Most of us consider a clean, accessible, and infinite supply of water a normal part of our day, if not a fundamental human right. With a turn of the tap, clean, safe drinking water is available.
A multi-million-dollar water and sewerage infrastructure project has resulted in access to a reliable, clean water supply and sewerage system for Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) personnel who work and train at the Goldie River Training Depot and their family members who live in the married quarters.
Warrant Officer Class Two (WO2) Paul Thornhill, a works supervisor from the 12th Chief Engineer Works (12CEW) in Brisbane, is working alongside project engineers and fellow works supervisors to oversee the construction of the PNGAus Partnerships’ Potable Water Infrastructure Works at the depot.
“Right now, there is no reliable water supply for the depot, and the underground services are asbestos-cement and have collapsed in certain places, so they leak,” WO2 Thornhill said.
“The residents have a 60-year-old water system, which is in a poor state of repair after exceeding its design and service life.”
Before the works began, a failing water pump station pumped water from the Goldie River to a staging tank, which was chlorinated and stored. The water was then gravity-fed to the depot facility and the community but depended on adequate river water levels.
Soldiers and family members bathe and wash their clothes in the river and, in some instances, use buckets of water to flush toilets, so works supervisor WO2 Bryan Griff of 12CEW said the existing system was no longer fit for purpose.
“The soldiers and families didn’t have any water for two years because the river level was too low,” WO2 Griff said. “We wanted to provide the PNGDF with a robust water supply system that was low maintenance and standalone.”
In late 2022, WO2 Griff deployed to PNG to oversee phase one of the works, drilling bores to generate a reliable water source.
“To meet the projected population for 2036 in the design consultancy assessment, we had to find an appropriate bore yield through multiple groundwater sources,” WO2 Griff said.
“The depot now has four working bores along the river and three additional bores drilled in reserve.
“We wanted to provide the PNGDF with a robust water supply system that was low maintenance and standalone, with zero brown-out options, so we designed a hybrid system run off solar with mains supply as a back-up.”
Schoolchildren and local community members were invited to decorate the exterior of the one-mega-litre staging tank installed at the back of the depot’s officers’ mess with colourful handprints before the next phase of work began.
“Two more phases are in the pipeline at the moment, including a sewerage network,” WO2 Thornhill said.
“By mid-2025, we’ll have installed a water tap next to the 120-plus houses in the married quarters and at the community school.
“Fire hydrants will also be installed in both the operations and accommodation precincts.
WO2 Griff added: “We’re not hydraulic engineers, but we’re relied upon for our autonomy during our three-month deployments and being able to achieve the end goal, which includes supporting our Pacific partners in construction certification and approval processes.”
