Green Paradise Workshop: Published on 18 Jan 2007

We had a workshop in the 'swimming pool'. That's what we call the 'Green Paradise', a conference centre which is used mostly by INGOs for organising their meetings and conferences. Its very rare to have a swimming pool in Banda Aceh, and Green Paradise is having a small pool; that's why it was nicknamed.

WATSAN team is meeting to make their workplans, budgets, material estimates, procurement plan etc for the year 2007. This year we have to install Water Connections to the houses, Sanitation systems, Solid Waste systems and also Rain Water Harvesting systems to all the houses. The budget for materials and supplies came up to 5.2 million USD. Though we have completed most of the calculations, there are many small items need to be calculated.

The Green Paradise is run by a local lady with a PhD. They have several rooms, which senior INGO staff occupy on an yearly basis. The cost is some what around $35 per day. There is a pool side restaurent, a gym and some open space for parking. The whole complex is painted with green, and was named as green paradise.

They also have a nice 'conference hall' wihc can accommodate up to 50 people. They have LCD, Electronic Board, white board and other facilites required for a workshop.

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Dengue Fever: Published on 15 Jan, 2007

We have dengue fever gripping Banda Aceh. It is now in endemic proportions in Banda Aceh. Some people estimates that around 25% of the people might be affected with Dengue. In our organisation CARE, 2 expat staff and few local staff already got dengue fever.

We have already given a second alert to all the staff to take necessary precautions. We have also designated one of our Doctors to stand by specially to handle Dengue cases. Every staff were advised to report any minor fever,

Dengue fever comes through mosquito bites. The symptoms are very similar to maleria. Dengue mosquito bites during the early morning or just before dark. But malaria mosqito bites between 11- 3 in the night. But both some times can bite any time. Its a serious viral disease which is NOT CONTAGIOUS but affects people differently.

Surprisingly, there is no treatment for Dengue fever, just need to drink lots and lots of water and take plenty of rest. If it becomes severe, it can lead to Dengue hemorrhagic fever, which can be fatal.

For expats, our health services are covered under international Insurance called 'International SOS'. If our health condition become serious, we need to go to UN Doctor who will certify that we need to be air lifted to the nearest super speciality hospital (presently Singapore), and then to our home country. It is called MEDIVAC, or Medical evacuation. For people who are living in field areas, we also will hire helicopter or plane to bring them to main land.

Solar Water Pump: Published on 15 Jan 2007

I have visited Solar Water Pump which was installed by our ACCESS Team. ACCESS is the name of a project which aims at equal access to water and sanitation. The Solar pump was installed in a village Lampulo (Tgk. Di Sayang Lr. 3), Kuta Alam Sub District, Aceh Besar District. The site is approximately 10 meters from the river and 700 meters from the sea. The total number of house holds in this village are 250.

Indonesia has high solar insulation of around 5 kWh/m2/d. There have been some 25,000 solar home systems distributed and installed throughout the country already. The estimated installed capacity is 3 MWp. PV technologies are already being used for lighting, water pumping, refrigeration and communications. As part of the intervention, we would like to demonstrate alternate technologies like wind and solar energies to the communites. Since wind energy is quite tricky, we have decided to go ahead with Solar water pump. There was a borehole which is drilled by an agency called IOM in the premises of Meunasah (little Mosque) and we have decided to utilise it for installing water pump. So a Solar water pump was installed, a water tank was erected on the top of 10 meter tower, and the water from the bore well is being pumped by a submersible pump powered by solar energy. Public stand posts were erected in three different locations in the village for people to access safe water.

After the installation, Various parameters would be monitored using different participatory methods. These include
1. Peoples acceptance of alternate technology
2. Improvement of access to water and sanitation to the poor and vulnerable communities
3. Changes in Community ownership and management
4. Impact of alternate energy on other stake holders like PDAM (Piped Water Supply Company)

If the assessment is positive, we will see more systems like this in the near future

Borobudur Temple in Jogjakarta, Indonesia: Blog Published on 13 Jan 2007

This magnificent temple, Borobudur was under the volcanic ashes for around 500 years, till some Duch official discovered its existence!! On 26th October, 2006, I went to the this Buddhist temple near Jogjakarta, Central Indonesia.

This temple was built around 1200 years back which involved thousands of artists over several years. After few years, people left this monument mysteriously and they have forgotten about it. There was a volcano eruption near the temple, by which it was completely covered with ashes, subsequently forming a mountain.

After many years of its discovery, UNESCO spent 7 years cleaning and treating each piece before keeping it back in its place.

