CONSTRUCTION IN

KIRIBATI

by

Eita Metai
Ministry of Public Works and Utilities

Dec 09

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................................3
Contracting or Design and Build...............................................................................................................3
Location of the Project Management Unit.................................................................................................4
Structure of the PMU.................................................................................................................................4
Kiribati Culture..........................................................................................................................................5
Logistic and transportation of Materials....................................................................................................7
Oversea to Tarawa.................................................................................................................................7
Tarawa to Outer Island..........................................................................................................................7
Shipping............................................................................................................................................7
Telecommunication...........................................................................................................................8
Putting Everything together.......................................................................................................................8
Sources of Water Supplies..........................................................................................................................9
Water Supply Systems..............................................................................................................................10
Solar Pumps.........................................................................................................................................10
Hand-pumps........................................................................................................................................10
Sewerage System.....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to share some construction experiences in Kiribati in the area of
buildings and water supply systems. The experiences, which are told here, were based on KIR-EU
project and working in the Ministry of Public Works and Utilities.

This will be helpful for Foreign Aid Outer Island Projects which are in most case, new to Kiribati
context or ways of doing business.

Mr Moanataake Beiabure who has hands on experience with KIR-EU, inspecting and certifying the
buildings will be able to provide additional information on ways in improving the construction
methodology.

Mr Riteti Maninraka, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Pubic Works and Utilities and former
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health and Medical Services, who engineered the birth
of KIR-EU project, contributed a lot to the planning of KIR-EU, aligning of project policies, setting of
project monitoring committee etc can also provide vital and priceless information on KIR-EU project
and for future projects.

Contracting or Design and Build

It has been well known that contracting is the most efficient mode of construction, however this seems
to be problematic when applying it in the outer islands. On the other hand, a non contracting mode of
construction is equally damaging. In the KIR-EU project, a blend of both modes was adopted, hence a
“Design and Build” approach. In this approach, the implementation agency managed, design and
construct the buildings. One of the major advantages of this approach was the “zero cost on the
variation claim”. In the contracting mode, certain phases of the construction has to be checked by a
qualified engineer or authority. With the construction done in the outer islands, checking has always
proven difficult due tot poor communication and contractors are entitled to claim for variation if there
is a delay on the part of owner or the owner representative. At present, most of the construction was

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through done through contracting and it was found that buildings were completed one or two year
later , effectively defecting the initial purpose of contracting. The “Design and Build” prevents that
from happening since the implementation agency is the manager, designer and builder. The only
problem with the Design and Build is the conflict of interest that may arise from the Implementation
Agency.

Location of the Project Management Unit.

As briefly mentioned above, the main risk with the Design and Build is the conflict of Interest that may
arise from the Implementation Agency, simply because it is checking itself. To minimised that, it is
very important that the Authority (which in this case - the Ministry of Public Work and Utilities) and
the Implementation Agency should be in regular contact. To facilitate the regular contact, it is important
to have the Implementation Agency physically located on Tarawa and if possible, have an office within
the MPWU.

Structure of the PMU

KIR-EU structure seems to work and it is important to learn from it. KIR-EU Project Management Unit
structure consists of

• Project Coordinator
• Project Managers (Infrastructure, Training, Health Systems, and finally Quality)
• Support Services (Accounts, Transport, and Registry)

While the management of PMU was done by the Implementation Agency, the PMU also reported to
Cabinet via the Project Steering committee. The overall budget of the PMU was about 20% of the total
project funds.

Similar setup can be made for the management of future Project.

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Kiribati Culture

It is very important the project construction plans are blended very close to Kiribati Culture or Kiribati
ways of doing things. It might, from the start, look very expensive to blend Kiribati culture into
construction plans but experiences have told us such plans work, cheaper, projects are done within
relative short period, quality of the finished buildings are acceptable etc. Project Managers must be
quick to recognise Kiribati cultures and exploited them to their advantages. In the KIR-EU project, the
following cultural factors were taken into considerations when formulating construction plans;

• Respect of elders
• Equity fairness,
• Competitiveness
• Hospitality towards Guests

During the construction of the Building in the KIR-EU project, about 12 labours were recruited to
assist with the construction works. From experiences, one supervisor can only manage up to 6 workers
which means that the 12 labours have to split into two groups, with each group having their own gang
leader. The two gang leaders reported directly to the construction supervisor. Villager elders (or in some
cases, village councils) were nominated and recruited by the project to become Gang Leaders. This
made the Construction Supervisor job very easy to control and manage the construction process
because the villagers were listening and obeying the Supervisor through the Old men.

