Competency Demonstration Report

Career Episode 2

Avinash Sapkota
C.E. 2.1 Project Introduction

Name of the project: Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of water supply schemes

Location of the project: Gorkha bazar, Gorkha, Nepal

Duration of the project: 6 months

Name of the organization: Youth society Nepal

Position occupied during the project: Engineer

C.E 2.2 Project Background

C.E 2.2.1 Characteristics of the project

The massive earthquake in Nepal (25th April, 2015) of magnitude 7.8 made a huge loss of
life and property. The study after the earthquake showed that the failure of property was because
of the material used in the construction, which did not meet the engineering standard and also the
quality of the material was not found good. So after the earthquake a giant program was
launched by rural drinking water and sanitation board Nepal funded by World Bank to maintain
all the water supply schemes in 14 districts which was affected by earthquake. A Ngo called
Youth society Nepal collaborated with rural drinking water and sanitation board Nepal,
appointing me as a main engineer. I started doing survey on every scheme and identified the
reason of the failure of the water supply schemes and made a layout and a report to proceed for
the maintenance of the water supply project.

C.E 2.2.2 Objectives developed for the project

For the successful completion of the project, we made some aim and objectives before
starting the project. This project was funded by World Bank so it should be completed within the
timeframe and the work should be reliable as well. The objectives are listed below.

1. To identify proper fittings, pipes and the material used in the construction of Reservoir
tank, collection chamber, intake etc.
 2. To promote better hygiene and sanitation activities to the villagers and tell them how to
maintain the surroundings around the supply layout.

3. To be more careful during the procurement of the pipes, fittings and the constructional
materials.

C.E 2.2.3 My area of work:

As a main engineer I first had to do the survey for all the sites that needs to be
rehabilitated and reconstructed. All the site area was inspected with the help of local peoples. I
had one of my staff as a helper. I had to cooperate will all those people in the community and I
need to visit each and every area of the water supply scheme like reservoir, source, intake, break
pressure tank etc. As I need to find out the damaged structure and pipelines affected by
earthquake. It was the project of a Non-profit organization but I was meant to inform all the local
government bodies of the respected areas so to make aware them about the ongoing work.

C.E 2.2.4 Project Group

Team leader/ Project Coordinator: Khagaraj Ojha

Water supply Engineer: Avinash Sapkota

Accountant: Dinesh Chettri

Project contractor: Youth Society Nepal (YSN)

C.E. 2.2.5 My Responsibilities throughout the Project

As, project duration was of 6 month. We broke down the time period as, 1 month for
survey in 24 water supply schemes and another 1 month for report preparation and finalization of
budget. We kept 20days for the procurement of all the materials and the remaining 2 months 10
days for the construction and maintenance phase. I started with doing all the survey of the water
supply schemes and I prepared a layout of the schemes and pointed out all those pipelines, joints,
structures that need to be maintained. I did this for all of the schemes and then later using the
work break down sheet given by Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Fund Development Board, I
estimated the required cost and required skilled and unskilled labor and submitted the report to
the board to finalize the fund. After the fund was passed, I started training and explaining all the
works that need to be carried out to the skilled and unskilled manpower available. I had to
supervise all the work and make sure that all the material is properly used for the effective result.

Photo

C.E. 2.3 Distinctive Theory

C.E. 2.3.1 Comprehending the theory of the project

GI pipes have high resistance to the high pressure of water while HDEP pipe have less
resistance of water pressure. GI pipe can resist to the fire but can corrode fast and is really
expensive as well. So, careful observation should be done to select the types of pipe in the water
supply schemes. The main factor to consider while choosing HDEP pipe is that they should be
buried inside the ground to prevent them from external environmental pressure and to protect
them from heat and fire. Reinforcement bars are used in order to increase the tensile strength in
the concrete. So, bar of 16mm size was used in the construction of reservoir tank. The
combination of reinforcement bars and concrete makes the structure really strong and in addition
to that to protect the tank Fence was added.

C.E. 2.3.2 Engineering knowledge and skills applied in the project

Using engineering skill was one of the most important factors in this project. Lots of
pipelines were damaged as they were not properly buried inside the ground. The pipeline was
strictly kept 0.9m down the earth from ground level. Also while constructing of reservoir tank,
M20 grade of concrete was used (during the college days we did the comprehensive test of the
concrete grade of M20, M15) as they have good compressive strength and high performance. A
lot of overhead structure was applied in the crossing as well to prevent the damage in the pipe.
Note: The currency used was Nepalese Rupees.

