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