The HydroTimor weBlog

A new man has joined the team working with the institutional cooperation program between Timor-Leste and Norway! His name is Egil Skofteland, and he comes from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate.

His main tasks will be to write the Project Document for the new period, and the development of hydrology in Timor-Leste. Hydrology will include both completing the hydrological network, establish the database and information system and training and education of people to work within this field in the future in Timor-Leste.

UPDATE: Egil has gone back to Norway, and will finish the project document there. The hydrology development has not yet started, but we hope this may happen in a not too distant future.

Photo: Basil Rolandsen (www.bouvet.info)

The Power Sector Annual Meeting between Timor-Leste and Norway was held in Dili 7th February 2008.

Photo: Basil Rolandsen (www.bouvet.info)

After opening of the meeting by the Minister of Infrastructure, Mr Pedro da Silva Lay, the meeting was headed by the Secretary of State for Electricity, Water and Urbanization, Mr Januario da Costa Pereira. The Chargée d’Affairs from the Norwegian Embassy Section in Dili, Ms Eva Irene Tuft, represented Norway together with the counsellor Mette Kottmann from the Norwegian Embassy in Jakarta.

The intention for such meetings is to discuss the progress of the cooperation between the two countries, the use of funds compared to what have been achieved and possible changes in the program for the cooperation.

The first phase of the cooperation will be completed this year.
The Annual Meeting recommended a prolongation of the cooperation for a new period of 5 years. There will be a special emphasis on hydropower and hydrology, included fulfilling of the hydrological network in Timor-Leste, and to establish a database and information system for the hydrological data.

It was further recommended that Norway should finance and carry out a Hydropower Master Plan for Timor-Leste, and a Power System Master Plan.
Norway would aim to finance the construction of the Atsabe Small Hydropower Project in Magapu river.

Support was also requested as to the legal framework, accounting principles, technical and financial reporting, and procurement.

We got as greeting from one of our readers, Gaspar, an East Timorese studying abroad. He sends his congratulations to the HydroTimor team on the web site, and says it is a good way to be updated for students. He also asks a question on a subject many may be interested in: “Can u enable your comments section so that we can give our opinion??”.

First: Thank you so much Gaspar for your greetings and nice words – much appreciated by us all! As for comments, we would love to open up for comments, really, but the fact of the matter is that we would be overflowed by spam by allowing comments. We would however love to hear from our readers, so just use the email address on the web site. Thanks and best regards!

UPDATE: We are now open for comments! A spam filter has been tested for a while, and we are now announcing that comments are now both possible and more than welcome…

Thank you for checking out the weblog! It is to be a part of the HydroTimor website, and we aim for it to be launched by the beginning of April 2007. Welcome back!