We are a Civil Engineering team from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, coordinated by our professor Claudio Olalla, in collaboration with Fathers Angel Valdivia and David Escrich from the MCSPA. Our goal is to do research for different academic projects aimed at improving mobility and water resources for the Nyangatom pastoralist people of south-west Ethiopia. In previous years several other students have also come to Nyangatom to do the final projects for their civil engineering degrees.

For us it is proving to be a very exciting and learning experience! First after about a week of adaptation to the hot and dry weather, the insects and bumpy roads, we were ready to interact with the local community. Then we had meetings with the local authorities and after an important meeting with the council of elders of Kakuta, where they expressed their main needs. In the meeting it was made clear that water infrastructures are the number one priority which could improve the Nyangatom way of life. Thirdly, we engaged in surveying different locations shown to us by the local people which could be very good for the construction of such dams, as you can see in the pictures attached.

During these last five years of presence in Nyangatom, the MCSPA missionaries have made a big effort at drilling wells for providing safe drinking water to most of the Nyangatom villages at the border with Kenya. The next step forward then, as expressed by the Nyangatom elders, would be to build infrastructures for harvesting rain water.

This is why our projects will focus on the design of an earth pan and two dams, that could provide an important amount of water to the community and their animals and a road to Naita (South Sudan) that could help the mobility of the people, especially during migrations. This road that connects Naturomoe with Naita could provide more accessibility to services and make movement safer and faster.

We hope and pray that our efforts, in conjunction with the missionaries and the Nyangatom community, will realise good academic projects that, with the help of donors and well wishers, will one day come true.

Carlos Rueda

Civil Engineer UPM