All people in the longhouse were participated in the project including women. They participated in carrying construction materials to the site such as sand, boulders and cement. They assisted in building a dam and installing of penstock and electrical cable. Sometimes they help to plan and lead the work at the site. They also helped to encourage people in the longhouse to participate in all activities.
Aquaculture within the reservoir will implemented as the sale of harvested fish will be channelled to a community fund to maintain the microhydro. Each household will also contribute towards this maintenance fund as a minimal charge will be applied according to the usage of electricity provided.
The micro hydro has an average of 8000 m3 of reservoir that can be used for aquaculture. The dam was designed to have a minimum depth of 1.5 m. It allows minimum water for aquaculture during dry season. An amount of 20,000 fish fry had been released into the reservoir in January 2014. A
good quality fish with less muddy smell is expected. Approximately the reservoir of the micro hydro system will produce an annual income of USD27,000 from its aquaculture. Some of the income will be used for micro hydro maintenance and the capital for next circle of the business. The balance of
the income will be distributed among the families in the longhouse.
Policy Influence
For the future planning, The Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association is interested to combine GEF / SGP
grant with other possible grants such as Yayasan Rakyat 1 Malaysia and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOSTI). In fact, one feasibility study of micro hydro project in one of Batang Ai areas have been presented to MOSTI. The reason for the combining fund is to build bigger micro hydro system that can produce more electrical power.
Notable Community Participation
Project participants are the families at Tapang Pungga Longhouse, with the headman at the longhouse heading a committee that will monitor the project on a daily basis. The local community's participation in imminent throughout various stages of the project including planning and design, installation and implementation. Upon completion of the building of the micro-hydro system, the maintenance will be the responsibility of the local community.
Capacity - Building Component
The micro hydro project had taught the community about the importance of their environment and the micro hydro system. They are aware of the importance of vegetation conservation surrounding their reservoir. The trees surrounding the reservoir are needed to avoid soil erosion. They understood that the water in the catchment must be free from pollution for their micro hydro system sustainability. They have learnt that renewable energy is a clean energy that can reduce their
financial burden on fuel. The awareness of environmental conservation is learnt automatically when they think about to sustain their micro hydro and when they think about the price of the fuel that they used to pay.
The community have learned to construct, install, and maintain the micro hydro system from the technical personnel’s and by doing the job. In the dam construction, they learned about structural drawing, grouting, steel bar placing, concrete mix, and concrete placing. They learned to install hdpe penstock using butt?fusion machine. They also learned from electrician how to do cabling and house wiring. The briefing on turbine and electrical controller has been conducted for a few times during the project implementation. This is important for the community to do operation and maintenance of the system. Overall, the community have knowledge on the concept and principal of the micro hydro system. They will be the skilled workers or supervisors for the future micro hydro projects.
Planning non gef grant
The micro hydro through SGP project provides new initiatives and opportunities to the target group.
A grant from Shell Malaysia was obtained in 2013. The grant was used to finance fish farming project in the micro hydro reservoir. The dam was designed to hold a minimum of 2 meters depth of reservoir. The average volume of reservoir is about 8000 m3. It can accommodate plenty of fish at
one time. Fish Cages are not necessary. Thus, the cost of fish farming in the reservoir is minimized.
Policy Impact
The project by SGP has a few impacts. There is an impact on Rural Electrification Supply (RES) policy
Ministry of Rural and Regional Development in developing electricity supply to the rural areas. The
talks with Parliament member during his visit to the project site suggesting that Ministry of Rural
and Regional Development should do more similar project in rural of Sarawak. All micro hydro
projects by SGP in Sarawak have an impact on the policies of electricity distribution in rural areas
and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The Yayasan Rakyat 1 Malaysia was form to run community
using CSR money from companies. One of the focus projects by the Yayasan Rakyat 1 Malaysia in
Sarawak are micro hydro projects.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The project has reduced money spending on fuel. Each household used to spend USD7 per day for
generator. Now they can save USD7 per day for not buying fuel for their generators. They also have
reduced their frequency going to the town for some needs thus, reducing their spending on fuel for
outboard engine that they use to go to the town. For example, they do not go to the town as
frequent as before for fresh food because now they can use refrigerator to store their food longer.
They spend about USD50 per trip for the outboard engine fuel. The project helps to reduce the trips to the town, thus, reducing the money they spent on fuel.
There are 12 school children in the longhouse. One is in Upper?six secondary school. The project
brings light to these school children at night for them to have more studying time. Micro hydro
creates better learning environment for these school students by having fan and without noise from
the generator sets. The project facilitates them with power for their computer. It is a big step to
bring IT to the longhouse people. The project also helps to power devices such as television and
radio. With the devices they are able learn and gain knowledge like urban people. Indirectly, the
project facilitate learning environment and provide knowledge to the community.
