Akwu African Drinking Water Project

Hello everyone, my name is Hyginus Mmeje. Years ago, I was born in the small village of Akwu, one of the six villages in Akokwa town, Imo State Nigeria, Africa. I later migrated to the United States and grew up to be a Civil-Environmental Engineer in Los Angeles, California. My life revolves around protecting public health and the environment.  As a product of the Akwu Village, I cannot help but feel grateful for all the experiences I shared with the people of the village as I grew up, but I also feel the longing to help my people.

 (My wife and I, in August 2015, in front of my Grandmother’s home at Akwu, where I spent most of my childhood)

I am blessed to be in a great Country, the USA, where I have access to clean drinking water and I want to commit to providing access to drinking water to many of my brothers and sisters back in Akwu, Akokwa, Nigeria since they are greatly affected by the global water crisis.

I have teamed up with a few friends in the environental engineering industry to make this a reality.

Our Current Team

Hyginus Mmeje
B.S.,M.S in Civil Engineering

David Obiora 
B.S. Chemical Engineering

Flor Burrola
B.S. Civil Engineering, B.S Environmental Engineering

Erik Avila
B.S. Civil Engineering (in-progress)

Edgar Morales
B.S. Civil Engineering

Ani Abassian
B.S. Sociology

Andre Goodridge
B.S. Civil Engineering

Marisol Ibarra
B.S. Civil Engineering

Anthony Soriano
B.S. Civil Engineering

                                       ( Some of our team)

                         ( From Los Angeles to Akwu)

The hope is that this water well project will provide access to free drinking water to a community of approximately 10,000 people. For years, the people of Akwu have relied on collecting water from roof drains and accumulating it in a locally dug underground water tank as shown in the images below.






From the cement storage tanks, water is later withdrawn with small buckets and used for drinking purposes. Other alternatives for obtaining water are walking to local streams with small buckets and containers. Usually, women and children take on this task carrying the load of the water on their heads, miles away from their respective homes. I know firsthand the stress that the weight of the water has on your body after walking for miles. According to the World Health Organization, Africans spend approximately 40 billion hours just walking for water. Many of the local streams are contaminated and are located downhill from our homes and we must walk back up the hill for miles with the load on our bodies. Unfortunately, sometimes this is dangerous as the water we are carrying starts to become heavy and we trip, fall back, and we spill the water that we just spent time collecting. In some cases we get injured and at times these injuries are fatal due to the steepness of the hills.

This Campaign (Phase I)

We are currently working with the local church, the St. Gabriel Church at Akwu on this project. Together, we will be bringing water to the community population of approximately 10,000 people. Serving such a large population is a huge undertaking and as such the project is broken into phases I and II. Phase I (this campaign) consists of drilling a water borehole, to a depth of about 750ft, based on a just completed hyrogeophysical report, and which will be serviced by a solar energy powered 7.5 HP submersible pump, with PVC piping and fittings to be specifically manufactured and coated to withstand years of service.  The water borehole and one water tap will be located within the church premises, where the facilities would be secured, cared for, and maintained in order to serve the community with water on a continuous basis.

Phase I cost estimate has been completed, which determined that Phase I portion of the project will cost approximately 3.2 Million Nigerian Naira ($16,000 USD) based on the best of the bids received. It is this amount that we must raise, if the people of Akwu, Akokwa are to be able to tap into this water source and enjoy water with greater ease, soon.

Phase II (future campaign)

The water borehole and the water tap that will be located within the church premise would serve the Akwu community until sometime in the future, if funding is available (Phase II), when a pipeline can be extended from the church premises to a nearby local “Eke-Akwu” that would enable an installation of a water tap there to serve a greater community population, closer to the people, as part of phase II of the project. Additionally, Phase II will include another pipeline extension to a nearby popular location where the Urualla-Amaeshi Road intersects the Nnewi-Okigwe Road, as illustrated in the map below, all for the purpose of getting the pipe borne water even closer to the people, and serving even greater population. Also, the Phase II will include the construction of up to 4000 to 8000 gallon storage tank to provide water to the two Phase II water tap locations at Eke-Akwu market and at the popular intersection.




This project will be made possible with the help of the community and with the help of those who wish to help from anywhere. All help is welcome. Thank you in advance for all your support with this project. We will be providing updates on the project's implementation so you may understand with more clarity the impact your assistance will have on the Akwu Village community.  
Once again, thank you for all your support in advance.