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Xuanqi Xu

Theme 3Team5

HW3

Water collection system in Haiti

Engineering disciplines:

Environmental Engineering and Chemical Engineering are both required for the water

collection in Haiti.

Environmental Engineering is the most important discipline for the water problem in

Haiti. This discipline should focus on (1) restoring forests and on (2) better water supply and

treatment methods. As the lack of water in Haiti is caused by deforestation, the environmental

engineers should focus on how to maintain the sustainability in Haiti. Saving the forest will give

local residents more water to use. How to improve the way of collecting water should also be

considered as the disciplines primary goal. A cost-effective way should be used in poor regions.

Better water quality are always needed as well as higher water collecting efficiency.

Material and Science engineers should also take part in the water collection systems.

These engineers should focus on (1) finding proper materials for the pipes which are used to

transport collected water and on (2) finding proper materials for storage tanks. As the rain water

has virtually no bacteria content, expect for dirt and birds dropping, the water collected should

be kept clean before entering the tanks. This means that proper materials should be selected to

transport the water gathered without polluting them. For example, metal should not be used to

transport collected water because it can leak and pollute the gathered water because of the

oxidization of metal. Similarly, storage tanks should be made not to pollute the gathered water

and materials that can keep bacteria from splintering should be used. Besides, as the residents

usually do not have enough money for the system, how to find cost-effective materials is another

problem the engineers should work on.

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Social constraints:

The biggest constraint in Haitis water collecting system comes from economy. As local

residents are living in poverty, they usually do not have extra money for these systems. Although

there are organizations providing free water collecting and purifying systems, these free systems

are far not enough for the whole residents. Besides, technicians need to be paid well to work with

the systems. These technicians need to be well skilled also. This will further increase the

economy constraint on the project.

Another social constraint may be the lack of knowledge. As local residents live in

poverty , their education level is not high enough to use the system correctly. This may cause

inefficiency in using the system or even cause damage to system itself. Many of the water

collecting systems and the purifying systems are not used correctly and some are damaged. This

will lead to low efficiency of the systems and will cause health problems if the water is not

collected cleanly or purified properly.