Abstract:

The competences established in the educational curricula of Degrees within the framework of European Higher Education Area since the Bologna Declaration reform represent a unique opportunity for change. On the one hand, instrumental, systemic, personal and intrapersonal skills gain prominence and, on the other hand, the student role become more active especially due to the promotion of greater mobility. In this sense, this work presents an educational experience which attempts to combine these advantages through a University - NGO collaborative experience on the ground. In this context, the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha offers a program to its educational community whose purpose is to carry out Development Cooperation and Social Responsibility projects. Under the project “Rural Water Services Improvement in Same, Tanzania”, several professors and a student of Civil Engineering have participated in one of the water supply programs developed by the Spanish NGO “ONGAWA”.

The limited access to drinking water is one of the biggest challenges for human development. Nowadays, about 700 million people have no access to adequate sources of water, and this problem is especially acute in the rural areas of sub-Saharan African countries. To deal with this problem in Same (Tanzania), the main tasks performed in this project were:
i) the student training in development cooperation and technical issues about water supply systems;
ii) the on-the-ground data collection about the current status of water supply systems supported by the District Water Department and local people;
iii) the water supply assessment and diagnosis of the problem;
iv) the implementation of a Geographic Information System (GIS) with the data collected; and
v) training sessions on GIS tools and utilities for the local staff of ONGAWA and the Water Department of Same District.

The experience has shown the benefits in the collaboration between NGO and universities: the student has offered her technical skills for the improvement of the water supply systems and for the training of the local staff; besides, the student has gained very valuables educational and personal competences.

Keywords:

Innovation in Education, European Space for Higher Education, Development Cooperation, Geographic Information Systems, Water supply.