Piriquina, Bolivia
Nestled high in the Andes Mountains is a small town by the name of Piriquina. With a growing population of over 600 people, their water infrastructure is rapidly proving insufficient, and the government is unable to spare the funds to improve it. That’s where we come in.
Our Project
In March 2022, EWB-UTA members chose to take on this international project. Since then, we’ve successfully made several improvements to Piriquina’s water supply system, and have big plans for future improvements too.
- The First Trip
The First Trip
In the summer of 2023, we were able to do our very first assessment trip to Piriquina. Six UTA students went to Bolivia and teamed up to start this initiative. We were able to get a better insight of their needs, such as these:
- Not enough clean water: Water for drinking and hygiene is only available for about 3-4 hours during the whole day.
- Farming Struggles: For many residents of Piriquina, farming is their main source of income. Without enough water, the community is not able to feed their animals and/or grow their crops.
- The Spring Box
The Spring Box
Piriquina gets most of its water supply from natural springs on the mountainside. The water from these springs is captured using a structure known as a spring box, which accumulates water and pipes it to the community. In the summer of 2025, five UTA students visited Piriquina and constructed an additional spring box to increase the available water supply by approximately 33%.
- Storage
Storage
The spring box was such a success that now Piriquina’s water storage tank fills up every night and even overflows. This gives us an opportunity for further improvement to the system by constructing an additional storage tank to capture this overflow and make it usable. Unfortunately, the next trip to construct the tank, originally planned for the summer of 2026, has been delayed due to lack of funding.
We Need Your Help!
Donate to EWB UTA to help us afford this next trip for the summer of 2027!