I along with my friend left Jogjakarta in the morning and reached the temple in around 1 hour. We have paid 10 USD (I think) since we were foreigners, and another 5 USD for the guide for a two hour trip. We need not bargain for the guides, because we will get guides at the official counter after paying the amount. They are very decent, don’t make a fuss and don’t ask for tips etc. The temple was built in 9 floors, 6 square and top 3 circular. We have started on the first floor and the guide was showing the pictorial story of Buddha carved on the stones. I started showing him each piece and asking him to tell the story. He told that we have to cover all the floors to get the complete story which takes around a week. So after the carving where Buddha was born, we climbed straight to the 8^th floor.

That day was a holiday due to Ramadan, and the temple was crowded with local people. We met a Bangladeshi who is studying in a nearby town. Finally its worth seeing the mighty monument which did not use any mortar. There were many sovunier shops along the road to the temple.

I surprise, when I look at the history, where people spent enormous amounts of time, money and effort to build mighty monuments like this which might be useful to few generations. These actions would have increased their pride, self confidence and worth. These provided a means of entertainment, spiritual satisfaction, cultural identity and human interaction.

But things, which contributed to Human Development survived through generations. They have not only sustained but improved, replicated and transformed human lives. Some examples are Scientific Inventions, education, transportation infrastructure, Astronomy, communication and many other things we use in our day to day lives.

On the way back, we went to Silver Ware shop, since Jogjakarta is famous for Silver craft. The workers display how they make silver in their shop, but due to holiday, none was present. I brought ankle lace for my beautiful wife, which actually costed twice than in our country.

Rest and Relaxation: Blog Publised on 12 Jan 2007

I have returned from R&R this week. R&R is 'Rest and Relaxation' which is given to the staff who work in emergency situations. The duration and frequency depends on the hardship situation of the location of assignment.

Here, we have R&R every 12 weeks and the organisation will pay some amount which is around USD 600. We get 5 working days leave during R&R, and we can go to any place we like to rest. I normally club with my annual leave and get two weeks of time which will be enough to visit our home country.

This time I left on 15th of December from Banda Aceh by Garuda Airlines to Medan. I stayed over night in Medan and boarded Silk Air the next morning to Singapore. I had a long transit from 12 Noon to 8:30 PM in Singapore Airport to catch my next flight to Hyderabad.

Transit in Singapore is not at all a problem for me, because there are several things to do. If you have transit time of more than 5 hours, you can even go out for a small toure into the city for free. I always carry LAN cable with me, and plug in to one of the internet terminals and connect my laptop. The Internet is very high speed, and this time I have down loaded several christmas songs and MIDIs.

When I get tired, I go to free massage chairs and massage my body and legs for some time. There are lot of shopping stalls where you can just stoll for window shopping. Singaporeans are quite well mannered and nice people. So you feel like spending more time there.

That means, rest and relaxation has already started during the travel itself. This time, I didn't wanted to take the laptop. But I don't know why, but at the last minute, I had some pending mails to send, and also becuase of night halt at Medan and long transit at Singapore, I finally tucked the laptop into my bag.

I arrived in Hyderabad at 11:00 PM, and by the time I got out of the airport, it was 12:00 PM. My sweetheart Swarupa was waiting out side along with my Cousins.

During my stay, I didn't open the laptop to work for a single time. So, that was good. I didn't check my email all through the three weeks, which is very unusual. I completely spent time with my family and little bit with friends.

R&R really helps us to get a break from monotonus life in the work place. We work for at least 12 hours a day, and during the week ends also. So, this break is very essential to recharge your whole system. Other wise, its very easy for workaholics like me to neglect family, friends, society, relationships, spirituality, sensitivity, creativity, values, morality, character, love and many others. Finally we turn into a beast like personality.

This time, I observed how my children are growing, understood some thing more about my wife and so on. We have also visited my brother in law, who was operated for Cancer. When we spent time with them in the hospital, we also saw the terrible condition of other patients in the hospital. Some patients are fortunate to have caring people with them, while some don't. When people fall sick, there is no culture in the society to support them financially. Some times, some close friends come forward to give money on credit, but it is generally understood that the family has to support themselves.

We require a society who can support each other in terms of crisis. This happens when people are accountable to each other in their day to day life. When I worked with EFICOR in India, one of the organisational strategic objective for 2001-06 is to develop CARE GROUPS through out the country, who will support each other. This wonderful concept was developed by then General Director Mr. C B Samuel.

I came back to Banda Aceh only on Saturday, 6th of January, 2007

Earthquake in the Meeting: Published on 13 Dec 2006

I had a long staff meeting yesterday with the staff of WATSAN from 9:00- 1:00 PM. I think because of this, the earth shook at 12:12 local time. We in the upstairs of our building, and stood up with the first vibrations. But as the quake is increasing, we all ran down stairs.. yelling at each other "dont panick!".

