The Source: Water, Food and Energy Nexus GVR to Colombia
Transcription
The Source: Water, Food and Energy Nexus GVR to Colombia
RUPPEL Volume 24 - November 2014 The Source: Water, Food and Energy Nexus GVR to Colombia Leermeester Prof. Nick van de Giesen Ruud van de Ent and the PhD process Royal HaskoningDHV working on Canal del Dique Colofon From the editors Volume 24, Number 3, November 2014 Dear Druppel reader, The ‘Druppel’ is a magazine of the student society of watermanagement of the TU Delft. The magazine is published three times a year. Editors: Frans Willem Hamer Pradeep Rathore Sandra de Vries Parvathy Chandrasekhar Thibaut Visser Design: Frans Willem Hamer Thibaut Visser The ‘Druppel’ is distributed to all members and relations of the ‘Dispuut Watermanagement’, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences Contact: This might be the first Druppel you will ever find on your doormat! Of course you have all been waiting with great anticipation for this issue and it will not disappoint you. The theme of this Druppel is The source: water, food and energy nexus. The growing global population, demand for higher living standards and climate change are a pressure for changes in all three sectors, but the changes in one have consequences in another. This asks for an Integrated Water Management approach and new technologies. And of course we have much more! We hope you haven’t yet got accustomed to the spice that has come with the recent issues, since sadly our Indian editors Parvathy and Pradeep are about to leave... The remains of the committee would like to thank them for their work but above all for their pleasant company. By means of goodbye, Parvathy will be looking back on her time in Delft. Enjoy reading! On behalf of the Druppel Committee, Frans Willem Hamer Dispuut Watermanagement Room 4.74 Stevinweg 1 2628 CN Delft 015-2784284 [email protected] www.dispuutwatermanagement.nl Incoming mail Do you have any comments on the articles? You don’t agree with the contest winner? Or do you just want to share your water story with us? Send in your mail and we can place it in the next Druppel! The committee, from left to right: Frans Willem, Sandra, Parvathy, Thibaut and Pradeep 2 Content A word From the board p6 A view from Peter Jules van Overloop in his Column p7 An Interview with our brand new Leermeester Prof. Nick van de Giesen p26 An article from the “Druppeltje” p36 A Historical water figure: Bagirath p35 The Source: water, food and energy nexus Used water: a source of resources p8 Leonardo Da Vinci and the source of water p9 Geodata for Agriculture and Water p10 Marij and her thing for ‘Tankie’ p24 In Depth PhD: Propositions and the PhD process p12 The GVR, Colombia p14 Perspectives from a visiting student. Looking back at two years in Delft p18 Engineers Without Borders-NL p23 Company case: Rehabilitation of Canal del Dique p30 Project abroad: Run, Sanitation system, RUN p33 Cookie Break DIY p34 Graduation project, Field Research in Mozambique p37 5 From the Board By the time you are reading this, the first period of the academic year has already passed. It has been a while since the previous Druppel, and a lot has happened since. Starting just before the summer, we had an amazing sailing weekend. Enjoying the wind, sun and water we travelled over the lakes of Friesland. During the summer, we went even further. A group of students, accompanied by the wise guidance of Erik Mostert and Jules van Lier, went to explore the waters of Colombia. From waste water to drinking water, from oceans to a cup of very fresh coffee, all the water aspects of the country were thoroughly analysed. Then, after a summer of silence, the new academic year started with new challenges, new students and new events. We had a wonderful and sunny master introduction day, a nice barbecue, and a delicious beer tasting event. But also behind the scenes there were some changes. We decided to support the most sustainable beer brewery in the Netherlands, Gulpener, whose beers you have tasted by now. And we constructed a new bar at the Dispuutshok where you can enjoy a break or have a meeting, possibly accompanied by some Gulpener pils. Hard Work Most importantly, the new committees are already working hard to organize the next events. On January 9th, we will have our next symposium together with the new year congress of sanitary engineering. And of course there will be lunch lectures, drinks and many other interesting events coming up. But for now, enjoy reading the long due Druppel! Graduates list At a certain age, I decided to work 10% more than what was expected of me. That also meant a 10% increase every year of what I learned and this made the working easier and as such, more fun. I realized that year after year after year, 10% on top of 10% on top of 10% increases fast. After so many years, I can say that I probably have a two times more fun job than most of my pre-university friends: I can work with nice, enthusiastic and smart students, get paid to solve tricky puzzles, travel all over the world and play CEO of an innovative spin-off company. So, it pays! Last month, this became apparent once again. ‘Our Nick’ got awarded the ‘Leermeesterprijs 2014’ and the read list of accomplishments was long and diverse. Not something you achieved from nine to five and four times a year on holiday ‘letting it all go’. Nice as well, but please do not complain that your work is getting so boring. On stage, there stood a truly happy man that, besides his talent, just worked very hard for it. And everybody gave it to him wholeheartedly. But again, that’s not the point. The feeling when you press the ‘Submit’ button of a good research proposal or journal paper or a student who begins his graduation ‘blue’ and at the end, there’s like a real engineer.That is something for yourself, something that makes you sway open the door of the university every day with pleasure, something you can lie awake for at night, not out of stress, but of the anticipation of the day ahead. On behalf of the 55th board, Thibaut Visser Column Author: Peter Jules van Overloop Maybe I need to see if the term ‘workaholic’ has something to do with the above. Just googled: ‘Work addiction or workaholism is not a recognized diagnosis in Tthat it does not Aappear in the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, nor is it to go into the next Proposed version, the DSM-V’ July-October 2014 Phew, I am okay for the time being with this delicious and socially accepted addiction... Sanitary Engineering Weilai Li Novel monitoring for dynamic VFA production from anaerobic kitchen waste digestion Jiayun Lu Ceramic nanofiltration of sewage as a pre-treatment for RO Danqing Yang Cleaning of bio-contaminated drinking water distribution systems Struan Robertson Improving selection in Nereda® treatment plants Marij Zwart From pollutant to fuel: A proof of principle for electricity production using nitrogen from sewage as a fuel Lobke de Pooter Ammonia treatment based on urea addition Hydrology Jason Chin Tze Voon Conceptual Modelling of the Padas Catchment: Understanding Catchment Behaviour with Expert Knowledge & Model Realism Mark de Weerd Modelling ungauged lowland basins Vincent de Looij Using tracer data to calibrate a flexible, topography driven conceptual hydrological model Qian Li Optimal use of the subsurface for ATES systems in busy areas Coert Strikker Groundwater modelling of he Khettara area of Fezna-Jorf-Hannabou, Morocco Marianne Tijs Subsurface freshwater storage & recovery David Brakenhoff An upscaling method for top-systems with layered heterogneiy and vertical anisotopy Arjan de Kloe Calibrating a rainfall-runoff model in a data scarce catchment in Mozambique Water Resources Management Gerard Pijcke Water quality modelling for Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Hyo-Mee Duerinck Observed soil moisture-precipitation feedback in Illinois. A statistical analysis over different scales Richard Geerling Infiltration swales, suantitative performance on an urban catchment scale Rens Hasman Water Allocation Assessment to Support IWRM in the major river basins fo Myanmar: Now and in the Fututre Martijn Koolen The effects of urban drainage system functioning on building structure and content Parvathy Chandrasekhar Drinking water security in Peri Urban India; a case study in Hyderabad 6 The Mobile Gate Tracker is one of the products of Mobile Water Management presently in use by water boards Aa en Maas and HDSR. By taking a picture of the level tool on the side of the tilting weir, the angle of the weir is determined using image recognition and by knowing the level of the joint and the radius of the weir, the absolute gate level is determined and put in the central database 7 The source: water food and energy nexus Author: Henri Spanjers Associate professor industrial water Used water: a source of resources If the crew on the International Space Station (ISS) were to use the European average of 130 L of clean water per person per day, and waste the same amount, then a cargo space craft would have to deliver 25 tons of fresh water, one tank truck, up to the ISS, every month! And this, at a freight rate of €34,000 per liter water. No need to say that this has been a strong incentive to use much less water, and reuse all the used water on board, including the pees of crew and lab rats. The situation seems to be less critical on spaceship earth. In some countries earthlings use and waste daily 400 liter (USA) or even 500 liter in the bone-dry Kuwait at the cost of less than a cent per liter. And yet there is an increasing pressure on the world to reduce the water consumption and after treatment, reuse the treated water. Not only because fresh clean water becomes scarce, but also because used water contains valuable resources that can be recovered and reused as well. Both municipal and industrial used water may serve as a source of resources. This is even truer in the Netherlands since virtually, all used water from the municipal and industries are managed, so the infrastructure exists to develop alternative exploitations. However, while municipal used water, or sewage, is rather consistent in terms of composition and hence provide opportunities for resource recovery, industrial used waters vary considerably between industries and so do the opportunities of recovering resources