Capstone Report – Annex B: Site Assessment

It is close to Fiu village, Fiu river, and Gwanaruu airport. The closest health facility to Gwaigeo is Kilufi hospital, which is the Malaita Province referral Hospital. Land at Gwaigeo is owned by the government in the Central Region of Malaita Province, with a total land mass of more than 30 hectares. The proposed site at Gwaigeo also hosts the Gwaigeo Community High School and the APDS Vocational Training School. Gwaigeo was identified as a suitable site for the SCALE A&E Project by MPIAC due to its proximity to Auki town, available land size, and easy access by sea, road, and air transport linkages. To enable the processing facilities to operate properly, development of required utilities is important. Water is an essential component for the processing facilities, and it is crucial to have a reliable and quality water supply to support the operations of the processing facilities and ensure proper sanitation. The Gwaigeo project site does not connect to the Solomon Water supply services that serve the Auki township. However, there is potential to extract groundwater for the facilities or explore ways to safely use water from the Fiu river, which is only 200 meters away from the site. Groundwater extraction is feasible, as evident from the nearby Fiu village, which uses a borehole for their water needs. Other families use open wells for other uses, and local drilling firms cost between $ to $ per meter of drilling. Proper sanitation is essential to be established at the site to maintain proper hygiene. Gwaigeo being an undeveloped rural land has no treatment plant or sewerage system. A site plan and layout should consider provision of sanitation facilities. Gwaigeo site has enough spaces to establish sanitation facilities, and water used for sanitation must be potable, whether it is from a borehole or sourced from the river. Electricity is readily available within Auki town, but the main electricity supply line is terminated approximately 1.8 kilometers from the Gwaigeo project site. Discussion with the Solomon Power office in Auki indicated that Solomon Power is willing to supply power to the facilities once they are completed, provided an application for power supply for the facilities is submitted. There is a strong justification for power line extension, as there is a community high school, a vocational training center at Gwaigeo, and Fiu village located beyond the project site. The school staff residents and the training center use small gasoline generators and domestic solar panels to provide energy for their domestic use. It is recommended that the Project Team consider alternative power supply such as mini-grid for the project facilities and also standby generators to cater for sudden power outages. The design of the facilities should consider the power required for each facility to enable the facilities to fully operate. An electrical costing and energy management plan should be prepared to determine the supply and demand of power supply to each of the facilities, in relation to the machineries and equipment that would be installed in the processing facilities. The major commercial wharf in Malaita is the Auki Wharf, which is depicted in Figure 3 and Figure 4. The wharf is large enough to service large passenger boats and cargo vessels on a regular basis. Travel time from Honiara to Auki ranges from 4 to 6 hours. Auki Seaport is approximately 8 kilometers away from the Gwaigeo project site, and the accessibility of this wharf from the project site is through the Auki-North Road network. A plan is now in place to develop Bina Harbor into an international seaport, which will boost loading and unloading of bulk shipment that cannot be done at Auki Wharf. Gwaunaruu airport is the main airport close to Gwaigeo and Auki, as illustrated in Figure 5. It is approximately 6 kilometers from Gwaigeo site and 12 kilometers from Auki. There are four flights per week to Gwaunaruu airport, and the air travel time from Honiara to Auki is approximately 25 minutes. There are two telecommunication providers in Solomon Islands, Our Telekom and B-Mobile, which provide 4G network in urban areas and 3G network in rural areas. Gwaigeo site is under the rural area category and only has access to 3G network, with limited internet coverage. A geo-technical study and reconnaissance survey were conducted at the Gwaigeo site to assess the site's suitability for the SCALE A&E Project. The study revealed that the site has a clay soil type, which is prone to settlement and erosion. The site's geotechnical conditions are critical to the project's success, and further investigation is required to determine the site's stability