Terian, Buayan and Tiku Trip: Part Two

Where did we get to....?

Our homestay in Buayan

In Buayan we stayed in a homestay run by Irene and Julius. Irene was a fantastic cook and cooked us breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Based in Buayan for 4 nights we trekked to the site of the proposed intake at Tiku on the first morning as it was only around 1hour away. 

Waterfall in Tiku

Measuring cross-sectional area of river 

The path was very steep and narrow and almost disappeared in places but made it to the river and met some of the locals who were joining us for the day to assist in taking some measurements. We had to climb our way upstream over waterfalls, slippery rocks and fallen trees to reach the proposed site of the intake. Once there we began by taking flow measurements (using salt gulp and float methods as before) and sketching up a proposed intake layout.  After a couple of minor teething problems to do with salt concentration and faulty conductivity meters we got some sensible results and rewarded ourselves with rice and tinned fish for lunch whilst sitting in the river. 

Calibrating Pressure Gauge

Villagers helping with Potential Head Meaurements

Taking Pressure Reading

The afternoon was spent measuring the total potential head of the scheme from the intake down to the powerhouse. This was done using a pressure gauge fitted to the end of a plastic hose by making our way down the length of the river bit by bit taking incremental readings of pressure in bar. It was hard keeping up with the locals at times - they know the river like the back of their hand and were able to skip down the river, whilst we were a little less graceful to say the least. To get an idea of the path of the river, the potential layout of the scheme and where it was in relation to the Kampung we handed the locals a pen and paper and asked them to sketch up a rough plan. For some reason they preferred to use the medium of rock carvings...so we gathered round a rock mid-river to discuss and take some photos.

Discussing with Locals Layout of River/ Hydro-Scheme using "Rock-Art"

River Papar: Our Swimming Spot

After returning to Buayan (and having a quick swim in the river again!) we were informed that the village had organised a meeting for that evening to discuss the Buayan micro-hydro site and for some Q&A. Felt a little unprepared as this was the first we had heard about it and we had not been in Buayan long enough to even visit the site yet. We roughly noted down a few points that we wanted to bring up with the villagers and questions we wanted to ask them and decided that Johan would translate from the local indigenous language into Bahasa Malay, if required and the Moorthy, Lim and Gordon would translate from Bahasa Malay into English for us. The meeting went better than expected and we had a chance to meet the village chief and the technician of the micro-hydro scheme, who would be showing us the site the following day.

Taking notes and sketches at Buayan Intake

The problematic bridge at Buayan

Set off early the next morning, taking a quick hike up to the Buayan site. The intake and forebay are much better quality and a lot more efficient  than that at Terian - there are proper 'engineered' structures in place such as a reinforced concrete weir and a sluice gate with stop-logs. However, the bridge that carries the penstock pipe across a 20m wide ravine is a big issue. You'd probably call it a 'primitive suspension bridge' - it's the same form of construction that is used by the indigenous people in most villages for pedestrians to cross rivers. This type of bridge is fine for this application, but when used to carry a penstock which has limited flexibility, problems are inevitable. In this particular case, one of the bridge supports / anchors (consisting of a mass concrete block) is sliding, it is reported, by around 100mm. Conversations with the local technician revealed that one support was constructed by the villagers themselves which is 4x4 ft on plan at ground level and tapers out to a maximum 5x5 ft at 3ft deep. The other support (the problematic one) was constructed by a UK 'gap-yaaaaaaaaaah' type charity that we won't name. It is also 4x4 ft on plan at ground level, but then tapers in to 3x3ft at 3ft deep. So it's upside down, and a lot smaller than it should be. Jobs a good 'un!

Splashing around in the river

Since this was the last of our site visits for this trip we spent the afternoon by the river again, swimming and having lunch on the beach: our new routine! (We are seriously missing that river since returning to Donggongon!) Was nice to have the entire afternoon off to relax a bit before our trek back which, we were told would involve crossing a river by raft or by swimming. After hearing this, Moorthy and Gordon were determined to teach themselves how to swim so we gave them a few pointers and encouragement. We borrowed some badminton rackets from Irene and got a little tournament going, followed by a really difficult keepy-uppy/volleyball game that no one could get the hang of but were determined to keep playing for a good while! We spent the evening sampling the Buayan rice wine - which was a little more potent than that at Terian. It was going down quite slowly, so we decided to speed things up a bit by playing 21s. To say it 'got out of hand' would be an overstatement, but some of the rules that were introduced got a bit ridiculous. And the next morning Han-lim woke to find he'd acquired several new permanent marker tattoos. Sorry Lim!

