Engineering Students of a SNU Volunteer Group Pump Up Hope in African Water- Shortage Regions<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

SNU Team Develops the “High Pipe”

Pump-wells in regions such as Tanzania can pollute drinking water with rust if pipes are not changed regularly.

“Reducing work time and manpower through the Lever Principle, hoping on the eradication of Ebola for fast distribution”

Mr Tae Myeong Yang (2nd from left) replacing the pipes of a well with the local NGO Group SFI (Serving Friends International) last January in the Umkata region, Tanzania, Africa

“What’s the point of having wells in water-short countries when you can’t drink out of them due to pollution if you don’t replace the pipes? So we thought of the lever principle”

SNU Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 3^rd year student Tae Myeong Yang explained last 13^th while talking about the inspiration for the “High Pipe”

Last January, Mr Yang visited Tanzania, Africa with 10 of his Overseas Volunteer Club members. It was so monitor the drinking water states and other inconveniences with the local humanitarian groups in 5 regions including Tanga and Umkata. Through his month-long stay, he met many who lacked drinking water from failing to replace the well pipes.

The “India Mark”, a simple pump type well with over a million installed worldwide, is a system that pumps up water from an average of 100m underground. The problem was that over time, the metallic pipe would rust, polluting the drinking water that came up with it. The pipes had to be replaced every 1 year and 6 months. A major job that requires 10 men to pull up over 400kg of pipes which takes over 6 hours. In region where men are scarce, this task is simply impossible.

Feeling pity for the locals, Mr Yang set out to develop the “High Pipe” with 5 of his other faculty members. The High Pipe is an aluminum structure that pulls out pipes using levers. The end of the lever has rubber pads that prevent slipping with the pipe. The main point of the device is the lever attached on 4 supports in hexagonal pipe structure that allow the generation of huge forces with little effort. Just 4 people and 5 hours is enough to pull out an entire pipe.

The materials required to make this device is simple as to allow locals to reproduce it easily. Team member Heon Jun Yoon (28) said “ the rubber pad that goes between the pipes and the lever can be made from disposed tires, and the aluminum frame and lever can be replaced with strong branches and old pipes hence the production cost is near zero”

The team participated in the “Creative Design Competition for the isolated 90%” hosted by KIMM in May as team “Well Care”, coming in 2^nd out of 49 other university teams with the gold prize. The ‘warm technology’ of engineering students was being recognized in the competition for developing technologies for developing countries.

After the awards, the well care team’s plans to distribute the product to Tanzania was met with an obstacle. Around June, Africa was hit with the ebola virus making visitations difficult. Mr. Heon Jun Yoon said “while Tanzania is for from the virus origin of West Africa, it was difficult to just go due to the safety issues for the team. We’re waiting for the situation to die out”

As much as the limits associated with students distributing their technology to the locals, the interest of the government is required as well. The guidance professor Byeong Dong Youn for team Well Care said “If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is willing to distribute High Pipe, not only Tanzania but other countries lacking in water will be able to have access to clean water.

Journalist Jae Jin Jang blanc@hk.co.kr

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