Light at night from the micro hydro system increases the time for the community to do work and
also to do preparation for the next day’s work. One of the economic activities at night is doing
handicraft such rattan mat and weaves. Thy sell their product to the town and to the tourists. A
popular Iban weaves is a ceremonial cotton cloth called ‘pua kumbu’. A price of a piece of ‘pua
kumbu’ can reach up to USD400. To complete one piece of ‘pua kumbu’ takes a few weeks
sometime months. A light at night reduces the time to complete one piece of ‘pua kumbu. They also
use light at night time to prepare the tools they use for daily work such as preparing fishing net and
sharpening knife for rubber tapping.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
The project promotes public awareness of global environment by using renewal energy and reducing fuel consumption. The project attracted the public by knowing that the community that involve in the project have saved their money by using clean and free energy. The public is also attracted by the fact that if they want to sustain the micro hydro system they have do environmental conservation surrounding the reservoir.
Awareness had been promoted to the public through visits from people surrounding longhouse and government bodies. Global environment awareness was also established among the SDGA members and through 3 local newspapers namely Sarawak Tribune, The Boneo Post and The STAR.
Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples
The target group or the longhouse people are Iban, one of the indigenous people of Borneo. They
directly participated in the project from the start until the maintenance work. The indigenous people
from a few nearby longhouses also did hand a help to the project. They handed help in doing
material transportation and construction. The project grantee is Sarawak Dayak Graduates
Association which is an indigenous people’s NGO. Twenty two indigenous people in the association
directly involved in the project.
A few visits to the project site had been made by indigenous people from government bodies; inland
fisheries, information department and indigenous people Parliament member. The objective of the
visits is mainly to give moral support to the longhouse community to complete the project. The
inland fisheries department came to give support and to view possibilities for future aquaculture in
the project’s reservoir. The local indigenous people Parliament member made a visit during the
construction of the micro hydro system. He gave moral support and contributed USD5,000 for the
project. The third visit was from the information department to interview the longhouse community
about the benefit of the project and to disseminate the news to indigenous people in Sarawak. The
commissioning of the project was published in newspaper that includes in indigenous people’s
language, Iban.
Replication of project activities
There are a few places for the project replication in Sarawak. At least four potential locations for replication are at Batang Ai area. The next potential micro hydro project is at Delok Longhouse which is adjacent to the completed Tapang Pungga micro hydro project supported by SGP/GEF. At this moment, a feasibility study is going on at the Delok area for similar micro hydro project.
Project Results
The construction of 4 meter tall dam was completed in August 2013. It was tested to contain
an approximately 8,000 m3 of water. Then in September 2013, a 276 m of HDPE pipe for
penstock was installed using butt-fusion machine. Installation of hard wood cable poles, high
voltage electrical cable and single-phase house wiring took place in October 2013. The
turbine and generator set was transported and installed after the completion of powerhouse
construction in November 2013. The commissioning work was done successfully in
November 2013. The system is now able to provide electrical power more than the needed
power. The storage water is abundant with continuous overflow from the top of the dam. The
Tapang Pungga micro hydro project had been successfully implemented within the time and
budget given.
Activities included
1. Preparing access to the dam site.
The access is about 600 m from the main river to the dam site. The preparation includes vegetation clearance and earth removal for steps. It took one week in July 2012 for 10 people to complete the job. The main purpose of the access is for material transportation to the dam site and it is one of dam construction activities.
2. Visit to nearby existing micro hydro.
Six longhouse people went for a visit to Ng. Spaya Micro Hydro Project in July 2012. The place is about 1 hour by engine powered longboat from Tapang Pungga longhouse. The visitors learned about the design of dam structure, penstocks, pelton turbine, electrical wiring and the maintenance. The Ng. Spaya
Longhouse leader, Mr. David Ujan briefed the visitors on how their micro hydro project was constructed. The purpose of the visit is for capacity building.
3. Constructing two storages for materials.
Two 12 ft x 12 ft storages made of timber and metal roof were constructed. The first storage is at about 300 m from the main river and the second storage is at the dam site. It took 1 week in
100% completed in 2nd July 2012 for five people to produce timber for building material and to build the storages. This work is one of the initial stages of dam construction activities. The storages are used to store building materials and tools especially cements.
4. Dam foundation
About 70 m2 area for the dam site cleared and excavated. All loose soil, organic matters and rocks were excavated using shovels. Then the area was cleaned using water. This activity is to build strong foundation for the dam. The job was done within one week in July 2012.