Sunset from homestay in Buayan (no added effects or filters- it actually looked like this!)

Before leaving Buayan we sat down and discussed and summed up all our findings from the whole trip and what needs to be done next. We also managed to find some time for a 3-a-side football game! Was a fantastic trip and was great to experience living in the indigenous villages. The sunsets every night were also so impressive (when it wasn't raining!) Can't wait for our next trip now. 

Looks like we're going to be office based this week. Got a call from Banie on Saturday telling us we were going to see a wind turbine being installed at Sabah University (UMS) on Sunday morning. What he should have said was 'you will be installing a wind turbine at UMS'. We only realised this on the day when we rocked up in beach-wear and were given a 20m long column, a corrosion resistant tin of paint and a load of cables. 4 hours later we finally got to the beach (which was our original plan). Anyway, we digress, whilst at UMS Banie told us he needs us this week to put a proposal together for a hybrid pico-hydro/ solar scheme at Mount Kinabalu (highest mountain between New Guinea and the Himalayas, 20th highest in the world (topographically prominence)) base camp. We are both really eager to climb the mountain so are pretty excited at the thought of getting this proposal together to potentially power the base camp. We will keep you posted on how it goes!

Andy and Lauren

Terian, Buayan and Tiku Trip: Part One

Moorthy and Han-Lim
emerging from the jungle

Kampung Terian

Just arrived back in metropolis of Donggongon from our 11day adventure into the interior! With 3 mechanical engineering students from the local University: Gordon, Han-Lim and Moorthy, and our guide/ colleague/ cameraman Johan who is originally from one of the villages we visited 3 remote kampungs (villages) in the Crocker Range, two of which already have micro-hydro schemes in place powering each village (when they work!) and a third without any power supply but a proposed site for construction of a micro-hydro scheme. Carried out various surveys of the hydro-sites at each and collected lots of data to use to improve and increase the efficiency of the existing sites and plan the layout of the third. 

The first village we headed to last Monday morning was Terian which due to the condition of the "road" took 3hrs to travel the 25km there by 4WD. We had actually expected to trek the majority of the trail there but due to good weather and the lack of rain the previous few days the road was good enough to drive the whole way- only a few scary moments when the truck skidded through mud and slide towards a very steep cliff! In Terian we stayed with Johan's family in a typical kampung-style house (wooden hut on stilts). Tuesday morning we did a site walk and determined our main priorities while we were there. The turbine provides 5kW of electricity which provides lighting and the occasional television to the village (around 10 houses)

Map of Terian Hydro Layout

Clearing vegetation to get
 a clear line of sight

Andy and his beloved total station

Decided to split up into two teams: Andy with Han-Lim and Moorthy surveyed the layout of the entire scheme using a total station which was quite grueling at times due to the route of the headrace pipe through pretty dense jungle and across several small ravines.

Surveying the reservoir

Moorthy showing Johan how

 to use the ranging rod

Recording flow-rates at the reservoir

Recording conductivity of stream
 ( for salt gulp method)

Lauren with Gordon spent most of the time knee- deep in the river at the intake taking flow measurements. Due to Lauren's superior efficiency flow measurements and associated calculations were completed by thursday, and so the pair had time to do some detailed inspection work of the problems first identified during the site walkover. Some of the problems that had occurred since the scheme was built 6 years ago included an overflowing forebay tank (the overflow pipe sat above the top level of the tank), some significant leaks and airlocks, absence of any intake structures on the main intake (there was the remains of a weir which had been washed away during flooding) and a leaking reservoir.

The office

Terian at dusk, a short interval in the storm

Spoke to some locals who were familiar with the site and they highlighted the nature of the problems and what they thought needed to be done. From them, we discovered that there was a previous forebay tank which was swept away in a landslide and that during dry season there is a 2 month power shortage. Spent 5 days working 9-5, trekking up the length of the 450m headrace through dense jungle each morning but once we had completed our work we were able to take Saturday afternoon off. Unfortunately there was heavy rain and thunderstorms for most of the afternoon and so we were forced to stay inside and passed the time by writing an elaborate set of rules to ring of fire and teaching the interns how to play. By evening, our last night in Terian, the power was out due to the heavy rain causing the intakes to be blocked by debris in the river (quite common occurrence in wet season). 

