The Design is Done!

We just submitted the project design to EWB National for approval! There is still a ton of detailing and planning work to be done but this was a huge milestone for the design team.

Mean Someth

This video was taken during a meeting with Mean Someth. Someth was describing the benefits of the water gate project.

Cows on the Embankment

This is a short video of children herding cows back to the village at the end of the day.

Chai (Yin Yah)

This is Chai singing a Khmer song as we walked back to the car after surveying the North side of the reservoir basin. Chai is a 24 year old Civil Engineering student in Siem Reap. With his understanding of the local culture and his ability to quickly pick up new concepts he has been a huge help on the project.

Matt's Snack Attack

On one of our trips to the market we found this cart with pigeons, worms and cicada. I wanted to keep walking but Matt insisted that we try a gigantic, fried cicada. It tasted like pumpkin seeds.

Design Update

Like many other projects, the lack of time and information is forcing the design team to come up with innovative solutions so the design can proceed. In the ideal case, the Hydro team would have a detailed topographic map of the entire area. This would include clearly defined rivers in the supply area, contours within the reservoir, locations of canals and detailed land use within the demand area. Unfortunately, the only topographic map of the area we have been able to obtain is so rough that our entire reservoir falls between contour lines.
To work around this lack of information, we asked Human Translation to again send their team to the site for an additional survey. This time we requested an approximate "Mud Line" survey and a survey along the 40m contour line. The Mud Line survey roughly followed the elevation where our reservoir water line will be. The survey points along the 40m contour line is needed to correlate the existing topographic map with all of the surveys we have performed. These surveys, combined with the rest of the data already collected will be used to approximate the missing detailed topo map of the area. With this information the Hydro team will be able to complete their model.Ideally, the Concrete team would be able to wait for the Hydo team to complete their study and provide the height necessary for the water gate's emergency overflow. However, we again must make conservative approximations so we can move forward now and then revise our results later. The Cambodian Hydrological Engineer, Yin Savaan, provided Human Translation with a concrete water gate design for this project so our strategy is to merely check this design; not create a new one. This process is just beginning but one initial design modification is to eliminate the footings shown in Yin's drawing (top) for a mat foundation (bottom). Other modifications will include changing the wing-walls slope to match our 3:1 embankment slope, increasing the emergency overflow space, and eliminating the soil-filled ballast for a concrete slab.

It's certainly busy with all of this design work happening simultaneously but the pieces are starting to fit together and it is becoming easier to envision the gate being built.