Tuesday 15 October 2013

Does this sound familiar?



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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