Fig: A screenshot of the breakdown estimation of Intake.

C.E 2.3.3 Accomplishment and task performed

The project was completed within the timeframe. The survey was completed in 28 days
and report preparation was done in 26 days taking 15 days for the budget finalization and
procurement was done in parallel when construction was done. In some water supply schemes
where road accessible was too far procurement was done in the beginning and materials was
stored and construction work was started. The entire project was completed like 10 days before
the estimated time and the project completion report was successfully handed to Rural Water
Supply and Sanitation fund Development Board and the community people. All the construction
work was done under my supervision and all the norms were followed according to the booklet
of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Fund Development Board. The 28 days surveying and
report preparation was a tough task because everyone wants to more of the things to be
maintained which was considered to be okay.

C.E 2.3.4 Identified issues and their solution

C.E 2.3.4.1 Issues

As I had to work with the cooperation of local people so the task was really difficult. I
have to talk with them on every issue and every maintenance activity and make them happy with
what’s going on. The worst thing was property and life loss after the earthquake so I have to be
sensitive when talking with the people as well. The site was so challenging and the source was so
far in the hills so had to struggle every time for visiting to source. There was some problem
while procurement as villagers was forcing us to get all the materials from the shop they have
contact with but we got it from right shop with appropriate price and with genuine quality.in
spite of that the increase in price of the constructional material also affected the estimated budget
so carefully all the material was procured. It was also a tough job to cooperate with un-skill
manpower as they had just little idea about the constructional task.

C.E 2.3.4.2 Solution

Out of the much unskilled manpower I choose one who was smart and then explained
him each and every small works and then it made me easier that he explained other people in
their own way so they can understand easily. For the procurement of the material, district rate list
was brought from district office and distributed to each and every shop for their quotation with
the rate. The rate of the retail shop varied from district rate but we selected the option with the
best price rate and indeed it was a good idea.
C.E 2.3.5 Plan to produce creative and innovative work

I was only the engineer in the field so I had got lots of responsibility to accomplish the
project successfully. As I got limited time as well and survey consume a lot of time I referred the
previous layout of the water supply schemes which helped me to locate the number of structure
and the pipeline used. I followed all the safety precaution from the Rural Water Supply and
Sanitation Fund Development Board. Local people really cooperated well by sending 1 people
from their family every day to make work easier and faster. They also collected the local
material like sand, rocks, aggregates etc. for the constructional activities which later helped in
reducing the cost of the constructional works. Also the older constructional material was also
collected and the good materials were reused which turned to be a good innovative.

C.E 2.3.6 Collaborative work

This project would have never been successful without the help of local people and my
team leader Khagraj Ojha. In addition to that Er Pragyan Adhikari who was an engineer from
Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Fund Development Board helped me a lot during the report
preparation and procurement. He also gave me lots of ideas during the survey via phone calls.
During the construction phase, all the skilled as well as un-skill manpower cooperated with each
other along with me and helped to run the constructional activities so smoothly within the given
time frame. I worked hard but the credit goes to everyone for the successful completion of work.
Each and every of us collaborated properly for getting the good result from the project.

C.E. 2.4 Project Review

C.E 2.4.1 Project overview

Looking at this project, it was one of the great projects from the Rural Water Supply and
Sanitation Fund Development Board after the massive Earth quake in Nepal. The project
includes field survey, Design and cost estimates of all the damaged schemes and the
reconstruction or maintenance of all the damaged structure and pipes. All the construction works
and rehabilitation work was done according to the norms of the Development Board. The starting
survey report and the final billing report were respectively forwarded to the main office. The
project was smoothly done and was completed before the dead line as I always talk with my
workers and remind them to do the work carefully and in a good pace.

C.E 2.4.2 My contribution to the work

Starting from the survey of the project to the finishing and handling of the project I tried
my best to run the project smoothly on the time. I was a single engineer during the project and I
tried my best to lead all the peoples involved during the project timeframe. I planned each and
every phase in the project which helped me to work hard and work smartly during the project.
As, per the safety requirement I advised my entire worker to wear the safety equipment like
gloves, helmet, steel cap boot in the site as per the requirement of site. Every day I talked with all
skilled and unskilled manpower about the work and remind them to finish the work in the time,
this made us easy to finish the work before deadline at the end. This was an awesome project to
help the people living in the earthquake affected area.