2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 129
The LSU chapter of the Global Water Brigades
traveled to Panama from March 13 to March 19 to
repair a water system for a rural indigenous community
in Embera Puru in the Darjen region. This trip was part
of a larger effort the Global Brigades is making to assist
this impoverished area.
This community’s primary water system wasn’t
working, and their secondary system was unclean and
in disrepair. The unclean secondary system was their
only source of water besides water shipments from the
Panamanian government, but these shipments were
sporadic and unreliable.
The Water Brigades is a part of the Global Brigades,
a national organization that seeks to alleviate poverty
in underdeveloped regions of the world and afford
them more opportunities. The Water Brigades is a
part of their effort to improve access to clean water in
impoverished communities.
The LSU chapter of the Water Brigades was
founded in fall of 2019 by chemical engineering senior
Sarah Glass and biochemistry senior Blaire Peterson.
Glass and Peterson are graduating, so they’re stepping
down as president and vice-president.
The club was not able to make a trip in 2020 or 2021
due to COVID-19, making this year’s trip their first.
“It’s definitely a super welcoming club,” Glass said.
“We want to help the community; we want to help
other people, definitely with that core mindset of water
sustainability. That’s what I’m super passionate about.”
The Water Brigades helped get Embera Puru’s
secondary water system repaired. A Panamanian
engineer coordinated the project to get the system
running.
Glass said they focused on cleaning it out and
reenforcing it. The water system was contaminated so
it was providing dirty water.
Max Scheurich, president of the Water Brigades,
said they cleared out the space around the groundwater
sources to connect them with each other so the
pumping system would be able to funnel it out during
the wet season.
“When we had arrived, they had not had freshwater
for 15 days; there was a problem with the plumbing and
stuff like that,” Scheurich said.
Glass said the community’s primary water system
still isn’t operational but other Brigades will be
heading there soon to get it running again. Their
primary system is supposed to be able to bring the
water directly into their homes; the secondary system
requires them to walk through the jungle to get the
water.
“It was probably like an 8-minute walk, but it’s
through jungle terrain,” Glass said. “We saw snakes,
monkeys; we saw a tarantula that was super huge —
just things you would not see in Louisiana.”
Glass said most of the community —about 400
people— spoke an indigenous language, so they had to
travel with translators.
Scheurich said that the tribe they helped is one of
five different native groups there that were originally
from Columbia.
The vice president of the club, astronomy junior
Ashley Patron, said that during the rest of the
year when the club is not on a trip, they help local
communities in Louisiana in the wake of hurricanes
and flooding, repairing houses and other damaged
areas.
Patron said they go on “Mini-Brigades” where they
travel to an area in Louisiana and stay for several days
to assist in repair and clean-up work. She said this
helps the group bond in preparation for their bigger
overseas trips.
The organization also works with other local service
groups throughout the state in this work, including
churches, Habitat for Humanity and the St. Bernard
Project.
“We went to Lake Charles, we’ve reached out and
worked in Port Sulfur, we’ve stayed in Houma for a few
days and usually there’s some local volunteer initiative
already and our club tries to connect with those
people,” Patron said.
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