Drainage Division Sewage Connection Survey Well Under Way   With a determined effort, the Drainage Division has completed more than half of its extensive survey of private house connections to primary sewer lines in Doha. The survey is being conducted to not only establish which homes are still on the older septic tank system, but also to determine the capacity flow of existing direct connections in relationship to the number of occupants in a residence. In addition, the survey records the precise location of each residential manhole in relationship to property boundaries and existing buildings. This, as well as other information, will be used by the Drainage Division in its plans to refurbish existing sewage lines and lay new ones. Comments Shafik Jiwani, Head of Information Systems for the Civil Engineering Department's Drainage Division, "The government is committed to replacing those residences with the old fashioned septic tank sewage storage system with a direct connection to a primary sewer line. In the past, this has been done on an 'as requested' basis. That is, a citizen would make an appointment with the director of our department, explain his situation, and an appointment would be made for a contractor to complete the work. This method was fine when the city was less populated, but as it grew, the old method proved to be time consuming and expensive. It was simply necessary to develop another procedure to expedite this essential project. The sewage connection survey has allowed us to determine the locations of those homes in need of a direct sewer line. We can then group a number of jobs together, which greatly reduces the mobilization cost (the cost of getting construction equipment to a site). In addition, since we have become proactive in updating the outmoded sewage systems, residents need not contact our department, we are now in a position to inform them when they can expect to have their new connection." During the survey, the crews picked up a variety of information concerning the sewer connections, such as pipe size, pipe material, depth from surface, and distance to the nearest downstream manhole. In addition, they recorded the zone number where each residence is located, the type of property, the number of units at the property, plot numbers, street names, residence numbers, and water and electricity numbers. While all of this information was not necessary for the Drainage Division to complete its work, they took the opportunity to pick up this additional information for use by other government users of GIS. Since the Drainage Division is a member of Qatar's GIS Coordinating Group, it is committed to the cooperative sharing of related information among the various government ministries involved in maintaining the national GIS database. As an example of this reciprocal sharing of information, the drainage division used topographical data from the national database to determine the location of buildings in relationship to the existing sewer network in preparation for the laying of new pipe. After compiling the survey data, a GIS application is run, which automatically lists sewer hook up requirements including the type of connection needed, the type of fittings required based on the main pipes, and the length of the pipe needed. The application also produces an estimate report detailing the cost of installing the connection. After completion of the work, the survey information is used to update the Drainage Division's GIS database. In addition, private contractors hired to complete the actual sewer line extension are required to furnish locational and attribute data information of their work in digital format for inclusion in the GIS as a condition of the final payment of their contract. Various checks, including an on-site inspection are then conducted on the information provided by the contractor before the work gets final approval. This is another method that CGIS and related agencies employ to maintain a current data base. Concludes Jiwani, "Without the cooperation of the various national agencies involved in Qatar's GIS implementation, our work in the Drainage Division would be hampered by bureaucratic entanglement and the self-interests of individual agencies. The interdepartmental determination to set aside individual department objectives to further the goal of establishing a comprehensive nationwide GIS is a model in federal government cooperation." CONTENTS NEXT