[custom_adv] In a small village called, Valle lives with his wife in a house that does not have running water. He travels half a mile to collect water from the closest well, which likely contains high levels of bacteria and calcium. Residing in a house without running water, Patrosiño Valle must walk half a mile to the closest well. [custom_adv] Valle’s house is one of in the village not connected to the primary water system due to lack of water pressure. But that’s about to change, thanks to a group of students involved in the UW chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), which helps meet human needs through engineering projects that focus on clean water, energy, sanitation, agriculture and structures. [custom_adv] New projects are secured through EWB nationals after student chapters throughout the U.S. apply to work with specific communities. Working in Tortuga was the UW team’s top choice and they committed to partnering with the community for a minimum of five years. [custom_adv] The majority of residents work in the tourism industry at the nearby resort town San Juan del Sur.A handful of the 15 students involved in the project visited Tortuga for the first time in December to assess the community’s needs. [custom_adv] During the eight-day visit, students talked to residents about improvements they would like to see in the community and identified priority projects, which entail connecting more households to water and electricity and removing calcium from the water. [custom_adv] Knowing they would not return to the village for many months, the students coordinated logistics and gathered information. They inspected the existing water system, coordinated water analysis at the closest university and collected the necessary data they will need to work remotely on the projects. [custom_adv] While interviewing women in the village about projects they would like to see completed, CEE sophomore and project lead MaKenzie Fockler meets children. [custom_adv] The students also met with the village’s water and sanitation committee, the Comité de Agua Potable y Saneamiento, which they will work closely with on water system enhancements. [custom_adv] “Getting to meet the people in the community and knowing that the little kids will grow up with clean water and electricity from our project makes hundreds of hours of planning and documentation worth it,” said MaKenzie Fockler, a CEE sophomore and project lead. From designs to prototyping to planning, the students com [custom_adv] [custom_adv] With a population of about 675 people, Tortuga consists primarily of a handful of markets, a school and a church. Accessing the town isn’t easy. From one end of the community to the other there are five streams, all without bridges. [custom_adv] “We can live without power and with washed-out roads, but without water there is no life,” Valle said.