Huckbody Environmental Ltd

African Minerals

webmaster — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:52:18 +0000

Andy is now Environmental Manager at African Minerals

Fishermen hauling

Sierra Leone photos

webmaster — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:16:11 +0000

Another trip, a new collection of photos.

City waste management

Chameleon - separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes

Panning for gold

Night time visitor to my room

Street fruit sales

Sierra Leone

webmaster — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:35:20 +0000

Vast array of colour to see in the country

Fishermen hauling the nets, Pepel area

Head full of fresh fish, Lungi

Slippery silvers

Life is ok until someone disturbs your fun

Experienced hand at work

Smiling faces

Yellow fin Tuna for tea

Tashkent sights

webmaster — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:05:11 +0000

The city like so many in Central Asia is undergoing a facelift and modernisation. Where the old meets the new, the health and safety is always a pleasure to observe - like this renovation where the guys below were dodging the chunks of concrete generated by the jack hammers above. I particularly liked the human brick chain; 4 passes and then stack the bricks.

building site Tashkent

Uzbekistan Associated Gas CDM Project

webmaster — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:29:26 +0000

The World Bank is considering providing assistance to Uzbekneftegas for utilization of oil gas at four oil deposits under CDM mechanism. Huckbody Environmental has been commissioned by World Bank to provide the safeguards component for the project, which involves travel to Karshi in Southern Uzbekistan to carry out a site visit of the project facilities (including associated gas fields and the pipeline corridor).
How Karshi got its name
Many years ago there was a beautiful village called Nasaf. It was not a big town, it only had a castle and a king named Mahmut Ratshah. He lived with his family, and they were very happy. But one day the army of Ruzakovski came, and they wanted to take the castle of Nasaf. But the castle of Nasaf and its people were very strong, and they could not take it. The next day an even bigger army came, which was over one thousand strong.
They fought for three days and three nights, but still they could not subdue the castle. Then Ruzokovski announced. “This castle is against us. I will give it the name “Karshi”, which in the Uzbek language means against.
Long ago Karshi had many names, for example Nasaf and Behbudiy. Some people say there were seven names. Karshi is in the desert, and many people said that Karshi is Chorsu, which means in Tajik “Four waters”.

Karshi

Samarkand

Tonkolili Iron Ore Project Sierra Leone

webmaster — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:16:16 +0000

Huckbody Environmental has been commissioned by WorleyParsons and African Minerals Limited to manage the Environmental and Social Programme for this large iron ore project, which includes a 5.1 Billion tonne JORC compliant Mineral Resource reported for Numbara, Simbili and Marampon in Sierra Leone. The link below gives a video overview of the project.
Tonkolili Iron Ore Project

Old City Baku

webmaster — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:02:18 +0000

Old City or Inner City is the ancient historical core of Baku. In December 2000, the Old City of Baku, including the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and Maiden Tower, became the first location in Azerbaijan to be classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Old streets being excavated for infrastructure improvements

Kura river basin

webmaster — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:51:45 +0000

Driving across Azerbaijan last week it is clear that it is a country of contrasting landscapes. The massively oil-polluted Absheron peninsula gives way to semi-desert through the centre, before one reaches the high mountains fringing Russia that were beautifully snow-capped. Here the nature is wild with large trees of beech, oak and chestnut. Eagles soar above the trees and all is good with the world. Azerbaijan is starting to develop tourist facilities, such as the new hotel we stayed in alongside the Kura River.

Kura central Azerbaijan

They have even constructed an enclosure into which you can fish – and then have the catch cooked. Surprisingly the Kura looks inviting and light green form the underwater weed growing in its shallows. I observed a rather unusual form of night fishing by two young locals. They used 3 treble hooks centrally mounted on the rig……….very strange….. until they explained that they are trying to literally hook fish that have been stunned by the turbines of the hydropower facility upstream.
The Kura and its basin has and continues to have much international interest – financed by several organisations, particularly EU. One of my earlier projects saw me training Ministries of Environment of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan – towards river basin management. I was also an official delegate for the OSCE from Armenia to Azerbaijan many years ago – where the OSCE were trying to use international water management as a vehicle for cooperation in the hugely disputed regional conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

caspian Sea

Now another large project is ongoing – managed by a good friend of mine, with whom I used to work – see below:

