Groundwater and Surface Water Sampling Experiences


Hello PARE Members,

My name is Shofa Rijalul Haq, a master student of geological engineering of Universitas Gajah Mada. I have been in Hokkaido University as long term PARE program for about one month. After summer school of PARE program, I joined Laboratory of Groundwater and Mass Transport, Division of Sustainable Resources Engineering of Hokkaido University, under supervised by Prof. Toshifumi Igarashi. It is delighted to join this laboratory because so many reasons, including the futuristic laboratory instruments and also warm welcome from sensei and laboratory friends.

On last Friday 26 September 2014, Igarashi sensei invited me to leave for sampling of groundwater and surface water in Ishikari City. It takes 30 minutes by car from Sapporo to Ishikari. It was an interesting thing, because that was my first time to take samples in Japan, especially groundwater and surface water. This sampling activity is conducted every month by Groundwater and Mass Transport Laboratory of Hokkaido University. The purpose of this activity is to know the groundwater and surface water quality, especially Arsenic and Fluorides concentration as an impact of industrials activity and also human sanitation in Ishikari. Groundwater in Ishikari City is utilized to melt the snow in Winter. It is because the groundwater temperature is quite higher than the snow temperature (approximately 12-20⁰ C), and also some chemical concentration in groundwater that accelerates the snow melting. We took seven samples as representative, from two groundwater samples and five groundwater samples. Then, we can analyze directly the samples that we took in Laboratory of Groundwater and Mass Transport, Hokkaido university.  

In-situ Measurement of Groundwater Quality

Water Sampling Equipments

Fluoride and River Measurement

Recording Groundwater and Surface Water Samples

Team of Groundwater and Mass Transport Laboratory 

Speaking of which, in this session I will also share my experience about taking environmental samples in Indonesia. Technically, taking sample conducted by Groundwater and Mass Transport Laboratory of Hokkaido University is almost similar as sampling techniques in my country. We usually take the groundwater and surface water and put them to the sample bottles.  However, we could not analyse them by ourselves. We have to submit the groundwater and surface water samples to the other department such as chemical department or special laboratory that has certification of National Accreditation Committee (Komite Akreditasi Nasional). In addition the most challenge of taking environmental samples in Indonesia, especially related with earth science, is the location characteristic of the samples. There are a lot of area in Indonesia that still does not have an appropriate infrastructure and transportation facilities. Therefore we usually get the samples location on foot, small boat, and copper. Even we have to stay for several days in the site because of the bad weather.      

Groundwater Sampling in Mentaya River, Central Kalimantan

Baliem River, Papua, Indonesia

Transportation by Copper

Transportation by Small Boat in Kalimantan

Native People of Papua

Those are my experiences of taking groundwater and surface water samples in Indonesia and Japan. Now, I am looking forward to getting the other challenge experiences within my long term PARE Program in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

Best Regards,
Shofa R. Haq



   

Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a reply