from it. The most obvious resource to be recovered from sewage is water. Treated sewage can be used for irriga- tion and city greening, or it may be used by industries. For example Evides Industriewater processes the effluent of the Terneuzen Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) into process water that is utilized by the local production facility of Dow Chemical. Another example is the upgrading in Emmen of STP effluent to ultrapure water that is used by NAM to generate steam that is injected into sandstone soil layers near Schoonebeek to extract viscous oil. Yet another example is the ongoing research at Harnaschpolder STP to utilize the upgraded effluent in greenhouses or for groundwater suppletion to combat brackish water intrusion. Other products than water may also be recovered from STPs. Potential products include: biogas, cellulose, struvite, bio-plastics, (heavy) metals, humic acids, alginate, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The potential of some products is substantial: for example in the Netherlands 140,000 ton per year of cellulose may be harvested and 14,000 ton per year of phosphorus, which may be instantly used in the paper industry and fertilizer industry, respectively. The challenge here is, of course, that current practice at STP is not based on resource recovery: their core business has always been to treat sewage to an acceptable effluent quality, while keeping operational costs at a minimum. STPs are not equipped to produce commodities. Moreover, the current practice of managing municipal sewage is inefficient if it comes to resource recovery: we use large volumes of clean water to dilute household used water, dilute it even more with rain water, and transport the mixed stream to the STP where big efforts are made to recover resources from the diluted sewage. A much better approach is to reduce the clean water consumption (that is: less dilution), avoid mixing of streams, and recover resources from the separate concentrated streams. And this all at the household level. Grey water may be a source of water for toilet flushing or irrigation, and heat may be recovered.Yellow water may be a source of phosphorus and potassium, or electricity by burning the urinal ammonia in a fuel cell (pee to power). Brown water can be digested anaerobically to provide a source of biogas and fertilizer. Industrial used water may be treated for use outside the industrial facility. Examples are the irrigation of crops with effluent from a brewery, and the supplementation of ground water with effluent from a food industry. More obvious is the use of effluents by other (neighboring) industries, for example within industrial parks, or within one industry. The latter offers many opportunities: not only treated mixed effluent may be reused but also used water from different unit operations may be reused after treatment in the same operation (kidney process) or in other unit operations. Different unit operations require various water qualities and various residual water streams are generated. This creates a multitude of reuse options within the same unit operations, between different unit operations, and without or with a range of optional treatment steps. Further, depending on the kind of industry also industrial source separation increases the efficiency of recovery of various resources such as energy, metals, fats, sulfur and salts. S Leonardo Da Vinci and the source of water Leonardo Da Vinci spent a large part of his life on understanding the movement, circulation and physical characteristics of water in all its forms. The source of Leonardo’s obsession with water might well have been the flooding of the river Arno in 1466 that took place in and around his town Anchiano. Initially, Leonardo did not see evaporation and precipitation as the main driving forces of the hydrological cycle. He thought that water comes “from the bottom of the mountains, and leads and holds it within the summits of the mountains, and this, finding some fissure, seeps continuously and causes rivers”. Water would travel from the ocean to the top of mountains via large subterranean rivers. The energy to transport the water upward was assumed to come from the heat of the sun and the “element of fire”, in the same way as the blood circulation in the human body: “the natural heat of the blood in the veins keeps it in the head of man, for when the man is dead the cold blood sinks to the lower parts”. However, Leonardo did conceptualise the basics of the hydrological cycle: “we may conclude that the water goes from the rivers to the sea, and from the sea to the rivers, thus constantly circulating and returning, and that all the sea and the rivers have passed through the mouth of the Nile an infinite number of times”. This doesn’t mean that Leonardo was unaware of the existence of water vapour. He mentions that the blue colour of the sky comes from the reflection of sunlight on the water vapour and that there is something like a humidity excess, which during summer causes dew and during winter causes frost. Leonardo clearly understood the vital link between food and water for the existence of all life on earth. If the hydrological cycle through the earth would stop, then “the rivers will be deprived of their waters, the fruitful earth will put forth no more her light verdure; the fields will no more be decked with waving corn; all the animals, finding no fresh grass for pasture, will die and food will then be lacking to the lions and wolves and other beasts of prey, and to men who after many efforts will be compelled to abandon their life, and the human race will die out.” Though according to his theories, the flow of water is driven by both the sun and the heat in the earth, Leonardo does consider the sun as the main source of energy: “in the whole universe there is nowhere to be seen a body of greater magnitude and power than the sun”. The source: water food and energy nexus below upwards, from the bottom of the mountains, and leads and holds it within the summits of the mountains, and finding some fissure, seeps continuously and causes rivers”. All very similar to the first powerpoint slides of the first hydrology classes. S Main source for this article: Leonardo Da Vinci’s Water Theory, On the origin and fate of water. L. Pfister, H.H.G. Savenije & F. Fenicia. To be obtained after graduating in Hydrology. Author: Frans Willem Hamer At the end of his life, Leonardo’s source of knowledge was not empty yet. He became more and more aware of the importance of evaporation and precipitation for the hydrological cycle: “in many cases one and the same thing is attracted by two strong forces, namely Necessity and Potency. Water falls in the form of rain; the earth absorbs it from the necessity for moisture; and the sun evaporates it, not from necessity, but by its power”. “They [the clouds] are often wafted about and borne by the winds from one region to another, where by their density they become so heavy that they fall in thick rain; and if the heat of the sun is added to the power of the element of fire, the clouds are drawn up higher still and find a greater degree of cold, in which they form ice and fall in storms of hail. Now the same heat which holds up so great a weight of water as is seen to rain from the clouds, draws them from Reuse of water by DOW in multiple cycles 8 9 The source: water food and energy nexus Author: Parvathy Chandrasekhar Dr. Ir. Mark Loos Company: Netherlands Space Office Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) The Netherlands Space Office (NSO) acts as the governmental space agency in the Netherlands and has the task to develop and implement the Netherlands’ space programme. The Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) Facility is a new programme of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and tries to improve food security in developing countries by using satellite data. NSO is executing this programme. The main goals of the G4AW facility are 1) To improve the output of agricultural, fishing and pastoral sector 2) To reach a minimum of 10% increase in sustainable food production 3) To help achieve a 10% more effective use of inputs 4) To focus on sustainable improvement and increase of food production The increasing population has escalated the food demand of the planet. By 2050 the world population will reach 9 billion and the demand for food is expected to increase by 70%. A key element to enable sustained food production and water use efficiency is to provide smallholder farmers and pastoralists in developing countries with relevant information. The use of satellite data helps in providing fast, timely and accurate information to millions of food producers. This information can be used for analyzing water use and productivity, strategic planning and water rights, detection of nutrient deficiencies and the ability to take timely measures to minimize agricultural losses. Satellite imagery provides a cost effective way to estimate crop yield and its variability without the need for expensive machines or GPS based yield monitoring equipment. Additionally, the use of technology like mobile phones and internet assists in reaching out to farmers even in remote areas. Mobile phone based services providing up-to-date market prices have already been proven successful in Africa and India. With satellite information, it can help the farmers in accessing relevant crop-related information and help to bridge the gap between the farmers and experts. Mobile related services also include delivery of financial, agricultural, health and educational information and services. Radio, television and internet are also used for providing early warnings and weather information. Increasing the quantity and quality of communication networks enables millions of food producers in remote areas to benefit from relevant agricultural information, empowering them to make better decisions in sustaining and increasing their harvest 10 thus securing their livelihood. Also, micro-insurances and/or micro loans combined with information services can help guarantee the continuity of food production. Consequently, these services can help improve the sustainable food production and improve the efficiency of inputs like water, seeds, fertilizer, etc., thus alleviating poverty and sustaining economic growth and self