All the houses in Aceh are fitted with Chandliers, and I use to wonder why Achenese install those expensive Chandliers. But it looks like, they are the best indicators of an earthquake. Even for the slightest tremor, they make sweet sound which helps to run out before there is a major tremor.

The earthquake measured 5.5 on the Richter Scale, and its the third quake this month. In Aceh, we have minor tremors almost every day, but 3-4 quakes with higher magnitudes.

In the meeting we have discussed about the contracters, who are not obeying the rules and regulations of the contract. We have developed a quality monitoring format, and flow chart which helps us to monitor the quality at regular intervels.

Farewell Party for Tom and Nolan: Published on 09 Dec 2006

We had a ‘Farewell Party’ for two of our colleagues from Canada, who are finishing their contracts by the end of next week. Tom Coyle and Nolan Bentley are part of a group called ‘Planning Alliance’ based in Canada and were seconded to Care for its operations in Indonesia. They worked with Care in Aceh for about an year and are going back to Canada on 14th December.

Tom Coyle is an elderly and experienced engineer and my house mate. I think, he has three grown up children in Canada. Nolan also lives near by in House 12 and I also met his girl friend Hyda, when she visited him last month. Nolan wants to work for some consultancy firms in Ontario after going back to Canada.

In Banda Aceh, we live in ‘Team Houses’ consisting of 3- 4 people in each house. Each house is equipped with round the clock Security, a maid to clean and cook. The maintenance of the house will be done by the administration department of CARE. I live in ‘House 15’ with Tom from Canada and Mishael from Ruwanda. We have 4 rooms in our house, and we use one room as a guest room. Mishael brought two female puppies- Imelda and Gloria, who are little grown up now.

Some people are afraid of the dogs, and we wanted to shift them into another house near by. We brought a rope and tied it to one dog, and started taking it to the nearby house 300 meters away. Since its scared and dragging, we had to forcefully pull her till the next house. On seeing this, the other dog ran off, and never came near to us, in spite of Tom offering different varieties of food.


Before beginning of the Party, I said that the first guest will get a Chocolate. At 7:00 PM, Amos, the Construction Manager arrived with Nolan, and he got a Chocolate. There were around 50 people who came for the party, mostly from CARE. There was a small stupid fight at the end of the party at 2:30 AM, and the last contingent left at 3:00 AM.

Barracks in Shambles: Published on 09 Dec 2006

There was big commotion yesterday regarding a project Transitional WATSAN yesterday. There were reports in the press that the barracks are in very bad condition. Even though that the name of CARE is not mentioned, CARE is the major player in providing Water and Sanitation facilities in the Barracks. The communications department wants to rectify the situation of the barracks by next Friday with out fail. Because of the elections on Monday, press is already here and the focus will shift to the Tsunami Relief immediately after the elections were over. Last week, people from CARE Germany visited the sites and were very unhappy with the situation in the barracks. The have promised any amount of money immediately to rectify the situation.

Barracks are temporary establishments which are built for the displaced people whose houses are destroyed by Tsunami. Since they resemble Military Barracks, NGOs also call them as Barracks. It seems that CARE is working in 11 barracks in this area.

We have immediately swung into action. The priority areas will be desledging the septic tanks, filling the water stagnant areas with boulders and gravel, repairing water supply pipes and installing jet pumps for water supply. We have planned and organized few people and trucks for the work. Now we have people and we have money, but we need to go through the Procurement process. Since we finalized our plan by 7:00 PM, all the procurement staff left the office and went on a holiday due to the long week end.

Finally we had to negotiate with the head of procurement and did lots of other things, and by today morning, 2 desledging trucks are in the site with four of my staff!!

Recruitment Issues: Published on 07 Dec 2006

Yesterday, I spent most of my day in organising training program for our staff and contractors who are installing 'Septic Tanks' for the new houses we built. I have organised it in a 'Participatory' method which was facilitated by an experienced 'Project Manager' from other department Rifaid. Since I cannot speak and train in Bahasa, I prepared detailed module, power point presentations etc., and got it translated before asking our Specialist- Luthfi Basit Sew to take the sessions. I was there through out the day to observe and clarify doubts if any.

The training went extremely well, and a lot of dicussion was generated between the staff and Contractors. The time was not enough, and they were able to cover only 50% of the intended syllabus. This was partly due to the facilitator who is not fully aware which part of the module is more important.

