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:
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| Setting up the Total Station |
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| Teaching the interns how to record co-ordinates |
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| 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
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