reliance. The G4AW facility provides a platform for partnerships of public organizations, research institutes, private sector operators, farmers’ cooperatives, satellite data operators and NGOs to set up large scale, demand driven and customized satellite based information services in the G4AW partner countries. The partner countries are Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, South-Africa, South-Sudan, Tanzania, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Partnerships and information services for food producers are stimulated by creating a programme that promotes and supports private investments for such services. In preparation of the second G4AW call, NSO has visited several partner countries to bring together such organizations and inform them about the G4AW program. When these organizations manage to form partnerships with a common goal, the combination of improved mobile connectivity, new satellite services and private investments offers the opportunity for scaling up innovations to large-scale implementation and operations. S PhD Propositions and the PhD process PhD Author: Dr. Ir. Ruud van de Ent References: figure 1: The fresh Dr van de Ent, his paranymphs and the ‘hooggeleerde opponenten’ figure 2: The Grant Cycle (phd comics.com, Jorge Cham) figure 3: The PhD process (phdcomics.com, Jorge Cham) Recently, on 2 September, I successfully defended my PhD thesis (see Figure 1) entitled: “A new view on the hydrological cycle over continents” in which I show how important land evaporation is for local and remote precipitation. This is all very interesting with important implications for land and water management and I can recommend everyone to read it. However, the even better part of the PhD defence are the propositions. Propositions? Perhaps this nowadays typical Dutch academic phenomenon requires some explanation. be stated as a general rule that the total number of propositions should not exceed ten.” is a substantial risk of a scenario unfolding as indicated in the lower half of Figure 3. In a desperate attempt to get money from the Funding Agency, the scientist loses touch with reality. Let’s look again at my proposition. N now, if the scientific grant system was to be applied in, for example, football, the underdog would never be able to win. Because Tthe team with the lesser players, according to the likes of Johan Derksen and René van der Gijp, would be disqualified before a ball has been kicked. Political elections would become redundant as former politicians would simply grant the victory to whom they think have the best proposal. Does, however, a football match always unfold the way it is expected, or do politicians do the things they promise? Undoubtedly the answers to those questions are all no. In the Middle Ages it was not necessary to produce in a thick book in which you reported on the findings of your own research to obtain a doctoral degree. A successful defence of a small number of propositions sufficed. Back then, being able to express yourself verbally, in Latin of course, and defending the views of your school of thought with empirical and logical arguments was considered far more important than a writing a report. It were the physicians, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, who first came up with the idea that it was necessary to also report on your own research. An absurd idea for the jurists at that time, as they found eloquence to be of much more importance and continued to hand out doctoral degrees based on the defence of propositions until the beginning of the twentieth century. Propositions accompanying the thesis are obligatory at all Dutch universities, except for Utrecht University which specifically forbids the publication of propositions. Some would consider the propositions nowadays to mainly serve a traditional purpose. I disagree as they allow us scientists to proof that we can say something intelligent about more than just our own research.The nice thing is namely that the propositions do not have to be related to your research. In fact, the TU Delft’s Doctorate Regulations specify: “At least six of these propositions should concern topics not related to the subject of the thesis. It may 12 I would like to share one of my own propositions with the readers of Druppel: “The awarding of subsidies based on research proposals is the same as giving points beforehand at a football math to the team which has, according to “the experts”, the best players, line-up and tactics.” You should know that many of the people at a university are not actually paid for it by that university. Instead, they get funded through research grants and teaching is something they have to do additionally to their research. These grants or subsidies are mostly awarded by national or international science foundations and organisations after the scientist has written a promising proposal which received excellent reviews. Obtaining such grants is highly competitive business as only 10-15% of the proposals are successful. M€-proposals are sometimes reviewed by only two or three people, while proposals from applicants with an insufficient H-index (related to the number of papers and citations to those papers) get thrown in the bin unread. Several scientists proudly list the grants they received, including how much k€ or M€ was awarded, on their website. Those of you not familiar with this system are probably thinking: “Wait a minute here, they did not actually achieve anything yet, and it is already claimed as an achievement, huh?” Those people are right and actually there is little to no check on whether and how well the proposed research is being executed. This is not necessarily a bad thing as this lack of control allows the scientist to act as in the lower half of Figure 2. The scientist in question completely misuses the system and is not honest in spending the money on the project he or she got the funding for, but does in fact produce useful results. If the scientist would exactly behave as it is supposed to work (top half Fig. 2) there dents who have never been at a PhD defence, make sure you seen at least one during your studies and be surprised about the waarde promovendus and his paranymphs in white tie, the hooggeleerde opponenten in gowns and caps, the beadle and hora est! S PhD Comics, http:// phdcomics.com/ comics.php, accessed 18 September 2014. Loehle, C. (1990), A guide to increased creativity in research: inspiration or perspiration?, Bioscience, 40(2), 123-129. The football analogy illustrates the main problem I have with the awarding of subsidies by means of proposal writing. Are the reviewers (Johan Derksen and René van der Gijp in the football analogy) really able to judge how interesting and valuable the outcome of the proposed research will be? In science, the reviewers could, for example, argue that somebody has not got enough experience in a certain field. Charles Darwin (see Fig. 4) in today’s atmosphere would have likely been encouraged to follow up on his early study of corals or geology for the rest of his career. Another argument could be that a proposal is unrealistic, such as that of Albert Einstein. Luckily, these men did not have to apply for grants in their time! Admittedly, I do not provide any alternatives to the scientific grant system in this essay, but hey, that does not make my proposition less true! On repository.tudelft.nl you can find my other propositions as well as my thesis. As a matter of fact, defending propositions is only one of the many traditions during Dutch PhD defences. Contrary to many other countries PhD defences in the Netherlands are always public. For stu- Board of Doctorates Delft University of Technology (2004), Doctorate regulations, amended version January 2012, Delft. Van der Ent, R. J. (2014), A new view on the hydrological cycle over continents, Ph.D. thesis, 96 pp, Delft University of Technology, Delft. figure 4: proposals Wikipedia-bijdragers (2013), “Stelling (proefschrift)”, Wikipedia, http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelling_(proefschrift), accessed 18 September 2014. 13 GVR Colombia, oh oh! What began as an idea scribbled on the back of a beer coaster, followed by months of planning, meetings and arrangements, finally came to fruition on a dreary Monday morning in July. In front of the CiTG building a group of students and professors gathered and waited anxiously for the taxis to form the first link in a long chain of transportation. Their final destination? Colombia! Author: Abel Heinsbroek After two uneventful flights – although the GVR committee did manage to almost lose three quarters of the group at Lisbon airport – we arrived at our first big destination, Bogotá. Home to more than 8 million people and situated at around 2500 meters above sea level Bogotá is the sprawling capital of Colombia. Although Colombia is situated very near to the equator, the climate in Bogotá is surprisingly like our own wet summers here in the Netherlands. We learned a lot more about Colombia’s peculiar climate during our first project visit to the meteorological institute IDEAM. Actually, there is no such thing as „Colombia’s Climate”. Due to the extreme differences in geography and the close proximity to the equator the climate changes primarily based on altitude. Colombia therefore knows dense rainforest, cold, rainy mountain valleys, snow topped mountains, tropical beaches and even scorching desert, all to be found within a few hundred kilometers of each other. Furthermore, the parts of Colombia that neighbor the pacific ocean are the wettest regions on earth, with a staggering 9 meters of rain falling every year (for comparison, in the Netherlands we receive a mere 0.7 to 0.9 meters per year). Interesting to note – and another example of the extreme diversity of the country – is that despite receiving all that rainfall the most populated areas actually struggle with drought. The presentation of IDEAM was followed by an interesting presentation by Royal HaskoningDHV. They are currently working on expanding the Canal del Dique – a shipping canal constructed by the Spanish settlers to connect the Rio Magdalena with important trading harbor Cartagena. across the reservoirs and showing us the unique vegetation living there. The visit also served as a grizzly reminder of the civil war fought in those mountains not