“For those about to rock, we saaaa-lute you!
After experiencing the life of an irrigation engineer for more than 18 years, the Aussie hard rock band, AC /DCs' hit song you read as the heading of this post, has become my anthem.
Back in the early days, we (engineers) became fresher Staff Officers after passing the PSC(Public Service Commission) exams, both written and oral. Our heads were in the cloud, yet not knowing what was awaiting us. Actually, there is more to an irrigation engineer's life than enjoying the social status of a staff officer.
Jungle life is our life .'You need to drink muddy water in order to supply the clean water to others', is the motto of our department. Yes, we drink it, and we befriended 'malaria'. Hardships and pressures from all the vectors are a norm for us. That is why our department is nothing but a big family, united for a common vision and goal.
Most of the worksites we needed to work at were in deep jungles, usually a short distance down from some kind of mountain range. That is the perfect place for damming the water coming down from uphill. Then, other structures, like canal networks for conveying the stored water to the fields, power intakes, power stations, and so on. Those worksites usually came to be little village to us. A community of our own. And we, 'the villagers', are all as one.
Those scenarios, the quest for overcoming the hardships, the challenging nature of our work, the freedom at those remote places of our own, and finally 'the water' and the enjoyment of the farmers are what make us more than happy as the way we are, regardless of the fact that most of our lifetime was generally spent over in those forest work sites.
This is our serious battlefield, at a critical front of the economic theater of war. Agriculture and livestock are the main sectors our country traditionally relies on. And they are, if proper and effective investments are put into them, what will, together with tourism and low tech industries, likely lead us to become a middle income society. That is after the fashion of Thailand.
Lately these days, more than ever in history and like other countries across the globe, we are facing natural disasters. Annual floods on top of them, in our case. They are so punctual, and so serious and so devastating. We, hydraulic engineers need to be at the forefront of this battle.
In the past, our senior fellow engineers had done all they could for the development of the irrigation infrastructures and measures for flood prevention and control. We, the younger generation, are following their footsteps. For the new comers to our department, our younger brothers, I say, ”We Saaaa-lute You! Especially in a time like this.
Comparing to our neighboring countries, like Thailand or Malaysia, we have so much ahead of us to do.
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