7-13 October 2013
This week was quiet relative to the previous week in Suai/Covalima. I have spent most of the week learning about
the new Global Positioning System equipment that has just arrived. So what is special about this equipment other
than lots of tripods, poles, heavy handheld GPS units? The Differential GPS system is more accurate than the just
using the handheld GPS’s. I will spare
the details about how it works as there are plenty of web sites that describe
their abilities.
I have to confess that it has been a while since I have
completed a land survey, back then there was no GPS available to civilians -
that is how long ago it was. What has
been the frustration and needs to be considered when in developing countries is
being able to access online help. As I
may have already mentioned the internet is slow and on the weekend contractors
managed to cut the main phone line nearby and this has affected all of Dili for
over a week. Unfortunately there is no
Dial Before You Dig service to assist in locating underground assets such phone
lines, water pipes etc.
But then again that is why there is a push to improve the
capture of survey data here; in the water sector for example, many aid
organisations and the TL government have built water supply systems throughout
the country. The problem is the lack of
data about the pipes, tanks, material used, when it was used etc during construction. The result is that no one is able to quickly
respond to breakdowns in any water supply system as there are no records of the
assets nor an operations manual anywhere.
One of my tasks is to improve this by creating a system with
the Timorese that can capture all of the data for existing systems as well as
the systems that are to be built in the near future. This is not a new problem, it also exists in
Australia too – the job is not finished once the ribbon has been cut when the
water supply is opened for business. It
always boils down to funding, it is easy to justify the capital costs but
funding ongoing maintenance costs is harder to justify as breakdowns are harder
to predict when they occur. So in short,
another funding mechanism is required to manage this issue.
The rural water supply systems are co-funded by the aldeias
(villages); the average wage in rural regions of TL is less than US$1.00 per
day, making it difficult to fund the replacement of say the bore pump by the
community. What complicates matters
further is the parts are not available locally, so they have to be brought in
from Dili or even overseas. I have
talked about the quality of the roads before – this increases the length of
time before a village sees their replacement pump. Could the pump failure be prevented by
regular (preventative) maintenance? It definitely would and would allow a replacement
part to be ordered before the failure occurs.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? It is,
but consider that most people live a hand to mouth existence making
preventative maintenance low on their priorities until it breaks. There is also a backup system called walking
to the well every day.
I was in an aldeia called Aimerahun, which is only an hour’s
(or thereabouts) drive from Dili on Friday.
The aldeia’s water supply was built by the Portuguese nearly 40 years
ago, BESIK is assisting in the rehabilitation of the system. This system relies on several springs and a
small stream diversion to get the water to the people. The system does not rely on pumps, however the
river diversion has never worked as we suspect the water has to flow uphill
which is not possible without a pump. We
have tried to get ground levels using the handheld GPS’s but the height
differences are incorrect. This will be
where I will be undertaking my first DGPS survey and training the Timorese in
its use, it will be a challenge as there is significant tree cover around the
springs and this is where we need accurate level data. We might use an Abney level to verify the
data collected and improve the data’s quality.
I will let you know how it goes next week.
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