Hope College’s chapter of
Engineers Without Borders
is currently partnered with a community, Nkuv, in Cameroon, West Africa. The problem to be addressed is finding potable water for approximately 500 people who live in this community. The people of Nkuv use three main streams as their water source, which are used for drinking, cooking and bathing. As a result of drinking this water, the villagers are afflicted with malaria, fileria, dysentery, dermatitis, meningitis as well as multiple waterborne diseases.

The community used to have a small health
clinic that, although overloaded with patients,
was able to provide a small source of aid to the villagers. Due to lack of funding and supplies, the health clinic was forced to close. Now ill people of Nkuv must either walk or be carried for approximately two hours over the surrounding mountains to the next largest city. Even during childbirth, women have no one to aid them and as soon as the first contractions are felt they too begin their walk over the mountain.

Vehicles rarely make the trek over the mountain from Kumbo to Nkuv due to the horrible road condition. Once a week, a truck drives over the mountain to the village to pick up local produce as well as to take the older children to secondary school. Several nurses and doctors also visit the village once a month to provide limited health care as well as immunizations but they too are unable to visit more frequently due to the poor road conditions and the cost of vehicle repairs that this road incurs.

The children of Nkuv start school as early as the age of two when they go to nursery school. At nursery school they pass the day with singing songs and learning basic “rhymes” in English. Around the age of five the children attend Primary School where all of their lessons are taught in English. They learn basic math, spelling, writing, geography and history. There are seven grades in Primary School and once the student has completed his/her seventh year, he/she has the option of continuing with schooling at the secondary school in Kumbo. For those children that chose to attend secondary schooling, they must live in Kumbo during the week and travel to Nkuv on the weekends to help the family with the farming.

The village of Nkuv is a farming community and any available land is farmed. There are no machines or farm animals in Nkuv so all farming is done by hand. All members of the community work together to ensure the success of each farm as well as the family connected with it.

EWB-Hope is working diligently to find a solution to the community’s lack of potable water. As part of Hope College’s Senior Design Course, two groups, each containing three students are working on finding a solution to this problem. One group is assessing the feasibility of shallow wells and will be designing a possible system for the area. The other group is researching and designing different filtration systems for the community.

From March 15th to March 25th five members of EWB-Hope traveled to Nkuv
and fell in love with this amazing community. They were warmly welcomed into the
community and were quickly integrated into every aspect of the community. Our members danced and sang with the community, ate with the community, and even attempted to wash clothes like the community. Even though they tried as hard as they could to do things like the villagers, they were still teased throughout the entire trip for their “white” way of doing things.


During the trip, one member conducted a health survey of the area. She was able to converse with members of the community, mainly the women, and determine how every day habits of the community are affecting the health of the people. She talked to the villagers about their food preparation, their use of water, and their sanitation habits. From her survey she was able to determine what education the community needs in order to live healthier lives.



Two members assessed the feasibility of shallow wells in the area. The elders initially showed the students around the community and pointed out the locations where they would like to have wells installed. There were thirteen sites in total. One of these sites was chosen to as a location for a test hole. At this site, water was found and although several rocks presented a problem it was determined that it was possible to place shallow wells in the area.

Two other members worked on assessing the water quality in Nkuv. Each river was tested for harmful contents in the water. It was found that on average the rivers contained approximately 450 fecal colonies per 100 milliliters. A tested lake around Holland Michigan was found to have approximately 30 fecal colonies per 100 milliliters. All of the villagers drink this contaminated water because they have no access to clean water. It is because of drinking this water that there are so many sicknesses in the village of Nkuv. These team members also presented the idea of filtration systems to the community and although they were initially hesitant they decided that anything that with proper education they would be eager for anything that could be done to help their situation.

The site assessment trip gave a broader vision of the community as well as the problem. The two design groups are continuing to work on the final designs of the project as well as develop a simple maintenance program that will be taught to the community. In mid May a larger group of eleven members of EWB-Hope will return to Nkuv to implement a small scale pilot system. During this trip several wells will be installed as well as several slow sand bio filters. After the instillation, these systems will be monitored by members of the community in order to determine their success and sustainability. EWB-Hope is dedicated to finding a potable water solution for this community and is taking all measures possible to ensure that this is achieved.

Nkuv is located 1 hour west of Kumbo, in the Northwest corner of Cameroon.

Want to learn Lamnso, the language spoken in Nkuff??

For photos and information of other EWB projects, visit here