too long ago between the FARC and the army. Still to this day there are military outposts to guard the reservoirs and dams against the rebels. The next day we set out to discover more of the city and paid a visit to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum). Here an impressive collection of gold artifacts collected from the indigenous tribes is on display. Even more then now gold was used a status symbol, with chieftains and shamans draping themselves in gold bracelets, earrings and breastplates. Our enthusiastic tour guide explained in endless detail the quite impressive techniques the natives learned to manipulate the shiny metal, ending our tour with a finely detailed miniature raft completely made from hair-thin strands of gold. Bogotá was followed by a weekend in the heart of the coffee region, in a small town named Salento. From there we took a jeep ride to hike around in the Valle del Cauca, known for its lush forests, eye-catching wax palms that grow up to 60 meters tall and hummingbirds. At night we learned how to play Colombia’s national bar game,Tejo (pronounced Teggo).The rules are a bit hard to explain – partly because I already forgot them – but it suffices to say the game involves throwing rocks, gunpowder, explosions and lots of aquardiente. The museum visit was followed by a visit of a completely different nature. Having reached the semi-finals of the world cup, the Dutch ambassador invited all Dutch people in Bogota to watch the match at his large mansion in the suburbs. Enjoying a cold Heineken beer and some Gouda cheese we watched our team fail to reach the finals. Fortunately a lot of the disappointment was made up for during our dinner at the restaurant Andres Carne de Res – a crazy combination of a night club, steakhouse and fairground. Our last project visit in Bogotá entailed the drinking water system of the city. High up in the mountains surrounding the city a system of large reservoirs collect the almost continuous rainfall, which is used to supply the most of the city with clean drinking water. The system operator, EAB, went out of their way to show us around, taking us on a boat ride During our time in Salento we also paid a visit to a coffee plantation run by a British man who told us all the ins and outs of coffee. The man fell in love with Colombia ten years ago and quit his high stress job as a computer engineer to start his own plantation. In quick succession he showed us the complete process of planting, harvesting, cleaning, de-seeding, peeling, drying, sorting, grading, roasting, brewing and drinking coffee. Our next destination was the Salsa capitol of the world: Cali! Here a busy program of project visits was arranged for us by the CINARA water research institute of the Univalle University. Guided by their program director Luis Dario we visited almost all the different work areas the master Water Management has to offer. For instance, we saw (and swam in!) the source of the river supplying Cali with fresh water, situated high up in the mountains surrounding the city. We visited Colombia’s own version of the Room-For-The-River program, with all the social and technical problems that come with it. And we paid a visit to Cali’s enormous centralized wastewater-treatment plant, where at this moment only chemical primary treatment is used, but in the near future biological treatment is to be implemented. A highlight of our visit to Cali was the long anticipated salsa night. We had arranged that after some salsa dancing lessons in our hostel a Chiva would pick us up for a tour around the city. Chivas are a traditional form of rural transport in Colombia, and basically consist of a bus chassis with a modified and brightly painted wooden body. Our Chiva however, had its benches removed and replaced by speakers, lights, lasers and even a small foam machine. Blasting away salsa music we traversed the city, leaving a large traffic jam in our wake and dancing the night away. After a very busy week in Cali it was time for some well-deserved time off at the Caribbean coast.We set out by plane and shabby bus with overly enthusiastic bus driver to Colombia’s most beautiful stretch of coastline: Tayrona Park. After a hike through the jungle where we saw wild monkeys and even some sloths hanging in the trees, we arrived at Cabo San Juan, a postcard perfect bay, complete with bounty beaches, palm trees and hammocks to sleep in. After two perfect days that seemed to pass way too quickly it was time to take the same shabby bus to our final project destination: Riohacha – a city at the foot of the Guajira peninsula. Being largely covered with scorching desert La Guajira is the driest and hottest part of Colombia and has immense problems with water scarcity. To supply the cities and towns on the peninsula with drinking water ever deeper wells are drilled with the inevitable salt intrusion as a result. To combat this a reverse osmosis installation was setup a few years ago, but it is already broken down due to corrosion and bad maintenance. With our visit to the desert completed we were almost at an end of our study tour. We spent two more days on the Caribbean coast and flew back to Bogotá where we had one last day to climb the Mont-Serrate for a spectacular view of the city and to cycle around the cities expansive neighborhoods. S 14 15 16 17 Foreign student Author: Parvathy Chandrasekhar 18 Looking back on two years in Delft It was with a lot of fears that I stepped on the plane that brought me to the Netherlands. I was afraid of leaving all my near and dear ones behind, I was afraid of getting lost in a culture that was completely different from mine and I was afraid that I would not be able to fulfill my ambitions of earning a Master’s degree from one of the world’s most reputed universities. My initial days at Delft were filled with uncertainty and a profound sense of homesickness. I was reserved and shy and couldn’t seem to interact well with my classmates. However, as days went by, I felt myself drawn to the beauty and versatility of this new place I was in. This place encouraged people to be who they want to be without any qualms of what others might think. This place helped me form friendships that still run very deep and this place helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. My fondest memories of Delft are waking up to a cold misty morning and drinking a warm cup of coffee, getting ready to be on time for classes, biking through the narrow roads bordered with canals (come sun or rain), trying to follow what was being said in class and grumbling about assignments. Weekends meant a long bike drive with friends or visiting a new town or city in the Netherlands. Food was the best part though. Everything from apple tarts to waffles, from Dutch cheese to wine – I tried and I loved. My regular consumption of brownies and chocomel added a few layers of insulation to my body but I don’t regret any of it though. Coming to Delft has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I learnt a lot both personally and professionally. I saw myself come out of a self-made cocoon and am able to see the world with a broader mind now. But most importantly, I learnt that I am going to miss some good friends that I made here. I am going to miss the smug guru Pradeep. He is one of the most chaotic persons I’ve seen and one of the most brilliant too. From answering the silliest of my doubts to making bad jokes, he has done it all. I am going to miss the people at Druppel – Sandra, Frans, Thibaut and Pradeep - and all the fun evenings we’ve had. S The people in Ladakh in Northern India cook water for tea (but also rice) with a solar reflector. Water, food and energy in one picture. Picture: Jimmy van Opijnen Engineers Without Borders- NL Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is an international network which started from bottom-up. In Belgium our Flemish sister organisation is already more than 20 years old, with many interesting projects. The very successful EWB USA has shown enormous growth and impact in just a bit over 10 years of coming into existence. In the Netherlands we started about 7 years ago under the wing of the Dutch Royal Institute of Engineers. And 3 years ago we joined the initiative to connect all the EWB’s around the world which all are doing great work. A network of organisations is of course very nice, but what do all these people do? What do we want to achieve? Our goal is to promote, teach and implement sustainable technical solutions for developing countries which can be successfully adopted by local individuals and companies. By doing so we believe we help to enhance the quality of life of people in developing countries in a sustainable way. In short, we want to improve the quality of life with technology. We try to achieve our goals by doing the following: 1. Providing a platform where our members can exchange information and knowledge 2. Facilitating our members to initiate and execute successful projects 3. Tie companies and education institutions to the goals of EWB 4. Unlocking the global network of EWB International One specific activity is our yearly congress. We bring together about a 100 people on a specific day every year, who are all active or interested in technology in developing countries; hydrological engineers, water specialists, solar engineers, wind specialists, but also entrepreneurs, government officials and teachers. It is always a very inspiring day where a lot of knowledge and contacts are shared. This year the title of our congress is: “High tech in low developed countries”. It will be an interactive congress where an inspirational group of speakers will work with the participants to solve challenging problems. NGO-case Author: Tjeerd Dierckxsens EWB the Netherlands is an organisation powered by volunteers and we are always looking for enthusiastic students and engineers who are in the water engineering field. We can use help in many fields like project implementation, project coaching, institution building, technology education and fund raising. S So if this article has made you more interested in EWB, please check the following webpages: www.ewb-nl.org http://www.ewb-international.org/ https://www.kivi.nl/ www.kivi.nl www.ewb-international.org www.ewb-nl.org 23 Lab-setup Author: Marij Zwart Marij and her ‘thing for Tankie’ I am honored to