alongside their Canadian
engineering students.
- They offered to host 4 to 6 exchange students from Jinan University
in Canada during their March 2002 holiday and to have their next Outreach
Team return to China with these students. Therefore, the exchange
students and their faculty can spend several days in Jiushan Township
with them to survey the Villages and work on the engineering design of
the Model Drinking Water System.
- They spent 3 days in Jiushan Township to conduct topographic surveys
and detailed inspections of Shiwenggou and Matoudianzi Villages; met with
the Country and Township officials who have been assigned to this project;
inspected several Sino-German water projects completed in Linqu County
over the last 7 years; and toured the Elementary School and Medical Clinic
in Matoudianzi Village with local officials to assess how they might
broaden their Outreach to implement improvements to these inadequate
facilities.
- They worked alongside local tradesmen, officials and villagers during
the replacement of the burned-out well pump to demonstrate the hands-on,
teamwork approach that they intend to apply to the implementation of the
Model Drinking Water Systems. This impressed their hosts who expressed
their appreciation to their Canadian volunteers for their engineering
methods. (The German engineers involved in the Sino-German drinking water
projects managed the projects from Jinan and did not become actively
involved in the work.)
|
|
On behalf of the Shiwenggou Village of Jiushan Township,
Shangdong Province of China, we wish to thank Dr. Becker, his colleagues and
students for their efforts and generous contributions.
|
Student Feedback
|
|
