Update from Faridpur

Sunday 25th November - 

Lots of progress being made on site at the moment, but unfortunately the internet connection won't let me upload any photos, check back soon, and I'll see what I can do...

The calm before the storm

Friday/ Saturday 23/24 November 2012

Spending the weekend in Dhaka, so not much to report on the work front.  I've been doing some last minute tests of all the equipment we'll be using, particularly the weather station:

Temp 25oC, 64% RH, 0mph wind, 0mm rain (good!)

I also went on the Urban Study Group regular Friday walking tour of Old Dhaka, and while I'm trying to keep this blog project related, here are a few photo's to give some context of the city:

Taxidermy at a 19th Century house...!

Interior of said 19th Century house

Dapper chaps off for a shoot

Unnerving drink!

Thin bit of daylight between old and new Dhaka

Rickshaws having a break

Window to a 19th Century house

To test, or not to test.

Wednesday and Thursday, 21 - 22 November

Yesterday and today, I've been back in the WaterAid office in Dhaka, tapping away in my own private meeting room...

My desk at WaterAid

We've been sorting out the details of the pathogen testing, what equipment we will need, and what we will test for.

This morning, I went over to the catchily titled 'icddr,b' or  International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh.  There I met with Dr Zahid Hayat Mahmud, a scientist in the Environmental Microbiology Laboratory.

Phone camera mugshot of Dr Zahid in his lab

We had a good discussion about the tests that they can do there, and which ones would be appropriate for this research.  I went away with a piece of paper detailing all the possibilities and their associated costs. 

Decision time.

Smooth as a baby's bottom. With lines on it.

Day Three, Tuesday 20th November 2012

A quick call in to the Practical Action office (the partner NGO for this project) to discuss a few issues.  As well as the 'easy' tasks like ordering the filter materials, we have a few more troubling things to sort out, namely organising the collection and delivery of sludge to site ready for testing next week.  The vacutug owned by the municipality is apparently not used, and the tractor that pulls it needs repairs...  After a lot of animated discussions in Bengali (which I hear as yaabababaayayayanalo aslaenallas sludge ascnaoi wssnsnsahaha vacutug yanbaga gfkaakaksksk ok?) it seems we shall have our sludge.  Hurrah.  

Before we head back to Dhaka, we stop in once more at the site:

An array of freshly smoothed drying beds

Looking good!  Except the flat base beds are about 20cm too deep... After some deliberation, we decide to raise the bases by two bricks.  This will bring the sludge closer to the radiative heat of the metal roof, and reduce the bending required to dig the dried sludge out.

We asked them to rule lines on the sides when the plaster was still wet, every 10cm, so it should make building the filters easier. These all seem to be nice and neat:

Plastered filter-base

Next steps:

• drill holes in pipe - we discussed these, 10mm diameter, distributed along the length of the pipe, in two rows along the edge of the concrete, and two higher up.
• dig the soakaway for the filter beds - we will have one, with the three pipes coming into it
• build the filters - tip in the material, base layer to 20cm line, mid layer another 10cm, sand a final 10cm.
• build the roofs

Then construction will be complete, and the sludge can be poured, and testing can begin!  

I hadn't quite realised how far along this would be, how long we would be on site for, and had forgotten how long it takes to get from site to Dhaka, so had a bit of a running-out-of-clothes issue, and returned to Dhaka and my other suitcase.  Sad to be missing the final day or so of construction, but the very capable Suman is on the end of a phone, and I think he will be ok.  We will return on Sunday to have a final check before the sludge is delivered.  Can't wait to get this show testing started!

Looking at gravel

Day Two, Monday 19th November 2012

Today we look at stones for the filters:

The stone yard

I need to select which to use for each level of the filter.

Mmm, coarse sand.

This stuff will support the sand

Big ones for the bottom

Road-scene

We also go to site and check out the plastering:

The 4-5 labourers on site

 You can see the differing heights of the sides to support the sloping roof.  Unfortunately not south-facing, but the site has a line of tall trees along the southern edge, and they shadow almost half the area.  This means the six tanks have been built in the sunny-patch, and the most convenient way to lay them out was east-facing. These pictures were taken around midday, in the middle of their 'winter':

View of site from NE

The caretakers hut and tubewell

 Next door, it's planting time:

Planting crops in the adjoining field

 Some of the workers cycled to the site:

Bike-rack

The 'office' where borrowing a dongle ('modem') from Opel allowed me to download a few emails!

The site office

On the way back to Hotel Raffles (dubious name and quality, but the only hotel in town) we checked out some plastic sheeting for the transparent roof.  In the absence of clear plastic, we've gone with slightly opaque GRP, which I'm sure will be fine, given that any polythene-based material we find is unlikely to be UV stabilised and will degrade to a similar transparency over time anyway.

Construction Underway

Day One, Sunday 18th November 2012

After a five hour drive/ferry/drive to Faridpur, with Opel (WA Research Manager) and Suman (WA Engineer) we see the site.

As it was at the last visit July 2012:

View of site from SW

Site photo 18/11/12:

View from SW corner of site

The blockwork is nearly complete for all 6 tanks, which is tremendous progress given the bad weather in the past fortnight.  There is a caretakers hut/ storage hut, tubewell installed and two latrines-to-be.

View from SE corner of site, filter-base tank in foreground

Filter base under construction

Flat base tank under construction

Getting the levels right using a tube of water

Tomorrow, plastering starts...