introduce you all to Tankie. Tankie, an anaerobic membrane bioreactor, and me spend most of my graduation year together. Tankie is actually not really ‘one’ Tankie, but consists of millions of anaerobic bacteria, which controlled my life the last couple of months. In this article I hope to explain why and how Tankie and me got so close, and also why I am grateful for our late goodbye, which took place last June. Nitrogen Removal combined with Electricity production Nitrogen compounds are essential for living organisms. When a surplus occurs, however, they can contribute to accelerated eutrophication, oxygen depletion and fish toxicity in lakes and rivers. Consequentially, nitrogen is regarded as a pollutant which has to be removed from municapal wastewater before it can be discharged into the environment. However, according to the wise Richard Buckminster Fuller ‘pollution is nothing but the resources that we are not harvesting. We alow them to disperse only because we are ignorant to their value’. This quote is very applicable to wastewater in general, and my thesis research focused at proving the truth of this quote specifically for the nitrogen present in wastewater. The starting point of my thesis research is the fact that in a completely different field of research, the field of the fuel cells, it has been demonstrated that fuel cells can produce electricity when ammonia gas is used as a fuel. Theoretically, it is possible to convert the nitrogen present in municipal wastewater (in the form of organically bound nitrogen and ammonium) into ammonia gas. Therefore, the objective of my thesis research was to convert and concentrate this nitrogen and thus to create a solution sufficiently rich in ammonia to function as a fuel for a fuel cell. So, I tried to combine and implement a series of technologies, which together remove nitrogen from municipal wastewater, while utilizing the potential of ammonia as a sustainable energy source, instead of consuming energy for nitrogen removal. Tankies role in set up An anaerobic membrane bioreactor (a.k.a. Tankie), is a device that biologically removes the organic fraction of wastewater, while producing biogas and, due to the incorporated ultra-filtration (UF) membrane, a solid-free high quality effluent. As luck would have it, during this biological COD removal, the organ- ically bound nitrogen as present in the wastewater is converted into ammonium-ions, which are not captured by the UF membrane. Hence, Tankie produces an effluent, which is rich in ammonium. Therefore,Tankie was considered a good first step in a chain of technologies, aiming at the creation of an ammonia rich gas that can be used as a fuel for a fuel cell. The ammonium in Tankie’s effluent was afterwards separated from the rest of the effluent using ion exchange. A fractioned collection of the ion exchange brine was used in order to concentrate this ammonium. After the ion exchange, further concentration of the ammonium was required, which I did by means of a distillation tower in the laboratory of the ‘process and energy section’ at the TU Delft. And eventually I travelled to Switzerland with my own ammonia solution and biogas bags, to use a gasifier and a solid oxide fuel cell to test if it was possible to produce electricity with my own ammonia mixture. Complex relationship Overall, Tankie has always supported me. During 123 days, Tankie has constantly removed the COD from the daily fed synthetic wastewater, producing biogas and the ammonium-rich effluent that I From pollutant to fuel, the process 24 Lab-setup needed. However, we had a complex relationship. Tankies intentions were pure, but mainly due to the easy clogging of all his feeding, re-flux and effluent pipes, Tankie flooded, exploded or was upset in any other way, almost on a daily basis. Tankie is a slow adjuster, so in the case of an extreme emergency or fatality, more than a month would have been required to let Tankie acclimatize and to produce a stable ammonium rich effluent again. Since an extra, pointless month with no progression in the laboratory was not something I desired, there was quite a deal at stake for me to not let Tankie die. Consequently, I spent these 123 days constantly checking up on Tankies well-being by spending time together in the lab, checking the app on my phone, with which I could check on Tankie from a distance, and by asking my lab-mates for help. In spite of all this effort, we did not manage to keep each other happy. Especially Tankies’ preference to flood at Friday afternoons and Sunday evenings is something that I never learned to cope with. Success Eventually, I managed to produce electricity out of ammonia from wastewater that was treated by Tankie. The ammonium in Tankies’ effluent was successfully separated and concentrated through ion exchange, further concentrated and converted from ammonium into ammonia by a distillation tower and fed to a fuel cell, generating power. Once it became clear that through distillation I succeeded to produce a solution sufficiently rich in ammonia for the fuel cell, the serious decision was made that Tankie had done all he could and thus that his time had come… Of course, I do miss him now and then. Especially the beautiful moments we had, like when I came back on Monday morning in the laboratory to find out that Tankie had actually for once not caused any problem during a whole weekend. But I guess that’s life and I will have to deal with that ;) S Tankie 25 Interview Leermeester Prof. Nick van de Giesen Interview produce things of which I think: ‘oh that’s cool, I didn’t think about it, that’s new for me.’ It’s a very high level that we are working at. The more I see that the more I enjoy it. Every PhD candidate has to come up with 10 statements. I don’t have to approve them, but I have to say that they are opposable. Which means that I think you can discuss them.” Authors: Pradeep Rathore and Frans Willem Hamer Foto from: Ernst de Groot The first of September Prof.dr.ir. Nick van de Giesen was awarded the Leermeesterprijs 2014. The award for the Professor of the TU Delft “who excels in the quality of his/her teaching, research and the effect it has on his/her (PhD-)students”. The successes of the Dutch football team this summer inspired Druppel to ask him the same two cliché questions: “What was going through your mind when…?” and “What are your future plans?”. What was going through you mind when you heard that you’ve won the Leermeesterprijs? “First I was very much surprised. Huub asked me to meet him in his office.He was very vague about the reason, but it was basically my last month as the chairman of the department. I thought a surprize party was bit over the top, but it was the only thing that I could think of. “The day of the meeting I was biking to the university with my wife – which is something we do every twenty days or so – and she said: ‘Yes, I also received a phone-call’. It felt strange that she had to come as well for this boekenbon’. This made me really wonder‘what could it be?’ “Even when I entered Huub’s room, I still didn’t get it. Then they asked me: ‘If you would get the Leermeesterprijs, would you accept it?’ I said yes, but even then I was thinking that they are probably asking the same question to every professor at the university. “I was very surprised then and am still very happy since in order to get this prize you have to go through many rounds. It starts with the students. First the Bachelor students and then the Master students, for which I have to thank the Dispuut. They have to be very positive about me. Then the people of the department have to run around – without making me notice it – and collect all the materials: a CV, scientific papers but also letters from former PhD and MSc students. “A broad range of different people have been approached, andanybody could have vetoed it. When they are asking around, all these people have to react positive. Then the dean has to approve, since only one person can be brought forward per faculty. Then there is a group of peers, a committee that decides among the eight different faculties who will get the prize. And finally it should get the approval of the Rector Magnificus. 26 The day in Huub’s office they couldn’t give it to me directly, since they first wanted to ask me before asking the approval of the Rector.” You also gave an interview for Delta – the magazine of the TU Delft – in which you say that “students have to tell me something I don’t know yet” and that your approach is to let students explore things on their own and help them if they get lost. Do students understand your approach? “Students don’t immediately get what is expected from them. But even in the introduction course Integrated Water Management that’s how we work. Then I make it very explicit: this is the real world, and I give some examples on what the real work is like: very unpredictable. You have to be able to just jump in and do it. “So that’s why I keep an eye on it. And I learn from it as well. In the beginning of the process students sometimes get lost, which is not bad.I find that at this level there should be at least be something new that comes out of the students themselves. How it comes out is another thing. “So that is my preferred style, but we can also make it more structured. It’s ok to give directions for everything if someone is at the end of their studies and cannot start over. But you do hope that at this academic level students have developed their own ideas and are able to stand for their ideas. I think that’s something that distinguishes a university from other types of higher education.” Should students think independently? “You should not oppose everything your professor says but you should be able to think independently, yes. And I seriously think that at one point you are at such a high level that you What is a typical day for you? And how many hours do you sleep? You said in Delta that you are always busy with work and that “there are 168 hours in a week”. “I did get some bad comments about that. But you know, it was not meant to be normative in any way. It’s because I compare myself with my promoter who would go to bed around midnight and wake up at 3 or 4. Compared to that I think I am very lazy. “For Dutch standards I work a lot but for American standards I don’t. So, I wake up at 7 – ish. Sometimes I wake up a little