Past Work

While other organizations have done water supply work in southeastern Myanmar (including DC-Resistivity geophysics), our project is the only geophysical water project we know of in Myanmar that focuses explicitly upon capacity building. This stems from our conviction that true change will only happen when local people are empowered with the tools, knowledge, and expertise to improve their own livelihoods, in alignment with participatory development principles.

We have already laid the groundwork for our current project, which is projected to begin on-the-ground training and survey fieldwork in February-April 2019. In 2018, Project Manager Ren Fan, with the support of Canadian international development NGO Cuso International, worked in Myanmar with the Mon state Department of Rural Development. Over a 6-month placement in-country at the department’s office in Mawlamyine, Mon state, they trained government engineers in how to use the DC-Resistivity method to locate and characterize subsurface aquifers.

Our work included demonstrations of a custom-built, inexpensive 1-dimensional DC-Resistivity instrument, which successfully characterized shallow electrically conductive layers associated with local aquifers (see pictures below). Previous surveys in Mon state conducted by the Department of Rural Development in 2018 and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2017 further attests to the potential for the DC-Resistivity method to be applied to groundwater exploration.

For instance, here we show 1-dimensional sounding data from a survey conducted in July 2018 at General Aung San Park, a 5-minute walk from the Mon Department of Rural Development office. The survey line was 200 metres long. One-dimensional ‘VES Inverse’ software, developed by Emeritus Professor Dr. James Clark at Wheaton College, was applied, using a 1-dimensional Monte Carlo inversion and assuming a 3-layer Earth model. The results show a surface layer 6 metres deep with intermediate resistivity, followed by another layer at 6–12 metre depths with low resistivity (ie. high conductivity), which was interpreted to be an aquifer. The results were corroborated by a test at the nearby DRD office, where the water level was measured as 9 metres. For a preliminary geological interpretation of this geophysical data, see the table below.

However, the equipment was only designed to find groundwater up to ~35 metre depths, and since it is 1-dimensional it did not account for horizontal changes in geologic structure. This suggested the need for a follow-up project with more advanced equipment capable of deeper penetration and 2 or 3 dimensional imaging capability.