Hello again,
Before I forget, the plane into Niamey goes right over the middle of the site when the wind is northerly so keep an eye out those of you coming over. You’ll fly over the river, cross a road and ours is the next.
A3 colour printer now working as is the scanner at last so we can print/scan and email to our hearts content. Except when the NZ server goes down as it did on Sunday and then we have nothing.
Things tick along here quite well at the moment. I have met with 3 contractors and received concrete pricing and pricing for levelling and siteworks, including chopping down about 75 trees.
For this we need permission from the ministry to commence work and to pull out the trees, though this didn’t take nearly as long as it would under the RMA.
I asked, they said yes, so off we go.
They need to know a start date as they’re keen to get the Minister and TV/press along to have a small project commencement ceremony like we attended for the pastoral programme.
The ministry also now have all the drawings (which turned up from GHD on a courier on Monday, but without the intro letter which I printed off here) and we should be ready to go next week once price/contract is agreed, and David has made sure we have the cash of course.
Good to see that courier works here- the couriered docs came via DHL, not sure when they were sent but have a feeling it would have been about Tuesday last week. Maybe someone could check with Robert.
The site offices are nearly done, the aircon is in and working and we have some basic furniture- see the first photo. We started installation of the internet connection (like whoosh with a big roof aerial- be interesting to see how well it works) which is good as it will mean I can work from there instead of coming to the client office which is right across town.
The gates are hung on one of the back entranceways- see second photo, though we discovered that either the main entranceway was built too narrow or the gates were made a little too big. Either way, the gap between the posts was extended slightly (only needed 30mm) and the gates slotted in perfectly. The barbed wire is about half done as well.
The 3rd and 4th photo show the compound in the north eastern corner of the site. This is the area we’ll use to store things as it can be secured separately from the rest of the site. We are awaiting on confirmation that our security will be done by a combination of army and private. Per shift, we’re looking to have 2 armed soldiers and 4 guards so we’ll see how this works out.
It’s been pretty hot this week- up to about 45 degrees, so walking around the site after about 1 in the arvo becomes somewhat uncomfortable. Mind you, it’s not exactly chilly in the mornings either!
Finally, some interesting facts about Niger for those who are interested. I got this off the US peace corps website- there were hoard of them on my plane out here so I thought I’d have a look to see what they do.
Niger's harsh climate, geographic isolation, lack of natural resources, environmental degradation, and rapid population growth (3.6 percent annually) make it one of the world's poorest countries, ranking 177 out of 177 on the 2005 United Nations Human Development Index.
(The latest report has them at 175 but this is because other countries have got worse not because Niger is any better)
The per capita GDP in 2003 was $185. All of Niger's economic and social indicators are grim. The following indicators are from a UNFPA report released in 2005:
Per 1,000 children born, 255 die before their fifth birthday.
Only Fifty-one percent of school-age children attend primary school.
Only Twenty-seven percent of the population over age 15 is literate.
Only Forty-six percent of households have access to potable drinking water.
Forty percent of children under five are below normal weight; 20 percent are emaciated.
The ethnic groups represented in Niger are Hausa (56 percent), Djerma (22 percent), Fulani (8.5 percent), Tuareg (8 percent), and several others. More than 90 percent of the population is Muslim. Adherents of Islam in Niger tend to be more moderate and tolerant than the fundamentalists who often make headlines in the Western media.
French is the official language. It is widely spoken in urban areas and commonly used in government offices, international and nongovernmental organizations, and the media. However, there are a number of other national languages such as Hausa, Djerma, Fulfulde, Tamashek, and others—each tending to predominate in different regions.
Niger is a large country with a very hot and dry climate. The northern two-thirds of its territory lie within the Sahara Desert, and most of its 12 million people live in the semi-arid zone across the southern third of the country known as the Sahel. About 80 percent are subsistence farmers and herders who use the same production techniques that have been practiced for hundreds of years, while the rest live in Niamey (the capital, a city of about 1 million people) and a few towns, such as Maradi, Zinder, Agadez, Tahoua, Dosso, and Diffa.
Increasing population pressure on the limited amount of arable land and a prolonged dry cycle over the past four decades have resulted in severe loss of vegetative cover (grasses, shrubs, and trees) and an accompanying decline in soil fertility. Desertification, the process of land degradation associated with the gradual southward creep of the Sahara, has affected a substantial area in Niger. Despite extensive development efforts, Niger suffers from periodic droughts and famines and is barely self-sufficient in food production even in relatively good years.
That’s all for now gents,
Over and out.
Patrick