bit early but not too often. I used to come out and be here at 8. Now I stay at home and first look at the emails that came in – which is a stupid thing to do, you should never do that, but that’s what I do – I put out little fires that popped up during the night and then I am here at 9. Then it’s usually meetings – a lot of meetings. Every meeting is interesting, but in the end, after having talked with 8 to 10 different people about completely different subjects and with completely different settings I am tired. “I try to walk a lot. I try to save the energy to go for a walk but that happens once or twice every week. After that I check my emails again, which is less bad because my mind is more freed then. What I plan is to be home on Tuesday mornings and on Friday afternoons, but that has not really happened this year because of the classes that just started. So on those days I can do the more experimental stuff and in the weekend – Saturday is always a very lazy day for me. September with all the classes is a very intense month for me. We have changed the bachelor classes last year, on which I have spent a lot of time. “I work but A: I don’t expect other people to work as much. And B: I hope that everybody does what they like to do. But I think that there is a bit of a culture here in Western Europe – especially in the Netherlands but also in Germany – that you are not supposed to like your work. That is not how it should be.” Any time for hobbies? That is walking. What I try to do in the weekends is going for a longer walk. What I missed this summer was a walk for four days in a row – a longer walk. Now I am looking at the calendar for dates before Christmasto find these four days. It really helps me to reset my mind a bit. I have walked the Pieterpad – which goes from North to South – and there are quite a lot of other paths that cross the country. Next time I’ll probably go to Belgium for four days.” A tour with a backpack? “Well, I have been a student but I like my comfort these days – so no tent and sleeping in the rain. I have a small backpack with clean clothes and then I walk from hotel to hotel or from B&B to B&B.” How often do you take holidays? “Not very often. Some tell me I have to do that. This year it didn’t happen really. But I do travel a lot. And what I also don’t want is to take three weeks off and sleep in a hotel. That’s what I do so often that it should be an awfully nice hotel before I’ll do that. “Last year I went to Sardinia for a week. I’ve been there when I was eighteen, and there is always a meteor shower around my birthday. It should be very dark to be able to see the meteors, and I thought Sardinia is one of those places. But over the 34 years tourism has increased a lot. Therefore it was not a success in terms of relaxing.” In Delta you also mentioned the “things you like to do most, but which are often moved to the weekend”. What are those “things you like to do most”? “There are tasks like fixing the budget and filling out forms – really administrative things. I am not particularly good at it, but of course I can do it. Sometimes there are conflict situations which take a lot of energy. There are a lot of these things that come with any job. “The happier things like coming up with a new concept or writing out an idea for a proposal I prefer to do in the weekend. It gives me energy – it does not drain energy – and it requires some uninterrupted time. I cannot write five lines now and five lines then.” About the future plans: From May onward you are going to Stanford for five months – uninterrupted – to work on the Africa project. “I’ve made a shortlist of things I would like to look at. It will be the second time I’ll go on sabbatical: five years ago I went to Switzerland. When I was asked to join a board meeting or to review something for the EU, I said: “sure, it’s my sabbatical anyways”. So the first two months of the sabbatical I was travelling all over Europe. “Now I want to focus on two major projects. One is the weather stations in Africa. A colleague – the co-director of the project from Oregon – will come to live with me and together we will iron out some stuff. The problem with your life outside of vacation and sabbaticals is that you always do the urgent things, but not the important things which are not so urgent. “The second project is the eWaterCycle project. It’s a global hydrological model for which I would like to have a better look at reservoirs and what they do. There are about 5000 big res- 27 We’ve slain the Spaniards Interview Celebrated for long ervoirs in that model, and the way they are put into the model is relatively simple: the average inflow is the outflow. I would like to see if I can do better. And there are some students working on it as well.” At what stage is the eWaterCycle project now? “There are three postdocs working on it: one in Utrecht, one in Amsterdam and one here in Delft. Officially we should have had it running on the 31st of August but we didn’t make it and everybody planned their vacation afterwards. Now we’ve planned to have something that is operational and running before Christmas. Not at the finest scale but at a fine scale: maybe five by five kilometres. “The bigger problems of the world like food and energy all have to do with water.” “It should run and be compared to satellite observations, just like setting your watch: every now and then you synchronise the model with observations. That is very difficult at such a large scale. So if these things are included I will be very happy. We are very close but still some work needs to be done before Christmas.” One of our editors, Sandra, is now in Africa for a project of Peter-Jules van Overloop and Olivier Hoes where they set up a measuring system where surveyors inspect gauges and send the data with their mobile phones. Is that the same project? “It is a different project, but it fits in the bigger picture. It’s interesting how things go. When I went to Switzerland I was thinking about the big things that we should be doing. One was that we have to measure more and the other was that we have to be better with computers. We take the data as they are, but we never go out to measure. Those are the two things that have to change. “There are a couple of new sources of data. You can make them yourself, you can use satellites or citizens can participate with their smartphones. It all fits in the same big picture.” Are those the big issues for you that have to change in the water sector, or do you think that there are more? “No, those are pretty big I can assure you! There was an opportunity at the e-science centre. This Friday afternoon I had a meeting with a bunch of scientists. They come from computer sciences astronomy, medical science (genetics) but also from humanities. While maybe we are a little ahead of the people doing literature, we are so much behind all the other guys. We just have not been paying attention. We were early adopters in computer modelling but then it just stopped. We too often say that it’s not possible or too difficult. “The guys from astronomy are working on the Square Kilometre Array with which they can make astronomy images with the highest resolution in history. They are going to produce about 10 internets worth of data. We would say: ‘that’s impossible’. But it is not impossible! They just started thinking of new ways of doing something like that by involving companies. That’s what we should be doing too.” ing. They might be able to drive independently, but he said that that will take longer than I thought. But still it’s very impressive what they all know and how they manage all these traffic streams. We should be able to do the same thing for water. “And in the Netherlands it’s quite ok, but still there is a lot of efficiency to be gained just by measuring, predicting and allocating water streams. The bigger problems of the world like food and energy all have to do with water. There is no single solution anymore, you have to go to every spot on earth and say how much water is there, what the soil characteristics are, what can grow there, what is needed and what is the best thing to do. We just need the information and we have to do that in a smart way.” The projects that you mentioned, is there any scope for students to participate? A lot! At eWaterCycle there are students looking with remote sensing at how we can say more about these reservoirs. There is room for students looking at the data-simulation side of things, and also on the TAHMO side. Even though we are in a phase in which computer sciences are more involved we still need the civil engineering background. For some students it’s more interesting than for others. I wish we could have a little more cross campus student projects. I would like students working on multidisciplinary projects to actually work with people from other faculties, but I also know it can be difficult.” We always ask if someone has advice for students, but since you’ve won the Leermeesterprijs it might be better to ask: Do you have any advice for other lecturers or professors? “… I don’t know, we have a section with two Leermeesters now… Mmm, just try to be nice to people!” S But on the water Is where we belong A pirate’s life is rough And feeling pretty numb Shiver me timbers let’s drink some more rum! While playing songs And changing the tack We hit the shore And pushed the boat back On treasure island We laid rest Started a fire And put on a vest The next morning We gave it a last try But not with the traitors Hang ‘em shoes high! Is that what you think is the future of the watersector? “What the future is I don’t know. But we are trying to make it much and much smarter than it is now. This morning I was looking at a presentation of a colleague from traffic. They know of all these cars where they are and where they are go- 28 29 Company case Rehabilitation of Canal del Dique, Colombia Canal del Dique is a 115 km long waterway, constructed in the 16th century, connecting the Magdalena River with Cartagena, Colombia’s major Caribbean port. In 1980’s the canal was reconstructed by making the canal straighter,shorter and also wider to enhance navigability. This reconstruction caused environmental deterioration of the adjacent systems of lakes and coastal coral islands and mangrove forests caused by the strongly increased water flow and sediment