Engineering Irrigation Projects in Ecuador
PMWB Joins Engineers Without Borders in Ecuador
PMI Social Impact Initiative
PMWB partnered with Engineers without Borders (EWB) on their project to serve the indigenous Kichwa (Quechua) people living in the watershed area of Malingua Pamba-Quinta Tunguiche (MP-QT) in the Andes of Ecuador (elevation 9,500’ – 12,000′). The village’s depleted water supply impacted their ability to irrigate crops and produce agricultural products, of critical importance for the village to thrive.
Project Managers Without Borders volunteers quickly acknowledged areas of opportunity and began planning and coordinating the logistics of the EWB volunteers. PMWB provided project management support, including meeting facilitation, scheduling, and budget planning to prepare the team ahead of their arrival in Malingua Pamba.
On EWB’s arrival in Ecuador, PMWB recognized the importance of fostering effective communication on the ground with the local community. To address this, PMWB volunteer and Ecuadorian native, Freddie Salazar played a crucial role in bridging the cultural and language gap on the ground. Freddie was instrumental in gaining the community’s trust and ensuring the project’s goals aligned with their priorities.
As a result of PMWB’s involvement, Engineers Without Borders now has repeatable processes for future social impact project assignments, project management tools and templates to use for project execution, and examples of impact reports and lessons learned, allowing them to maximize the success of future projects.
From Our Project Partners
“I was very grateful for PMWB. I was trying to keep everything organized on my own but there were things our project manager helped with that I didn’t even think about. They kept us on track and allowed the engineers to focus on engineering and me to coordinate with the community.”
Kellie Thompson
Engineers Without Borders