Equity refers fairness in the Kiribati context. Labour recruitment in the villages must not be limited to a
few individuals but to everyone. This means that labour have to be rotated on a weekly or two weekly
basis so that everyone in the village has a turn to work and get paid. While the continuity of the work
will be affected, it's impact can be minimised by employing two to four labourers permanently
throughout the construction period.

Kiribati people are very competitive and if given the opportunity, they will compete aggressively. In the
area of construction, this Kiribati nature can be used and exploited to benefit the project. In KIR-EU

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project, the construction of the first four buildings were carried on four islands – Arorae, Tamana, Beru
and Nikunau, to test and exploit this Kiribati nature. The targeted construction period was three
months, however it took the supervisors four months to complete the buildings. One of the reasons why
competitiveness did not seemed to work was the distance between each buildings which made it hard
for the villagers to compare their performance against each other. In the second trail, buildings were
constructed not on four islands but on one or two, enabling the project to have a presence on all of the
selected villages on the island. The result was very good and the buildings were completed within the
targeted period of three months. Observations during the construction period found that the villagers
were observing and matching other villagers performance by working extra hard, and putting more
resources without any significant cost to the project.

Hospitality towards the guest apply when one visits someone's house, where foods and drinks are given
to the guest. In the construction, this can be exploited to the advantages of the project by providing tea
and some foods during morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea to the village labourers. It was found at
KIR-EU project, that it worked and the villagers were motivated to work, turned up almost everyday to
work, obedient to instructions etc. At some construction sites, where hospitality was not taken into
considerations, the turn over was high, workers were stubborn, etc. The cost of providing tea and meals
to 12 workers was about less than $100 per day.

It is also worth noting that the Kiribati law consists of Western Law and Customary law. So while
blending Kiribati Cultures into the construction plans help with the speed, cost etc, it can also have
legal implication if they are not taken into considerations. To illustrate this point, a few years back, the
Kiribati Housing Company took some it's tenants to court for defaulting the tenants agreement by
raising pigs next to their houses. The Court ruled not in favour of the Kiribati Housing Company
because the Kiribati Housing Company was neglecting Customary law and should have provided space
for the pigs as well.

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Logistic and transportation of Materials.

Oversea to Tarawa

There are now three ships that visit the country every month. They are Swire Shipping1, Joyice
Shipping and Moanaraoi. Of all the three, Swire Shipping seems to be the most reliable so to ensure
that project materials arrive on Tarawa on time, it is best to rely on the services of Swire Shipping.
Joyice shipping2 service is getting better and it can be used a backup service.

Tarawa to Outer Island

Shipping

The outer islands in the Gilbert Group are very spread apart with one of remotes island, Arorae, located
at about 600 kilometres east of Tarawa. Transportation of materials to the outer islands is very
expensive and can be as much as 30% of the project cost.

An ideal way of shipping materials to the outer islands is by charting a landing craft. The two landing
crafts that are capable to do the work are Supercarrier and Evangkerio. The SupperCarrier is owned by
Taotin Trading Limited and is capable of carrying up to 8 – 20” containers or has a capacity of up to
1,600 tonnages. On the other hand, Evangkerio is only capable of carrying half the capacity of
SupperCarrier.

To minimise this cost, it is better to plan the transportation of materials in the following manner.

• Ship materials in one bulk by charting a landing craft or using a normal run
• Start from the nearest island first and then spread outward

1 Swire Shipping - www.swireshipping.com

2 Toyota – Antebuka TEL: 686-21090

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It is always better to ship the materials in bulk as it will minimise administration cost, storage cost,
truck hire on Tarawa and at the outer island etc. It is important to keep in mind that if just one bag of
cement bag, which cost about $16, is short or is required from Tarawa, then the impact to the project
can be huge in the range of thousands of dollars as a result of administration cost, freight, time lost etc.

