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.
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| In-situ Measurement of Groundwater Quality |
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| Water Sampling Equipments |
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| Fluoride and River Measurement |
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| Recording Groundwater and Surface Water Samples |
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| 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.
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| Groundwater Sampling in Mentaya River, Central Kalimantan |
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| Baliem River, Papua, Indonesia |
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| Transportation by Copper |
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| Transportation by Small Boat in Kalimantan |
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| 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
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