Don't give up your day job

9-15 December 2013

I have to admit that I needed a break from blogging for the week starting 2^nd December as the Mt Ramelau trip wore out the word-smithing part of me.

The week of 9^th December saw me heading off to the Bonbonaro District yet again for more surveying of a particularly large existing water supply system.  The system is spring fed near the hamlet of Tapo (bottom left of picture below) and the water is distributed to many other hamlets up to 15 kms away.  It appears that there is insufficient water reaching some of the tanks and tap stands.  To address this, there is the possibility of connecting another spring into the system at the northern near the hamlet Asobea but power maybe an issue for new connection.

(The green stars denotes elevation measured, approximately 15 kms covered)

Preliminary investigations indicated that insufficient water is entering the main water intake as well as some rather large leaks.  The system should be harvesting about the equivalent of the annual average volume used in an Australian house per day (about 500,000 Litres). 

There is no measurement of the water entering the system nor are any other taps metered.  As such, people have unrestricted access to any volume of water they can carry however, this can be seen as water demand management measure of sorts.  There are some bright sparks who have illegally tapped into the water mains so they access the water in their house.  When this happens the volume of water demand increases again.  

People are fined for their illegal connections just like in Australia, although the penalties are very different; US$100 and/or a cow/several goats/many chickens….  Given the going rate for a cow ranges from US$750-$900, that is a pretty steep fine for average wage of less than US$1 a day and a cow would feed a family for about two weeks.

<Warning: heavy water-related planning issues ahead>

So let’s jump ahead 30 years for TL; the government’s long term goal is to bring the people’s standard of living up to middle class level.  That would mean many of the social and health issues currently plaguing the country would largely be eliminated (issues include poor health, high infant mortality…).  A consequence of this aspiration for water supplies is the demand will increase from 60 L/person/day (~22,000 L/person/year) to say up to 300 L/person/day (~110,000 L/person/year), which is a typical water supply planning figure in Australia, however, it may go as high as 600 L/person/day.  Throw in the annual population growth rate of 3%/year and the average number of people is 7.8 per household, this equates to water supply crisis long before 2043.

Back to the present, the real question then would be, shouldn’t water supplies be designed with this likely future in mind?  In my humble opinion, yes, there are many easy and not so easy measures that can be implemented to manage water demand in TL, ask any Australian who has had their water supply restricted recently know many simple actions that can reduce their demand for example, shorter showers, not watering the garden (poor roses), water efficient appliances.  But these sorts of measures cannot apply here as they do not have any of the mod-cons.

More importantly, shouldn’t the design of the water systems consider the possibility of water demand multiplying by 5-10 times from the current demand level?  The current practice in TL is to lay small diameter black plastic poly pipe or 75-100mm diameter galvanised steel pipe.  If the demand increased another run of the pipe is laid.  So when does it become cheaper to just lay a large diameter pipe (greater than 300 mm) at the start of construction instead of many small diameter pipes when demand increases incrementally?  

From what I understand, this is the next step and would be largely funded by the community in some way with minimal government support.   I think no one really has thought about this as they are only interested in getting water to the community at only 60 L/person/day to meet the water-related Millennium Development Goals as a way to bite off only what can be chewed comfortably.

<Back to less challenging concepts>

There is talk the wet season has started, the rain in Bonbonaro reliably started falling at 2:00pm each day we were surveying.  So I have finally found a use for the 1.5 kg bag of rice I have at home.  One of the surveying units got water damaged but I think I should be able fix it by burying the GPS unit in the bag of rice.  Apparently it works well for mobile phones dropped in the toilet too (remove phone from toilet first).

(the survey crew including goat herder to prevent animals knocking over equipment, yours truly, part of the view from first day’s base station location)

On a more personal level, I got my only pair of shoes wet on the first day, I plain forgot to pack extra shoes.  So I called upon a friend who happens to be living at the hotel (Toko Risky) to see if he had some shoes that fit.  In the end I borrowed his steel caps, they were a little tight but they sufficed until my achilles were being shredded.  There was no first aid kit in the car and only limited supplies available about 60 minutes’ drive away.  I had to improvise with gaffer tape, it worked a treat….

(one of the many leaks identified, whose machete did this?, gaffer tape repair of my achilles)

Was the surveying a success? Not yet, we will need to return to Bonbonaro in the new year to finish off the survey.  Maybe in time, my counterpart(s) will be able to complete the survey on their own, which is the sole purpose of my being here.

The night life of Maliana where I was staying consisted of going out for dinner at one of the few eateries in town.  To work off eating dinner one night, an international chess championships was held at Tennant’s (NZ) and Yo’s (Japan) apartment.  Needless to say I continued Australia’s ongoing losing streak at international chess, being defeated by both guys.  All of the chess pieces were improvised; it was a nice touch with the knight pieces coming from a particularly tasteful coffee table and the rooks being the large saucepans...

(not a lot of road left to drive on, base station rain protection including a sauce pan lid, the chess championships)

So I will be back down in Maliana next week for survey of another system with other Timorese counterparts, I hope we have a little more success than this adventure.

