For most Americans, two and a half gallons of water wouldn't last more than a few hours.

Even the average shower uses far more than that amount. But until recently, residents in a small town in Mexico had to get by on only two and a half gallons of water per week. In an effort to bring more water to the town of Tamaula, a group from Utah Valley University recently spent time mapping the area and digging a well in the town.

UVU associate professor of earth sciences Steven Emerman said the village of 300 people is located on a volcano, where small springs provide some water. The best-producing stream in the area provided only 30 gallons of water per day, and the villagers relied mainly on rain water to get by.

"People were collecting water off of rooftops and storing water in cisterns," he said.

There is little water during the eight-month dry season, and there has been even less lately due to a drought. Each week, or every two weeks, a truck brought in about 1,000 gallons of water for the town to ration.

"To me, it was the worst water situation I had seen outside refugee camps," Emerman said.

At one point in the past, indoor plumbing was installed in some houses. The homes where Emerman stayed, along with faculty members Joel Bradford and Mike Bunds, as well as some students, had faucets, showers and other plumbing. But there was no water in the system to use.

Emerman said it did not seem thirst was an issue, but cleanliness was. Once the clean, imported water was used up for cooking, people often took water from muddy springs. Although he did not see evidence of health problems, Emerman said he wondered if people often become sick because there was no water to wash hands.

Bradford has worked with the village for years, and some faculty were at the location last year trying to determine where to dig for water. Emerman said he brought along the best and brightest hydrology students this year to map out a well on the difficult terrain. An attempt was made previously by another group, which drilled a well that has had no water. Emerman said drilling in a volcano is expensive, so it had to be done right this time to ensure the $7,000 cost was not wasted.

The group was able to find a spot for a well and built a half-mile road over boulders by hand with the town's residents in order to get the drilling rig to the site. The team arranged to dig a 150-foot well, but after only 30 feet, the well was gushing at 12 gallons per second.

"I really saw it as a triumph of the science of hydrology," he said.

Ryan Anderson, a senior geology student at UVU, said he loved working in the town, where the residents were generous and excited to have the group volunteering. The residents fed and housed the students and faculty and worked alongside them throughout the project. Anderson said he is happy to see the transformation the project can create for the small town. Having a good water source will take a huge burden off of residents who previously had to wonder when the water truck would arrive.

"It just makes life, I'm sure, more comfortable for them," he said.

James Durrant, a senior in environmental management, said the experience was a great opportunity for students to see the real-life application of their work. Durrant, 63, said he recalls going to school 40 years ago and sitting in a classroom just listening to lectures, then trying to translate the education into real-life experiences.

"I love this school because it has a much more practical orientation to the education," he said.

Durrant said he hopes to continue doing humanitarian work when he retires, preferably by doing work involving water around the world.

Bradford returned to the town this weekend to check on the well and how it has sustained. Although the production is now about 3.5 gallons per second, Bradford said it continues to refill at a good rate and will be a huge improvement for the village.

"Four gallons a second for a village of 300 people is still pretty good," he said.

The real test of the well's long-term production will take place over the next year. High schoolers in the town will be trained to measure the well's use and water levels over the next year and send the data to UVU for the team to track, Bradford said.