While the use of normal shipping run is in general cheaper than Charting Landing Craft, it requires
more careful planning as it is more problematic. Two of the most common problems with using normal
shipping run are (a) off loading of materials at the wrong islands, and (b) construction schedule is
controlled by shipping schedule. Constructions at the outer island which rely on normal shipping run
tend to e more expensive and take longer to complete.

Whenever possible, starting construction work from the nearest island tot Tarawa should explored. This
will make it easier for the Implementation Agency to monitor the project at it's infant stage. In addition
to the advantage mentioned above, after the completion of buildings on one island, the ship with
materials for the next island, will be able to pick the construction supervisor on the way. This can save
up to 50% of the travel cost (or travel distance).

Telecommunication

Telecommunication between Tarawa and the outer island is very poor. Sending mails through normal
postage can take up to 3 months before the mail arrives at its destination. There is a public HF radio on
each island but the communication link between Tarawa and an outer island is limited to two to three
hours a day. An ideal solution to use Satellite phone/fax.

Putting Everything together

The most visible and successful application of the above was in KIR-EU project. KIR-EU project was a
4 year EU funded and it was initially intended to construct only 9 new Health Centres and renovated 9
old Health Centres. The budget for the construction and renovation activity was about $6 million
dollars. During the planning Stages and after the Situational Analysis, the Government of Kiribati

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requested EU and FSM to replace all of the old 74 Health Centres and Dispensaries with 74 new ones
hence the formulation of the construction plan which was based on the above theories. At the end of the
3 year construction period, 74 Health Centres and Dispensaries have been constructed and are now
ready to use by the health workers.

It worth noting while the KIR-EU project managed to build 74 buildings within budget and in a relative
short period, it's methodology still needs a lot of improvement.

Sources of Water Supplies

There are two main type of water supplies that are appropriate and can be adopted in the outer islands.
These are

• Underground water extraction

• Rainwater catchment
• others

As a rule of thumb, Underground water exists when the width of the island is greater than 400 meters.
Most of the villages are located on part of the islands which widths are greater than 400 meters and
therefore underground water extraction is possible by the use of handpumps or solar pumps. The
exceptions are villages in the islets and in some of the southern islands, - Onotoa, Tab North, Tab
South, and Nonouti. A viable and cheaper option for those villages and islands will be rainwater
catchment. However, rainwater catchment should be properly sized so they can last 6 months drought
period.

Banaba, due to it's geological build, does not have groundwater and therefore rainwater catchment
might be an option to think about. However other options such as solar distillation and desalination
should be looked at too.

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Water Supply Systems

Solar Pumps

The average cost of solar pumping system (materials, labour, 2-1000 litres poly-tank, etc) is estimated
to be about AUD$30,000. It can take up to two months to construct one solar pumping system. The
solar pumps are best situated in situations where the sources of the groundwater is at least 300 meters.

Hand-pumps

As for handpumps, a Tamana pump which is made out of PVC pipe, cost less than $50, easy to
maintain, suitable for household, but can only extract water up to 50 meters away. More than 200
Imported handpumps in the early 1990's, which were made of cast iron, were expensive, and hard to
maintain. It seems that the local made Tamana pump may be an option to adopt – I think!.

Sewerage System

Traditionally Kiribati people use the beach as toilet but this habit is slowly changing and the use of
water seal toilets is becoming common. However, since groundwater is located about 2 to 3 meters
below ground level, therefore the risks of groundwater pollution from water seal toilets or other sources
of pollution is very high. The use of beach as toilet, on the other hand, is also unhealthy and unsightly.
A number of trails have been made in Tarawa and Christmas on the use of compositing toilet which
was aimed to tackle the above two problems but the trails were found to be unsuccessful. For some
reasons, people tend to like water seal toilets. It is important that Engineers and Designer should design
water seal toilets in such a way that they do not leak and pollute the groundwater.

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