Mt Ramelau Road Trip

25 October - 1 December 2013

I went on a sight-seeing tour to Mt Ramelau on the weekend.  This tour was hosted by Shirley from Timor Adventures along with two Timorese drivers.  My fellow touring companions were Alexa (the original organiser) Julianne, Sue, and Chloe.

The road from Dili to Maubisse is the same as to Covalima and Same mentioned in previous weeks when we headed off on Saturday.  We first stopped at the Dare war memorial, which I had been to earlier but this time we managed to watch a video and not eat cake.  It was a moving video about how mainly young Timorese boys (average 13 years) supported the Australian troops in their guerrilla war with the invading Japanese in WWII.  José Ramos Horta said in the video that Australia did not respect Portuguese Timor’s neutrality and invaded the country first thereby making it a target for the Japanese.  This is a view that is obviously not communicated back in Australia.

So we bounced, wended and wound our way to lunch at the Pousada in Maubisse.  The Portuguese knew where to locate important buildings in their colonising of TL - the views from the Pousada are amazing and for this time of year relatively clear.

(The Pousada, view (part) from the Pousada, solar powered street lights at start of Mt Ramelau)

We finally reached the Alcrim guest house in Hatu Builico in the late afternoon, where it was pleasant to watch the changing colours as the sun was setting.  In a previous job, I was responsible for street lighting back in OZ so I was amazed at the number of solar powered street lights in the town and that went all of the way up to the start of the Mt Ramelau walk.  I even tried to learn the ukulele but my chunky fingers struggled and gave up just as dinner was served.

(Hatu Builico, recently upgraded kitchen at the guest house, start of the Mt Ramelau walk)

Hatu Builico is located nearly 2000 metres above sea level so the night was cold!  It made me reminisce with a heavy heart for the cool changes that pass through back home where it is mid 30’s one moment and then 20 something within 20 minutes.

It was a 3:00 am start to reach Mt Ramelau’s peak at the crack of dawn and we drove the few clicks up to the start of the walk.  We could not really mess about as we wanted to reach the summit before dawn.  There was no need for ice axes, crampons and a team of Sherpas for us make the summit but we did have a local guide walking at the front smoking several ciggies to get himself warmed up first thing.  The air is noticeably thinner at that altitude so walking up the stairs felt a little harder than it would normally do, wearing head torches also added to the surreal nature of the ascent.  We made the summit in around two hours later to meet the sunrise.  There has been some debate amongst my BESIK colleagues about Mt Ramelau’s height, I measured the mountain’s height at 2960 metres using the handheld GPS unit (the unit is only accurate to +/- 10 m on the vertical axis and I was not going to carry Differential GPS up there either!).

(sun is starting peek over clouds in the east, looking towards West Timor, radio repeater station/house)

It was quite a surprise to find people living at the top of the mountain to collect money but I guess someone has to do it.  Although it was cloudy, we could see the north and south  East Timor coasts, all the way to Baucau in the east and into West Timor (Indonesia).  I could make out many of the features that I have passed on my work-related road trips to the Covalima and Ainaro districts.  It all looked so close from Mt Ramelau but the roads are so windy and in poor repair that it always takes a long time to get there; as the crow flies, Mt Ramelau is 40 kms away from Dili.

(the summiteers, statue of Mary, on the way back down (definitely not the Victorian Alps)

We managed to stay at the top for about an hour before heading down as it was very cold at the top.  At least we were able to walk down without needing torches and see everything that we could not on the way down.  The weirdest thing about it was that it felt like I was in different parts of Victoria depending on the altitude.  Some parts looked and smelled like the Victoria Alps, then the Grampians, others looked like the Stratbogies etc so much so that I was expecting to see a roo or a koala.  No critters like that to be seen or heard.  Everybody had the wobbly leg syndrome at the bottom, I think one or two us were concerned about the sore legs getting more painful later in the week.  We finally get back to the guesthouse for breakfast at 9:30 am, although my body clock was saying it was mid-afternoon (the price I paid for being up so early on a Sunday!).  

So again, we bounced, wended and wound our way back via the Ecolodge at Lekitek for lunch and tour of the village.  The tour was very interesting as they outlined their culture and ties with the land.  I cannot do their story justice, besides it is theirs to share.  As a way to show our respect before heading home, we "shared blood” through chewing and spitting Betel nut onto a stone located in the middle of the left hand picture below.  Betel nut is enjoyed by most Timorese, particularly women, who through many years of chewing acquire permanently red lips and red-black teeth for their efforts.  I will add Betel nut under the same category as drinking Kava, I am glad I have done it but I will not be doing again in any hurry….

(One of the ceremonial houses in Liketek, some work required on the access for the less mobile in the community, where we shared blood)

The heavens opened when we passed back through Maubisse, where many sections of the road were covered with sheets of water from blocked drains (now that sounds familiar).  We ended up driving slower than normal (if that is possible) as parts of the road were either washed away or minor landslides partially blocking the road.  These conditions continued all of the way to Dili.

(A big puddle on the main road before Maubisse – no lowered Commodores need drive through, flowing creek along the way)

It was a long day, so it was nice hit the hay at the Palació do Santa Cruz for another week of volunteering in TL.