Farmers around Lake Bunyonyi rely on rainfall to water their crops. When the rainfall is not sufficient or it is dry season, the farmers must hand-deliver water from Lake Bunyonyi to their crops. The process of getting water from the lake, filling in a bucket, and walking it back to their farms 1S long, difficult, and inefficient. Our task for this project is to provide a solution that will transport water from the lake to the farmers with ease.
Capstone Design Program - Engineering, Design, & Society
Group F20-16
Team Uganda Forever
Engineering, Design, & Society
Colorado School of Mines Golden, Colorado 80401
Acknowledgments
With the rise of the pandemic and travel restrictions, it was vital that the team was provided pictures, statistics, and surveys from the land. Our team would like to thank Tom Karrel, Raymond Bokua, Jerry Amanya for thoroughly providing all of the needed information and connecting us with local engineers. We would also like to thank Kristoph Kinzli for his help with our technical calculations. Finally, our team would like to thank Elizabeth Reddy and Alina Handorean for their continuous support and guidance throughout this project.
Executive Summary
The Global Livingston Institute (GLI) was formed to educate students and organizations on community development and encourage new innovative ideas by engaging leaders from the United States and East Africa. Entusi Resort and Retreat Center is one example of GLI's work to encourage conversation. Located on a peninsula on Lake Bunyonyi in South Uganda, Entusi is a resort where students, leaders, or any other traveler can go to reflect and learn about community topics or current social issues. Entusi contains a model farm where they practice innovative farming techniques so people in the Lake Bunyonyi community can learn new ways to advance their farms and increase production.
Initially, we presented three water transportation methods and one water irrigation method to the clients based on research and client needs. The four design concepts were the lift, hand pump, bicycle pump, and clay pot irrigation. After thoroughly investigating each concept by analyzing and producing design specifications, drawings, and limitations, our team composed a decision matrix to help narrow down the options. After presenting our initial findings, the clients agreed the hand pump was most suitable for this project.
After meeting with the other team working on this project, we decided it was best to individualize our tasks so our work did not overlap. Our team then narrowed down the assignment to developing a water transportation system that will deliver water to farmers within 10-20 meters of Lake Bunyonyi while the other team worked on farms located further from the lake.
This hand pump will be manually operated which will filter and raise the water to a certain elevation and distance to the desired farms. This design report will serve as a briefing for future engineers to continue work on this project. The main topics discussed below are a project review, the approach to solving this problem, engineering analyses, design drawings, project management tactics, and lessons learned.