transport. Author: Harm Nomden Company: Royal HaskoningDHV The La Niña of 2010-2011 caused extreme flows in the Magdalena River. In November and December 2010, dikes along the Canal breached resulting in an inundation of 35,000 ha of land, loss of hundreds of lives and rendering thousands of people homeless. The Assignment In August 2013, Fondo Adaptación Colombia assigned Royal HaskoningDHV and its partner, a Colombian engineering firm Gómez Cajiao, to rehabilitate Canal del Dique. Fondo Adaptación is the public institution founded by the Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, for the reconstruction and restoration of infrastructure affected by La Niña 2010-2011 in a sustainable way, with adaptation to climate change. The scope of the Canal del Dique project is to design and implement the project, providing an integral solution optimized for the requirements of flood safety, navigation, agriculture and socio-environment. For the first time in Colombia’s history, navigation locks and flow and sediment control structures will be conjoined within an integrated water resources and flood control project. Work in progress The project activities, started in August 2013, are in full swing now. Upon request from Fondo Adaptación, preparation of temporary protection works was done earlier to provide as quickly as possible safe conditions to the inhabitants of villages flooded in 2010. Dikes are inspected to find weak spots, designs are being made, tender documents for the temporary protection works are finalized, and the civil works are expected to begin as soon as possible. In the meantime, a large team of Dutch and Colombian specialists has been working on the planning study which will prepare a permanent, integral solution, following principles of Integrated River Basin Management. Extensive surveys focusing on ecology, hydraulics, hydrology and social aspects have been done and baseline studies for the Environmental Impact Assessment have just been finished. A modelling team of Royal HaskoningDHV worked together with experts of Deltares on complex hydro-morphological models. At this moment these models are used to evaluate different alternatives. The preferred alternative will be presented in early 2015; this will be followed up by detailed design. The importance of this project is immense, as Roelof Moll, Royal HaskoningDHV’s Project Director, explains: “Our work to design and support realization of effective water and sediment management measures will help save lives and businesses, by preventing and mitigating the extensive damage by flooding, as well as protecting the people living along the Canal del Dique, this project will safeguard the natural environment and benefit the economy of Cartagena by boosting trade at its ports.”S The consultancy services include an extensive data collection (a.o. 1000 km2 Lidar topography, thousands of kilometres of bathymetric surveys, flow and sediment measurements, installation of hydrographic stations, collection of environmental data); environmental impact assessment studies supported by modelling of water flow, salinity, sediment transport and inundation using 1D, 2D and 3D models of the Canal and adjacent lakes, the Magdalena River and the coastal zone; planning and design of restoration measures; environmental impact assessment; inspection and reparation of dikes; design of regulation structures and river training works; technical assistance and supervision of construction works. 30 31 Maputo: run, sanitation system, RUN! Welcome to Maputo, the noisy, growing, dusty, lively and expanding capital of Mozambique. Discovering and getting used to the city in the first days was quite easy. And funny! Thanks to Stefan and Odilia (there for their TU Bachelor Thesis) and our flat mates. Maputo has been my house for three months, while I was working on my additional thesis about the central waste water treatment plant of the city. The population of Maputo, of about 1.100.000 inhabitants, is growing and more than half of the population of Mozambique has no access to improved water resources. This water shortage is worsened by increasing salt intrusion. Moreover the quality of the sanitation is poor. The water resources and the sanitation system have to be improved to be able to guarantee fresh water and health. The project Sustainable Freshwater Supply in Urbanizing Maputo, involving among others TU Delft, UNESCO-IHE, University Eduardo Mondlane, Vitens-Evides International, Royal HaskoningDHV, Waterschapsbedrijf Limburg, IRC (International Water and Sanitation Centre) and FIPAG (Fundo de Investimento e Património de Abastecimento de Água - Asset Holding Body for Water) is focused on wastewater reuse to alleviate both problems. The central plant of Maputo treats at least 10.000 m3 of wastewater per day biologically in sedimentation lagoons and part of this water is already reused by farmers in the area. There I could take a look at how the treatment plant works and how it is managed. With observations and interviews I also analyzed the actual agricultural water reuse and the present water quality problems regarding safety of vegetable consumption and working conditions, salinization of the fields and crop productivity. Of course, not everything went smoothly & nicely. But I`ve learned a lot from my experiences. A small compilation for you: • I will not go into details, but wash the vegetables and fruit very very VERY well before eating them. • “Yes, it will be ready on Monday” does not mean necessarily “Yes, it will be ready on Monday”, but it can mean “See you in two weeks” or “Nope, never”. • Travel on the small busses (chapas) of Maputo is interesting and mysterious. Interesting because you can talk with the other passengers (when there is enough space to be able to breathe&talk). • Be prepared when you take malaria prevention pills. They can give you stomach ache and make you grumpy for a couple of hours. • A lot of people do not speak English, but sign language does miracles. • Gazelle meat tastes better with xima than with rice. Project abroad Author: Irene Caltran Unfortunately during my staying in Maputo it was not possible to obtain reliable laboratory results for the water quality parameters. But by studying the wastewater treatment plant I could for instance conclude that: • Inexpensive measures can be implemented to improve the operation of the plant, its monitoring and safety, for instance by cleaning the hydraulic structures, removing excess vegetation, record regularly temperatures and climate conditions, fencing the treatment area and providing basic safety equipments to the water operators. • The load to the system seems to become critical. Therefore more capacity is needed with changing in the system layout and treatment steps. • It is possible to take more advantages from the treatment plant: more water can be reused than now (for instance by farmers that irrigate with higher-saline groundwater) and fertilizers, biogas or electric energy can be produced. There is still a lot of work to do for the project! If you are looking for a challenging subject for you thesis, additional thesis, etc. take a look at the project website: http://sustainablewatermz. weblog.tudelft.nl/ S 33 Important message!!! Cookie break DIY-guide Since the cookie breaks have started again, I thought it would be a good idea to give some simple instructions. For the best result, follow these instructions carefully! 1. Pick up a cookie with your right hand (left hand if you are left-handed). Please ensure that your thumb is placed on top of the cookie and the two fingers next to your thumb are placed under the cookie and to the left of your thumb (right if you are left-handed). Tip: Select a cookie that is light enough that you can lift it with one arm, yet not so small that you need a magnifying glass to see it. Author: Dr. Anonymous 2. Take hold of the cookie with your left hand (right hand if you are left-handed) as well. Please ensure that the thumb of your left (right) hand is placed on top of the cookie and the two fingers next to your thumb are placed under the cookie and to the RIGHT (LEFT) of your thumb.You should now be holding the cookie in both your hands. 3. Gently and simultaneously move your two thumbs downwards and the two times two fingers next to your thumbs upwards. Continue until you hear a cracking sound. 4.You should now hold two half cookies instead of one complete cookie. If not, have your ears checked. 5.You can find the cookie break between the two halves in the space where there is nothing. If you have mastered the art of breaking a cookie on your own, you can go on to the next level and try to break a cookie with someone else. It works best if you select a left-handed person when you are right-handed and vice versa. If even this is easy for you, try using your feet. Success! S Bhagirath Bhagirath was a great king who was accredited with bringing Ganga to earth from the heavens. To honour this, Ganga is also known as Bhagirathi. Technically he is more of a mythological water figure than historical water figure. Bhagirath was a descendant of King Sagara who had 60000 sons. He chose to perform a ritual to ascertain his undisputed supremacy on all kingdoms. A horse was set free to roam through every kingdom. If a king does not pledge allegiance to Sagara, he should capture the horse. This leads to the war and if Sagara wins, the horse is freed to roam through the rest of the kingdoms. One day, the horse was lost. Sagara ordered his sons to bring back the horse. They searched for it and finally found him tied next to the Sage Kapila, who was meditating at the time. Legend has it that God Indra tied the horse there to disturb Kapila’s meditation. Indra often did that to stop these sages from becoming too powerful. Nevertheless, the princes condemned sage Kapila, called him a thief and attacked him. When the sage opened his eyes, his immense power and anger turned the princes into ashes. When Anshuman, the grandson of Sagara came looking for his uncles, Kapila told him that the only way for his uncles to achieve salvation and their souls to ascend to heaven is by bringing Ganges water to their ashes. Ganges till then only flowed in the heaven with such immense flow that it was considered impossible to bring it to earth. The subsequent kings tried to bring Ganges to earth but could not