hobo can: balang reservoir

prior to going on the trip, i got in touch with engineers without borders about a reservoir project they are helping out on near siem reap. its a reservoir project for a group of villages (about 6,000 people) about 30 km outside of siem reap. the primary construction (earthwork and installing a concrete gate structure) was completed a few months ago. here's the skinny on the project from human translation (HT), the NGO in cambodia managing the project: http://www.humantranslation.org/project_dam.html
and here's EWB's blog about the project: http://www.ewbnycambodia.blogspot.com/

we met some great folks working on the project: tobias (human translation PM from northern california), fred (english engineer), ceda (cambodian wunderkind), samet (cambodian monk), and chris (german journalist/traveler). on wednesday we did a site visit. we passed by many farms and villages on the way out to the site and the 4 of us in the back of a pickup were continuously greeted by little kids running out the road waving, smiling, and shouting "goooodbye!".

the gate structure was put in place a month or two ago- the community had a big celebration and blessing ceremony (written about on the ewb blog). its now the start of the dry season and HT is trying to get all the final pieces of the project in place before the rains come. Right now they are focusing on erosion control- there's been significant erosion at the foot of the gate structure and on several of the embankments. they're also working on water user groups- working with the villages to establish a way to manage the reservoir and allocate flows based on land use. we've been helping on the erosion control issues and also developing some information on reservoir management... looking at flows out of the reservoir and how that affects water levels throughout the year. its been fun dorking out on excel again.

From cambodia

this is a family that was living on the reservoir embankment. they agreed to have their house moved for the reservoir, once they realized the importance of the project for the greater area. apparently they had a group of men just up and lift the house and walk it a few hundred feet away. we sat around with these folks and had a bunch of fruit. pomogranites are delicious.

From cambodia

at the end of the day, samet took us to his parents place. they live in the country near the project site, in one of the villages that will benefit from the reservoir. samet is a pretty amazing man- he initiated this project getting tobias and HT involved. he is also building a community center for the villages... a building for villagers to learn trades, get education, and use a library. i guess you can say he's a community organizer... like obama, someone he spoke about highly.

when we showed up at his parent's place, his dad immediately shouted for coconuts. a middle aged relative climbed up the palm tree next to the house and hacked down about 8 coconuts. he cut off the tops and we all sat around drinking the sweet milk and trying to communicate with samet's family. his mom and dad were there, his dad's sister, and a bunch of grandkids.