I had to rush back to the office at 4:30 for conducting an Interview for the post of 'Program Manager- WATSAN'. This is an expat position and the candidate works some where in Africa. But there was some mess up with the HR due to some misunderstanding of the time difference, and the Interview was shifted to the next day, that is today at 1:00 PM

Later, I had a tough meeting with HR regarding the extension of Contract for one of my Key staff. There were no issues with the extension, but I had to make tough negotiations with them. The matter is still not resolved, but will be discussed with him soon. If we don't have substantial increase in his pay, not only there is a risk of loosing the staff, but also his salary will become a stumbling block for others to consider joining the team.

Currently I am continuously struggling to hire managerial and technical staff for our project. 6 managers and 3 specialists are required for various WATSAN positions. I am some how able to recruit lower level staff, but not in senior positions. Our HR had discussions with several other NGOs, and its the same situation every where.

Now we are putting our advertisement in several news papers across Indonesia, and I need to find some time today to finalise the advt. sent by our HR officer before sending off to press. So most likely, I would be able to conduct Interviews only after I come back from Christmas Break

Today we are having SMT (Senior Management Team) meeting from 10:00- 12:00 to discuss about various issues related to Operations. The SMT will be chaired by the 'Tsunami Director' and attended by heads of various departments. All the policies and procedures will be disussed in the SMT before the Director finally approves it.

Bore Holes in Aceh: Published on 05 Dec 2006 at 17:23:10 Hrs

Today we have received a letter from Indonesian Government regarding bore holes. Since NGOs are drilling so many bore holes, there is an imminent risk of ground water contamination in the operational areas. Government wants all the NGOs who are planning for drilling bore wells have to take prior permission from them.

This is one way good if the intended intensions are met. The only concern is that they should not become a bureaucratic affair. It also creates a check point for the NGOs who want to quickly finish the work with out following proper rules and regulations.

I have started mapping the boreholes which are drilled by CARE. I also have a plan to do proper survey and assessment of all the boreholes available in this area. It’s like a database similar to the one which is being done by DACAAR in Afghanistan.

I have a vague Idea that UNICEF is doing some information collection on Bore wells. I need to check with them in my next meeting. The study of one of our projects is related to Salt Water Intrusion in the costal aquifers of this area. This bore well analysis will be very useful to determine up to what extent the salt water had intruded into the freshwater aquifers.

Training Program on Sanitation Systems, Published on 12/04/2006 at 22:52:51

I am going to train our staff and Contractors on Installing Sanitation Systems in our project area. I am presently busy in preparing training module for the training which will be conducted this Thursday.

Sanitation is the means of collecting, treating and disposing of excreta and liquid wastes in a hygienic way so as not to endanger the health of the individuals and the community as a whole. Hygienic treatment and disposal (or recycling) of human wastes that does not endanger health or the local environment should be the underlying objectives of all sanitation programmes across the globe. On-site sanitation systems will remain a popular low-cost solution for the foreseeable future, as conventional off-site options are usually much more expensive.

As a consequence of poor on-site sanitation, local water sources are condemned in that they are polluted with faecal coliforms and are then unsafe for the purposes of cooking or drinking. It is fundamental to address these issues when implementing on-site sanitation systems, as well as the often neglected downstream effects of improper treatment or disposal.

Sanitation standards in pre-tsunami Aceh were poor in general. There is generally a fair understanding of the effects of poor sanitation in the community, although experience suggests there is a lack of awareness that practical sanitation alternatives do exist. This may be the reason why it ranks so low in peoples minds

We are building 1765 houses and repairing another 338 houses in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar Districts. My team is installing Septic Tank systems with Tertiary filtration facilities in all these houses. As of now, 4 Construction Firms were selected to construct 420 Complete Septic Tank Systems and another 726 Septic Tanks.

Since the technology is very new to the area, there is a requirement for contractors to get proper training and orientation regarding the septic tank system design. This Workshop is intended to facilitate the training for the Contractors as well as refresh the knowledge of the staff.

This will be a one day workshop followed by two days of demonstration. The tentative schedule will be:
Basic Concepts
Design
Construction
Demonstration on the site
Demonstration and Conclusion

Sanitation Systems: Published on 12/04/2006 at 21:21:35

Installing Sanitation Systems is one of the many areas I am involved in. We have to install Sanitation sysems in more than 2000 houses by the end of March 2007.

These sysetms are complicated than I originally thought. They consist of 4 components:
1. Double Chamber Septic Tank
2. Control Box for Grey Water
3. Secondary Treatment System
4. Safe Disposal System

We are designing these systems for every household, encountering several problems on the way. Some houses do not enough land, some have land but the house owner wants to use it for other purpose, some are water logged etc., On top of that, we have severe staff shortage, and need to continue with the existing staff

I have planned a workshop for all our staff and contractors on Thursday to build their conceptual and technical capacity. This I hope will improve the quality of Construction.