manage to do so while carrying out the administrative duties. Meanwhile, the curse took its toll resulting in an increase in crime and natural disasters. When Bhagirath finally ascended the throne, the situation was beyond control. He abdicated the throne and started meditating (Tapasya) to gods to bring down 34 Ganges from heavens. It is believed he prayed for 1000 years to lord Brahma. Finally he appeared and granted him a wish.When he asked Brahma to bring river Ganges to earth so that he may perform the final rites for his ancestors, Brahma suggested him to pray to lord Shiva as only he was capable of breaking Ganga’s fall to earth thereby saving earth from destruction. Bhagirath prayed to lord Shiva while abstaining from food and water. Shiva was compassionate and appeared after just 1 year and told Bhagirath that he should not have to do Tapasya for such a noble goal. He assured Bhagirath that he would make Ganga fall on his matted locks and save the destruction due to the force of water. Finally Ganga flowed down to earth. Bhagirath and other observers were terrified of the roar and volume of water coming down, but Shiva kept his promise. Ganga finally passed over the ashes of Bhagirath’s ancestors and the curse was lifted. Though Bhagirath’s story is mythological, it is still a great inspiration to anyone who seeks to do something noble despite overwhelming odds. S Historical water figure Author: Pradeep Rathore Article from Druppeltje Field trip Luxemburg 2002 The following is an article an old Druppel (june 2002), formerly know as the ‘Druppeltje’. The readers who just finished their fieldwork before summer might notice that things don’t change that much. Back in the days the druppeltje was written in Dutch. In order to make this look into the history of the dispuut accessible to all our readers, we give you a (literal) translation of one of its articles: Author: Joris Meijerink Transalation: Thibaut Visser 36 After a lot of advertisement for the fieldwork-practicum in Luxemburg (read, 2 study-credits and one week of play in the fields of Luxemburg), for the second and third year students, more than 20 people were present at the briefing for what we would actually do there. Most of the people present were 4th and 5th year students, but there were even older students present as well. We came together on the morning of May 8th, at the lab of sanitary engineering. At nine we left with two vans and a few cars and arrived on the camping FuusseKaul four and a half hours later. When the less fast cars crossed the finish as well, we went on looking for our accommodation for the coming week. We could choose between camper trucks or ‘rent-a-tent.nl’s. Luckily I was already quite prepared and left my usual outdoor gear at home. When everyone had found a tent-group and had installed their gear, we came together in ‘the basement’. The basement was an underground space which we used to eat our breakfast, temporarily store beer, work with our test results, and as laboratory to look at flowers and bees and do the occasional chemical experiments. After a short introduction to the planning of the week, we went out towards the dam, our second basecamp from which we explored the catchment area. On the dam we installed a couple of measurement equipment for meteo-data and had a quick exploration of the surroundings. Afterwards we went back to the campsite for some final decorations and prepare a meal out of our food rations. When on the next morning all the students were out of their bed again, after not enough sleep and to much Diekirch beer, we went back to the catchment-area. Today we would map the catchment. The group was split into two and with the help of GPS, sextant, camera, map and an analogue device to measure distance we explored the whole surroundings. At the end of the day we went back into the basement to elaborate our data for the map, which only one group was able to finish that evening. This was group number one, who would go only for quantity, not quality, for the rest of the week. Finally we ended the day with the already familiar tradition of ‘tent hangen’ and tasting the local beers. The beer was tested on quality, which was good. At the same time we looked at the effects of large quantities on human beings. At the moment of testing the conclusion was that the effects were comparable to normal beer. The next morning the troubles with getting up and the bright sunlight were doable. The next four days were filled with the execution of different experiments, like drilling of holes (which was raised to a true art by Patrick and I), collecting meteo-data, determining soil moisture profiles, permeability of the soil, dis- Field Research in Mozambique It has already been some time, but my trip to Mozambique is still clear in my mind. About a year ago I went to Mozambique to do some field research for my final thesis. In this article I would like to share some of my experiences with you.The problem of doing that is that we are in a different position. I am the writer and you are the reader. So, I define what you can read. However, if it is not interesting enough, you won’t even read this sentence, but you are already looking at some pictures of the last events. I will tell you some of my experiences in a couple of short sections. charge of the river and creeks and the water quality with the help of the macro fauna and chemical analyses. During the evenings few ample attempts were made to integrate with the ‘locals’. For this we found a disco on crawling/ dragging distance of the camp site, and raided the city Luxemburg. Unfortunately it was hard to find a bar there that suited everyone, so the group split up into smaller groups. This way we made a few detours. Eventually we asked a local for a bar/ disco with not to expansive beer. When we told him about the bars we already visited, it appeared that Hugo, our guide for that evening, brought us to a gay bar. That explained all the interested looks… When we eventually arrived in the bar that was nice, the other groups were already there. But it was not all fun and festivity. Before the last day every group had to give a presentation about the experiments that were conducted. Especially for this event, professor Savenije came over from the Netherlands and a few experts from Luxemburg were invited. The evening before the presentations all the students were working until the early mornings on their final conclusions. Luckily there is always someone who sees the light, thank you very much Wouter. Unfortunately not always the correct light, but at least there was something to say during the presentation. After the presentations a few rewards were given to different people. Noteworthy are the reward of best guide which went to Wouter, and the one for the most stupid remark which was won by Berry.S Preparation Going to another continent for the first time in your life is not always easy. The trip should be well prepared in order to do the right measurements. I already knew I wanted to make a rainfall runoff model, but what are the possibilities in five weeks to measure. Of course rainfall and water levels are possible, but what else. Anyway, I went to Schiphol on the 20th of January with a suitcase full of clothes and measurement devices and the adventure began. People When I arrived in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, I felt lonely. But after a while these feelings disappeared. I met with professor Juizo from the University of Maputo and he told me some things about his country. A couple of days later his uncle gave me a ride in the direction of Xai Xai, my final destination. Also in Xai Xai the people where friendly. I could stay on a farm in my own small house and there were always people around. The only problem was the language. I don’t understand a word of Portugese and the other way round they didn’t understand English. But with hand and face gestures it was possible to make myself clear. Graduation project measurements, based on the floating bottle method, I had enough information to make my model. Finalizing Back in the Netherlands you always realise you did not measure enough. However, it was possible to make a model. Based on the outcome I wrote a report and on the 25th of August I graduated. End good, all good. S Author: Arjan de Kloe Measurements From the water board in Mozambique I could borrow a motorbike. With this motorbike I went into the catchment to do my measurements. Driving a motorbike was new for me, so it took me a while to investigate the catchment. But every day I checked my three rain gauges and I took water samples to do an isotope analysis. With water level measurements done by divers and discharge 37 Sudoku Puzzles Solutions previous issue Nonogram: Big Water Management puzzle: Visionary responses to global water challenges Water Ambition and Imagination We live in a complex world, shaped and challenged by water. Royal HaskoningDHV understands these challenges and works with our clients to create solutions. n Continuing to achieve economic growth in changing times, using water as a driver for growth and resilient communities n Designing our cities of the future to be Water Smart, with the hydro-social environment in balance n Creating Water Security and Resilience through integrated management of extreme events to deal with both floods and droughts n Connecting water infrastructure needs with investment opportunities Sudoku: n Harnessing water as a resource and a sustainable energy source n More efficient water use for agriculture through technical and institutional solutions, to provide “more crop per drop” n Reducing our water footprint and making a step-change from eco-efficient towards eco-effective water use Contact us about helping to deliver your water challenges and visions. royalhaskoningdhv.com 39 Retouradres: Dispuut Watermanagement Stevinweg 1, k. 4.74 2628 CN, Delft The Netherlands The Big Water Management Puzzle a=o 1 2 3 at=ed 4 5 6 e=i t=d 7 8 9 Dear Water Managers, This time the committee had to make the puzzles of all puzzles without the help of Sandra. But we tried our best and hope you will be able to enjoy the result, if you can find it. Each image holds a cryptical meaning of the word. The answers to the last puzzle can be found on the previous page. Maybe it will help you to understand the way to solve the puzzle. Enjoy!