5 Purchase of raw material
a) Purchasing and transporting the cements
Some 286 cement bags were purchased and transported from Kuching to Batang Ai Jetty by land transport (270 km) then from Batang Ai Jetty to Tapang Pungga Longhouse by longboats (1
hour) and finally from Tapang Pungga longhouse to the dam site (1 km) by carrying. The work was completed in July 2013.
b) Purchasing and transporting the rebars.
About 2 tons rebar (Y20, Y10 and BRC) were purchased and transported from Kuching to Batang Ai Jetty by land transport (270 km) then from Batang Ai Jetty to Tapang Pungga
Longhouse by longboats (1 hour) and finally from Tapang Pungga longhouse to the dam site (1 km) by carrying. It took another week in July 2012 to complete.
c) Transporting the sand and pebbles/aggregates
A number of 2143 bags of river sand and pebbles were extracted manually from Batang Ai River and then transported to Sakum River by longboats (30 minutes). Then from the main river the
sand and pebbles were carried manually to the dam site (1 km). This is considered the toughest task because of a large amount of sand and pebbles and carrying manually the heavy load over a
long distance. The sand and the pebbles are used as part of the concrete materials for dam construction. The work was done continuously from July 2012 July 2013.
d) Transporting small boulders
A few tons of small boulders ranging from 1 kg to 15 kg weight were extracted from Sakum River and carried to the dam site. The boulders are used as part of the concrete to minimize the
usage of cement and sand. The carrying of the boulders to the dam site started in August 2012 to July 2013. This is another heavy task for the longhouse people.
6 Purchasing and transporting polyethylene pipes for penstocks.
The length of 276 m of 160 mm diameter and 18 m of 225 mm diameter of HDPE pipe were purchased and transported from Kuching to Batang Ai Jetty by land transport (270 km) then from Batang Ai Jetty to Tapang Pungga Longhouse by longboats (1 hour) and finally from Tapang Pungga longhouse to the dam site (1 km) by carrying. The transporting job was done within one week in August 2012. The pipes are for the reservoir drainage and penstocks from the dam to the turbine.
7. Butt-Fusion Machine
One unit of butt-fusion machine was purchased in September 2012. It is used for joint connection of HDPE pipes. It is non-hydraulic machine.
8. Dam construction
a) 50 holes of 0.2 m depth were drilled onto big boulder at the dam site. Then 1 meter length of Y20 rebars are cemented to the holes. The purpose is for a stronger foundation and good connection between the concrete and the existing big boulders. This was done in three days in July 2012.
b) Temporary weir and one 225 mm diameter pipe were put in place for water diversion to dry the place for construction. Then about 150 mm lean concrete was placed at about 15 m2 area.
These activities were done in one week in early August 2012.
c) The 0.5 m height formwork was erected. Then the first rebar placement work was done. The rebar Y20 and Y10 spacing is 150 mm. This pre concreting activities took about 1 week in August
2012.
d) For the first main concreting work, approximately 9 m3 volume of cement, sand and pebbles were mixed for the concrete. The dam raised 0.5 m in height. This was done in 2 days in August 2012.
e) Each concreting stage is 0.5 m height. The activities of erecting the formwork and rebar placement were repeated for the second to the fourth concreting work from August to October 2012.
Approximately 50 m3 of concrete has been placed until the height of the dam now is 2.5 m. The dam concreting is cPenstock installation
9. Laying 276 m penstocks including joint connection using buttfusion
machine was done October 2013.ompleted in August 2013. A total of about 75 m3 of concrete had been used.
10. Electrical work
Installation of hard wood cable poles, high voltage electrical cable and single-phase house wiring took place in October 2013.
11. Turbine and generator
The turbine and generator set was transported and installed after the completion of powerhouse construction in November 2013.
12. Commissioning
The commissioning work was done successfully in November 2013. The system is now able to provide electrical power more than the needed power. The storage water is abundant with continuous overflow from the top of the dam. The Tapang Pungga micro hydro project had been successfully implemented within the stipulated time and budget.
Experience, lessons learnt and issues.
1. The proposed budget for dam construction is underestimated. Therefore, the budgets for
other activities have been reduced.
2. Raw materials such as sand and boulders should be sufficient and near to the dam site.
3. The material transportation cost is high.
4. The longhouse people are happy with the project output.
5. The project brings attention to the local Parliament Member, William Nyalau. He contributed RM15,000 to the project.
6. The project brings interest to the Sarawak Energy Berhad.
7. People in other longhouses show their interest to have similar project.
8. The project also creates interest to other grant providers and local agriculture department
for fish farming project at the micro hydro reservoir.
