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Kingdom of Elephants Marches On
2008-08-04
Laos was once called the Kingdom of the Elephants. The majestic elephant has always been associated with Laos Royalty and many revere its links to divinity. It was valued for its courage in warfare carrying Laos Princes to victories in epic battles. In modern times the elephant’s status has fallen off to a mere beast of burden, used to haul massive loads and cargo from spot to spot. Perhaps recalling a more dignified era, once a year at a special festival, the King would climb onto a dais and publicly thank the elephants for their work during the previous year. The elephants would stand on parade, their trunks swaying gently in appreciation.
Today, the elephant is still a symbol of the nation, but its role has been usurped by two-lane roads and highways – and the ever-present truck. Elephants didn’t need roads, they just crashed through from A to B. But many of the access ways they regularly pounded into tracks, became used by humans - and the origin of some of today’s roads that lead
to trade and commerce in the bigger towns.
The elephant was a highly sustainable method of transport haulage. If trees or rocks blocked the tracks, a few steady shoves by the mighty beast and its awesome trunk quickly solved the problem.
But times have changed. The economically deprived Lao people, who live in one of the poorest nations in Asia, are now themselves, forging into the 21st century via a new system of roads and highways linking its mainly rural population of six million with markets, schools and healthcare - and also with the wider Asian community. The majority of this network is being built with aid and loans from donor countries and organisations.
But the Lao are learning that there is a downside to modern roads. Oddly enough, most international assistance for Laotian transport, as in Cambodia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, has been for road building, not upkeep - even though the locals often don’t have the capacity or budget to carry out the maintenance work. When questioned on this recently, a World Bank official was quoted as saying: “This is a common approach of donors. The money is for building roads, not to maintain or upgrade the old ones.”
This oversight is now being addressed by the British Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) South East Asian Community Access Program (SEACAP). SEACAP spends its money on research into providing rural transportation solutions that use local resources, people and know how. In Laos, a focus is also placed on training public authorities, engineers, consultants and university students on how to adapt local resources and techniques to repair the many sections of roads washed away every wet season.
Recently, SEACAP prepared a feasibility report on the capacity of the Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT), National University of Laos and provincial transport authorities to carry out soil and slope stabilisation work on roads affected by landslides. Early this month, officials from MPWT, provincial transport departments and SEACAP met to discuss the findings.
“Landslides are a major obstacle to rural transport,” Professor Nhinxay Visane from the National University said. “Even though we have companies to maintain the roads, it always takes days to clear landslides. This means farmers can’t get to markets and children can’t get to school.”
The study is aimed at finding local, low-cost and proven solutions to the way erosion is tackled, but using local resources so that repair work can be carried out quickly and efficiently by local authorities and local workers using equipment they have at hand. It involves Lao engineering students, so that future road builders will have a better understanding of what is involved.
Student engineers from the National University of Laos recently visited SEACAP 21 project sites in Kasi district, Vientiane province, to see how hillsides are being reinforced to prevent erosion. They are learning practical approaches to the real-life engineering problems they will encounter when they graduate.
SEACAP 21 is working on a two-phase approach to supporting hillsides. The first involves planting locally sourced seeds to provide vegetation that will bind the slopes together and draw excess water through transpiration. The second uses more conventional civil engineering approaches to reduce landslips.
“Many of the erosion problems in Laos are not deep seated, so we can consider using bio-engineering methods that are more sustainable,” said SEACAP consultant Gareth Hearn, who presented arguments for developing a three-year, road renewal project to round off the whole Laotian approach to the roadside erosion and landslide problem.
Hearn and his SEACAP 21-002 study, examined 1,100km of roads and introduced a new measuring standard to assess the risk and severity of possible landslides. “We focused on establishing an index so we could then assess risk. Risk is, after all, the means by which we make engineering decisions,” Hearn said. “Unfortunately, we had to start from scratch as there wasn’t much data available on rainfall and landslides in Laos.”
The DFID-funded report assessed a 1,500 square metre landslide blocking a national road for three hours to cost the Lao economy $8,150, while a six-hour halt costs $33,000.
Preparing
Hearn said the road study confirms that just building new roads can trigger or accelerate instability. “To ensure that there is enough expertise and resources for an effective, slope-stability management program, it is essential that sufficient numbers of experts are available throughout the nation with skills to identify potential trouble areas, to list them according to risk and provide a selection of treatments, to monitor problem areas, to design slope stabilisation and protection measures – and to carry out any work required.”
The study assessed the technical and economic issues to prepare a slope-management program. The three main options are to.-
1. Change the ways in which roads are designed and built in mountainous areas. This would involve a much greater analysis of potential slope instability during the road design phase.
2. Set up a pro-active slope-management program that seeks to prevent landslides from occurring. This could involve extensive use of slope-drainage structures to minimise landslide risk; widespread use of low-cost slope-protection measures, such as bio-engineering; and judicious use of heavy, slope-retaining structures in places where major problem can reasonably be predicted – such as at deep road cuttings or where there is long-term undercutting by streams.
3. A reactive slope-management program that responds to slope failures along the lines being tested by the SEACAP 21 research project.
While the majority of engineering graduates in Laos hold an undergraduate degree and have become competent highway engineers, very few have received more than basic training in geotechnics or any other form of engineering related to slope stabilsation.
This is why funding is needed for the next step in the program. Protecting road systems from landslides will ensure that the economic benefits of road building, including the many that have already been built with aid money, continues to improve the lives of the rural poor in Laos, who comprise about 60 per cent of the nation’s population.
Upgrading
The upgrading of Route 13, for instance, a two lane-highway that runs from Vietiane, the administrative capital, to Luang Prabang, the old royal capital, has had a huge and exciting impact on the lives of rural people. Rural-urban trade has risen sharply, bringing a measure of prosperity to people who count themselves lucky if they own one buffalo.
This modernisation of the old roads and tracks that date back to the time when elephants were the dominant means of heavy transport has already helped lead to a decline in rural poverty in Laos.
Ensuring that the Lao people continue to make real progress is now the name of the game. It is a noble objective, and one that, with a little bit of extra help, is within reach.About SEACAP 21:
SEACAP 21 is organised into two phases. The first undertakes research focused on bio-engineering - a process which looks to use the planting of locally sourced seeds to combat erosion. The second phase examines a variety of civil engineering techniques. Both phases place a premium on using locally sourced labour, maintenance and materials.
The project is being jointly-funded by the Lao Government, DFID and the World Bank.
More Information: http://www.seacap-info.org/?mod=home&act=pdesc&pid=22
Contact:
David Salter
Manager DFID/SEACAP
Email: davidsalter@online.com.kh
