Sunday, 28 June 2009 - Friday, 3 July 2009
Three days of travel, and I arrive in Lilongwe, Malawi. My time in London, UK was short and sweet, starting with the coolest hotel I have ever stayed in. The hotel is called Yotel, and is inspired by Japanese pod designs, and sleeper cars on trains. It is tiny, but perfect for catching up on some sleep for a few hours, and having a wonderful monsoon shower. In London they are experiencing a 'heat wave' of 25̊C and humidity...I'm in heaven!
Five hours of sleep, lots of walking and picture snapping and I am catching my 9pm flight to Rome, Italy; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and finally Lilongwe, Malawi.
Lilongwe is sunny, with slight cloud coverage and 25̊C when I arrive. Absolute perfect weather to me, and a lovely change from the 33̊C +75% humidity = 43̊C in Fajara. I was readily unpacking my shorts and tees until the sun set, and it was freezing! I am coming from a country where it snows in the winter, and I still find it quite cold. One would think that I would remember the winter weather in Zimbabwe (in which we wore jackets, scarves and mittens,) and bring more sweaters and jackets, but I did not. I wear my one sweatshirt every day and night...it needs to be washed!
On early Monday morning I go to the C-CODE office to meet Siku and Peter whom I have been emailing for months to set up my placement. I join the Monday morning meeting, and start reading up on the eco-san toilet projects they are implementing. C-CODE wants me to a preliminary design for a rainwater harvesting system in Kaphuka village at a school.
On Tuesday we head towards Dedza, and into a hilly part of the country. The landscape is gorgeous, and although the weather is cloudy and cold, I am in a sunny mood. The school houses classrooms for 1,500 students and teachers. Currently the village experiences large water shortages during the dry season, and are hoping that a rainwater harvesting system would be a good supplement water supply.
On Wednesday, I discover that this project is not C-CODEs project, but they have been asked to do a preliminary design and assessment by another organization. The organization will apply for funding for the project, come up with the final designs, and hire C-CODE to implement the project. In the meantime, there is no budget for the project and no resources for any adequate research to complete a full design for the project. Ground profiles of the area, accurate precipitation data, accurate water shortages (demand-supply), budget restrictions, material availability, and other data is unavailable to me for my design. The best I can do is an extremely rough estimate of materials and costs, for what I think would be the minimum demand of water for the school.
I completed my preliminary design of the rainwater harvesting system for the Kaphuka school today, and next week go to work at Limbe Tobacco Plant.
Limbe Tobacco plant is currently undergoing a look into their environmental management, and have asked me to complete a review of their water management, and make suggestions for water recovery, reuse and recycling. This is going to be a demanding project, but one that I am very excited to get started working on!
0 comments:
Post a Comment