Africa

The Managing Director of CDR International BV, Dirk Heijboer, and his team, and our partners, presented CDR’s Inception Report for the UNDP – Green Climate Fund funded project: “Engineering and Safeguards Assessment of Proposed Interventions in the coastal areas of the Monrovia Metropolitan Area (MMA) in Liberia“. The President of Liberia, George Weah, was also present amongst distinguished guest of the UNDP, GCF, EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and other important stakeholders.

The press published various articles on the subject with drone pictures made by CDR International.
–> Monrovia Faces Imminent Disaster
–> Liberia: Preliminary Study Depicts Scary Pictures of Imminent Disaster in Monrovia
–> Monrovia Threatened by Rising Sea Level, Others 
–> Monrovia Faces Imminent Disaster; EPA Alarms following Coastal Engineering Assessment

For further details, see the project summary –>

Last month the 3rd design charrette on a plan for the Msimbazi River basin has taken place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This project consists of 2 stakeholder workshops and 6 design charrettes that are being organised in a half a year’s time. The objective of the design charrettes is to develop, together with all stakeholders and communities, a stratgic management framework for the entire catchment area of the Msimbazi River basin as well as a detailed plan for the lower part of the catchment. CDR International is part of a consortium to facilitate this special participatory design process which is funded by the World Bank. Charrettes are particularly suitable to address complex multi-facetted and interrelated social, technical and environmental issues.
The Msimbazi River basin, covering a large part of Dar es Salaam’s urban area, is characterised by extreme high (informal) urbanisation rates, crossing of major infrastructures, a mosaic of different urban land uses and a whole range of environmental and sanitation issues. One of the main issues is the increasing severity and frequency of flash floods affecting the area. The actuality of the problems was underlined by a heavy flood event that took place one day before the 3rd design charrette.
Through these charrettes we work together on a plan for a better living environment in the Msimbazi River basin.

On November 9th, Ruben Borsje has started his internship at CDR International as Project Engineer in Nigeria. As part of a unique project, the Sandbar Breakwater at Lekki, he will be monitoring the construction of the sandy features, as well as part of the rock works. He will be using 2D modelling to assess and predict the changes in morphology of the Sandbar, in the end leading to a better understanding of these kind of structures.
Ruben’s internship is part of his MSc. Hydraulic Engineering degree at the Technical University of Delft (the Netherlands), specializing in Coastal Engineering and Environmental Fluid Mechanics. His main interests are large-scale coastal morphology, building with nature, and the numerical modelling of these phenomena, preferably combined in a design and construction environment. The Sandbar Breakwater project is therefore a perfect match.
Last summer he went to the coastal area of Demak, Indonesia, as part of a research project of the Technical University of Delft. The project focused on the restoration of the heavily eroding mangrove-mud coast, for which Ruben explored the use of drones for the assessment of the effectiveness of already implemented solutions. The gained experience in monitoring techniques in combination with coastal morphology are of much value for his current internship.
The internship at CDR International provides an opportunity to get some hands-on experience with the engineering of a new and unique project, regarding the design as well as the working environment, and Ruben is very much looking forward taking on this challenge.

The project kicked-off in October 2017 and completion is expected around May 2018. CDR and its partners, REBEL and UNESCO-IHE, are organizing workshops, execute the Vulnerability Analysis; Feasibility Study; Preliminary Environmental and Social Impact Analysis (ESIA), arrange for Technical Assistance / Training and submit all deliverables in comprehensive reports.
See project –> 

Under the supervision of CDR International BV, teamed up with Prof. dr. ir. Jentsje van der Meer, a complex 3D Breakwater Model Test was successfully completed by CDR for Dangote at CSIR, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Project Link ⇒

Value engineering studies optimisation of wave wall design of the main sea defence of the Eko Atlantic city development  (www.ekoatlantic.com) by adopting an alternative approach for wave overtopping reduction.