Engineering Ethics

ead the short case study and answer the questions which follow. Eddy is one of four managers working in a nonprofit mechanical engineering firm XYZ that aims to develop sustainable (especially resource efficient) mechanized systems for third world countries. The firm funds numerous small projects, and usually aims to utilize the community's local resources to create the project design deliverables. Eddy recently got contacted by a member of a Bolivian community with which the firm had worked a few years ago. During this past project, the design team had invented a filtration mechanism (using some of the local resources) that helped the community find a healthy source of water. The project was very successful when delivered to the community. However, in this recent contact, the community member remarked that the filters had broken down since some time and the community was unable to restore all the filtration systems due the high cost of the filters (which were the only component not produced by the local resources and thus need to be purchased). Due to this constraint, the community had gone back to their old practice of drinking unfiltered water. Eddy is unsure what the firm can do for the community, though he feels the firm should have done more to ensure that the filters were properly maintained. The responsibility for maintaining the filters had been on the community members they had trained, but it looks like they were not rigorous in their maintenance. This practice has a major impact on the efficiency and the lifetime of the filters. The community has also lost their enthusiasm for the project. [Nabilah Deen, 2015, A Situation Unfiltered. Markkula Centre for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University] Analyse the responsibilities of the mechanical engineering firm with respect the new communication from the Bolivian Community. [10 marks (b) Analyse the cross-boundary issues between firm XYZ and the Bolivian community. [10 marks] (c) Analyse the shortcomings of this sustainability project. [10 marks] (d) Based on your answers to parts (a), (b) and (c), formulate two relevant middleway solutions and mention any possible consequences on both home and host countries. [10 marks]