Water-Food: Sustainable Crop Production, Bugesera, Rwanda

The ZamZam Water sponsor of the Global Design Team (GDT) Water-Food: Sustainable Crop Production in Rwanda, recently hosted BAEN students (Left to Right) Kathryn Bickley, Monica Zuniga, Erica Ryan, and Naveen Memon  traveled to Rwanda with ZamZam founder and president,  Yussuf Nessary and several volunteers. The BAEN students will help design more efficient and sustainable irrigation/filtration system in Rwanda. The Texas A&M Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department Professors Rabi Mohtar, Zivko Nikolov, and Professor of Practice Gregory Stark teach the course. Faculty Advisor to the group is  Dr. Patricia Smith. The team is expected to design a template for efficient water management systems for schools including potable water, efficient irrigation, and sustainble cropping systems. The term well (zam zam) is a play-on-words intended to focus on the interconnections between water and education. The organization’s work is in support of orphanages and schools: wellness is achieved through access to clean water, empowerment of women, proper nutrition, and education. Zam Zam is a volunteer-based, humanitarian organization devoted to the eradication of poverty by providing clean, sustainable water and access to quality education to villages across the globe.

Design Objectives: Design a system to achieve potable water for students and teachers at school; design an efficient irrigation system for garden; design year round cropping system under the known constraints of no electricity, plumbing, money, or safe drinking water and limited supply for irrigation.

Design Deliverables include: a report and schematics for a potable water system and irrigation system, a report for irrigation maintenance and timing, and a plan for maintenance of the potable water system.

Zam Zam is providing some financial support, data and feedback as needed.