Han-Lim and a few locals took a walk up to the intake along a very dark and slippy trail to inspect the damage and found that the intake pipes that we had just surveyed were now dislocated in several places resulting in almost no flow into the reservoir. On his return we joined Johan and some friends for some home-brewed rice wine. It is usually drunk using only one glass that each person in the group drinks from and passes to the "pune" (the person starting the rounds and the one that washes the glass and refills it). By half 10 most of the locals (who I think had maybe spent most of the day downing rice wine) were crashed out on the floor (it seems the reason the houses there are suspended on stilts and have bamboo floors is to allow easy flow of vomit onto the ground below). Once Johan had basically fallen asleep mid-song (he was "playing" the guitar at the time) we, along with the bucket of rice wine sat out on the veranda and continued the party until 12ish to the sound of Johan chucking up!!

Left Terian with a bit of a fuzzy head in the morning and headed out to hike to Buayan, the next kampung on our agenda. Was a pretty tough walk, to say the least, as the first half was mainly a steep incline and the second half was the steep descent down the otherside of the hill. The terrain was really rough and we were all carrying a lot of our equipment and supplies(minus the total station, which we left behind as it wasn't needed at the next site). To our relief, Buayan is situated on the Papar river and so on our arrival into the village we were straight into the river for a refreshing dip and a spot of lunch on the beach.

.... Seems we have more to write than we realised and we don't want to bore you to death in one sitting! So we will leave it here for now and will continue with Buayan and Tiku in a few days.... plus we are off to wander through the nearby air-conditioned shopping mall and for a hit of western food, after living entirely on rice, fish and "jungle veggies" (tree leaves, flower buds, roots ,shoots) and the occasional bit of wild boar, mouse deer or snails all cooked over an open fire.

Andy and Lauren

Selamat Datang di Sabah!

Welcome to Andy and Laurens' blog which we have set up to keep everyone up-to-date with our progress of our EWB-UK placement in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Over the next 3 months we will be working with TONIBUNG, a local NGO, carrying out feasibility studies of possible sites for micro-hydro projects in rural villages across Malaysian Borneo. 

After a 30hour journey from London, we arrived a week ago in a very rainy Sabah. We are staying in an apartment above the TONIBUNG offices so the commute to work every morning isn't too hectic... no excuses for being late!! Met everyone in the office this week and have set out a rough plan of action for the next few weeks. Our boss, Adrian, otherwise known as "Banie", set up TONIBUNG about 15years ago to improve the welfare of local, rural communities by providing sustainable and renewable electrification schemes. He is almost entirely self-taught in renewables but within TONIBUNG has successfully set up more than 15 projects across Sabah and Sarawak. He is totally passionate and dedicated to what he does and as well as micro hydro-electrics he is interested in producing energy from solar and biomass. Definitely a future nobel prize candidate!

Taking our first trip to a few rural villages next week to visit some existing micro-hydro sites and identify any problems that may have occurred since the schemes were implemented 5 years ago. Have been told so far that there are already a few problems that we will have to address, these include airlocks in the penstock and head-race; silting at the intake; possible leaks and some excessive deflection of the head-race as it crosses a valley. We will also get a chance to test out our measuring equipment (total station, flow meters, conductivity meters) whilst we are there. The trip is going to take about 2 weeks in total and since it is currently rainy season and the roads are in bad condition we have been told we will be hiking (and possibly even swimming partly?!) there. The first village is around 6 hours away and the second a further 3-4 hours. Think it's going to be pretty challenging since as well as coping with the heat, humidity and leeches we will also have to carry in all the bulky equipment we will need for the task.

So this week we have just been settling into the job and preparing for next week's adventure. Yesterday we took the total station out for a spin and showed some of the TONIBUNG student interns the basics on how to undertake a topo survey:

Setting up the Total Station

Teaching the interns how to record co-ordinates

Recording co-ordinates

It was the first day since we had arrived that the sun was out and after a good few hours working away from the air-conditioned office we were all pretty hot and tired.... how are we going to cope when we head into the jungle next week?!! 

Everyone in the town is friendly and helpful, especially since we are both useless at the language so far: its been a bit tricky ordering dinner some nights. Two nights ago we stumbled across a fantastic chinese seafood  place with the fish caught fresh from tanks and after much confusion over the menu ended up ordering a meal each plus an entire red snapper better the two of us! Was one of the tastiest meals ever but would have appreciated it much more if we were stuffed even before the fish arrived! We will know better the next time! Think from now on we will dedicate some evenings to learning some useful phrases!

Think that's all our news for now: join us again for the next edition of our Sabah adventures!!! Will post again when we get back from our trip.

Andy and Lauren