Kura delta

To improve water quality in the Kura River basin through transboundary cooperation and adoption of the river basin management approach.
Project Purposes: Support development of a common monitoring and information management systems to improve transboundary cooperation in the Kura River basin; and Enhance capacities of environmental authorities and monitoring establishments engaged in long-term integrated water resources management in the Kura River basin.
The outputs from this project will come from the combined efforts of the key and non-key experts and the beneficiaries. The intended outputs have been discussed and agreed with the Project Partners during the Inception Phase, these are given below:
•Review on the baseline situation based on the data available
•Joint monitoring programme designed and agreed with the beneficiaries
•Report on the Joint river monitoring/surveys carried out in the selected locations
•Assistance provided to the national water monitoring establishments where appropriate to help to address the key concerns
•Common GIS database platform established to facilitate information management and data exchange between the project countries
•Draft basin management plans (RBMP), including tentative programme of measures, prepared for the selected pilot river basins in each project country using the EU Water Framework Directive methodology
•A proposal developed for improvements in the data structures, formats and information flows to facilitate decision making in the integrated water resources management
•Proposals developed for the future international projects to help to address priority IWRM problems in the project countries
•Beneficiary staff trained where appropriate including provision of necessary guidelines in Armenian, Georgian and Azeri languages
•Increased public awareness regarding the significant transboundary water issues in the Kura River basin
The key areas of effort are the five main project components as follows:
•Component 1: Assessments and Surveys
•Component 2: Monitoring
•Component 3: Management Information and Methodology
•Component 4: Institutional Capacity and Training
•Component 5: Public Engagement and Civil Society
Various types of wetland and delta areas can be found on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The northern section of this immense lake is encompassed by the Caspian Depression, a low-lying flatland region.
The depression, which covers approximately 200,000 kilometers² (77,220 miles²), lies at the southern end of the Ryn Desert, and is in both Kazakhstan and Russia.
The Volga River and the Ural River, which forms part of the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia, flow into the Caspian Sea through this region. The deltas of the Ural and Volga Rivers are extensive wetlands.
The fan-shaped Volga River Delta has, unfortunately, experienced significant wetland loss due to industrial and agricultural modification to the delta plain. Much of the water in and around the delta appears bright green due to algal blooms, intensified by fertilizers carried in by the river
Kura River and wetlands
In fact, studies have shown that water pollution, mostly coming from the Volga River, poses a serious threat to the biodiversity of the Caspian Depression. Water pollution is contributed mainly by industrial, agricultural, and household discharges.
The Ural River Delta in Kazakhstan has a different shape from that of the Volga: rather than a wide triangular or fan-shape, it is longer and thinner. This is called a “bird’s foot” or “digitate” delta. Such deltas are often seen on sediment-rich rivers flowing into lakes.
Much of the Caspian Depression is below the level of the sea; its lowest point is 28m (92 ft) below sea level. Its eastern region comprises large areas of marshlands. One such marshy area in western Kazakhstan is the location of the Tengiz Field, a huge source of oil.
On the western shore of the Caspian Sea, in Azerbaija, the Kura River enters the sea, discharging sediments. Onland, the dark green area in the center near the coast is swampy Gyzylaghadj State Reserve. Also called the Gizil-Agach State Reserve, it is a Ramsar Wetland that is an important wintering and nesting area for migrant, swamp and wild birds.

Kura in Georgia

Throughout the central and western area many people sell fish at the roadsides, caught from netting the massive irrigation canals.

Roadside fish sellers

Baku Port

webmaster — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:25:50 +0000

Each morning I watch the dawn break over the Caspian Sea through the heavy dirt on the hotel window. The cranes of the port appear gradually against the pale skyline, as the sun slowly rises.
Baku International Sea Trade Port was founded in 1902 and since it has always been the largest and the most important of Caspian Sea ports.

Sun rise over Baku port

From a couple of modest wooden jetties and a handful of dockers in its first days the port has been constantly developing over the century and now plays an important role in trans - Caspian trade and is the main marine gateway to Azerbaijan.

The port operates year-round and as a vital transit point in Europe-Asia trade that is being promoted within TRACECA - RESTORATION OF THE HISTORIC SILK ROUTE project.

From April to November when Russian inner waterways are navigable Baku International Sea Trade Port is accessible by ships loading cargoes for direct voyages from West European and Mediterranean ports.
With the dramatic increase in trans-Caspian oil trade volumes and enormous import to Azerbaijan various equipment for offshore oil activities over last decade the port has further strengthened its importance.
Services rendered to the users of the port include:
Dry cargo and liquid bulk handling
General and project cargoes
Container handler (stuffing/stripping)
Warehousing and storage
The Baku International Sea Trade Port is comprised of Main Cargo Terminal, Dubendy Oil Terminal, Ferry Terminal and Passenger Terminal. The port`s throughput capacity has been constantly growing and reaches up to 15 million tons of liquid bulk and up to 10 million tons of dry cargoes.

Due to its modern facilities and year-round accessibility the port maintains its competitiveness and is widely used by international traders.

Scaffolding

webmaster — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:16:26 +0000

The description below is pretty much what I recall from my NEBOSH construction H&S course – the manual never reached Azerbaijan – love the groovy curves, there is always something natural and flowing about man-made scaffold from wood or bamboo. Having said that I have watched guys all over the world perching and squatting on the boards or transoms; there are guys all over the facelift Baku doing just that.
The key elements of a scaffold are standards, ledgers and transoms. The standards, also called uprights, are the vertical tubes that transfer the entire mass of the structure to the ground where they rest on a square base plate to spread the load. The base plate has a shank in its centre to hold the tube and is sometimes pinned to a sole board. Ledgers are horizontal tubes which connect between the standards. Transoms rest upon the ledgers at right angles. Main transoms are placed next to the standards, they hold the standards in place and provide support for boards; intermediate transoms are those placed between the main transoms to provide extra support for boards. In Canada this style is referred to as “English”. “American” has the transoms attached to the standards and is used less but has certain advantages in some situations. Since scaffolding is a physical structure, it is possible to go in and come out of scaffolding.
As well as the tubes at right angles there are cross braces to increase rigidity, these are placed diagonally from ledger to ledger, next to the standards to which they are fitted. If the braces are fitted to the ledgers they are called ledger braces. To limit sway a facade brace is fitted to the face of the scaffold every 30 metres or so at an angle of 35°-55° running right from the base to the top of the scaffold and fixed at every level.

Flowing scaffold