ET-PERTH Conference Underway! (4 of 5)

Gary S. Trujillo (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us)
Wed, 6 Apr 1994 07:43:41 -0500


This section contains the following articles from the ET-PERTH list:

ET-PERTH 2.2 PAP: Rural Electrifica | Fri, 1 Apr
ET-PERTH Facilator Announcement. | Mon, 4 Apr

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Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 23:36:19 +0800
Subject: ET-PERTH 2.2 PAP: Rural Electrification and Technology Transfer

Rural Electrification and Technology Transfer (PAPER 2.2)

Paul Bryce
Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering

Donnella Bryce
Program Development Officer

and Chris Irons
Marketing Development Officer

APACE, N.S.W.
University of Technology Sydney
PO Box 123, Broadway 2007, Australia
Tele. (02). 330.2554
FAX (02) 330.2261
email paulb@ee.uts.edu.au

1. Introduction:

The APACE Centre in Sydney has been involved in development and practical
application of technology in the community setting since 1976. Good program
design has been the greatest challenge as it encompasses not only the
demands of community culture, and those of the environmental and economic
context, but also the technical and social requirements of institutional
support.

Research, development and application need to go hand-in-hand in specific
settings, and have encompassed work in Nepal (on modern mud-brick
techniques), Thailand (on desalination methodologies), Indonesia (on water
turbine and rural power construction and testing) and in the Solomon
Islands (on sustainable agriculture at elevated altitudes).

However, micro hydro-electric power for remote communities in the Pacific
has been the main focus of APACE for more than ten years. This has involved
a cyclic process of R.& D., project appraisal, design, implementation,
evaluation, further R. & D., etc. Micro hydro projects have been
successfully completed in areas and conditions hitherto considered
unviable, both technically and economically. Despite this, and the pride
that communities have shared through implementing and operating their own
schemes, some hard lessons are being learnt along the way towards an
effective and sustainable method for a more widespread implemention of
micro hydro in this region. The process which has led to a justifiably
credible reputation for success now requires careful review before this
wider goal can be attained, and there are a number of searching questions
to be addressed.

With the benefit of hindsight, the activities of APACE within the micro
hydroelectric sphere can be summarised as a search for a route to true
sustainability for an exotic technology in a particularly demanding
context. This paper, in outlining the process of evolution towards
sustainability, throws an increasingly strong focus on the necessity for
co-operative institutions, both within and surrounding individual schemes.
The projects described below culminate with a current activity, designed
specifically to address these institutional linkages, while sustaining the
essential core of APACE programs which is resource ownership by the local
community. The rationale behind this APACE strategy is fully explained in
the context of actual experience.

The current prorogram thus provides a focus on fundamental questions about
the role of the community, of elected local councils, of provincial
governments and of electricity authorities in the management of a
locally-owned, locally-operated resource on 'custom' land. In such a
dilemma, this paper poses more questions than it answers.

2. Rural electrification as a world challenge:

Communities that have contacted APACE with enquiries about local energy
resources are hardly special in the context of electrification in the world
today. Indeed, those members of the human race who do enjoy access to some
form of electricity are clearly in the minority, and this situation seems
to have little prospect of altering. Remote communities, particularly those
in developing countries, have been consigned in general to the 'too hard'
basket, despite the political and social imperatives that accompany their
aspirations for electricity. According to regional statistics (Srinivasan,
1981) 77% of Latin American, 60% of African, 84% of Asian and 83% of North
African/Middle Eastern rural communities do not have access to electricity.
In our region of the world, recent figures for villages in Vietnam,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Laos are 86%, 90%, 91% and 92% respectively (Saunier
and Mohanty, 1992). Moreover, the published figures taken in reverse are
not a true indication of economic or physical access, as Srinivasan (1981)
points out, since statistics credit all individuals in a community with
access to power on the basis that a transmission line reaches the village.

There are no reliable figures for the Pacific Island countries to the
authors' knowledge. As a general rule, one can safely assume a negligible
penetration of power to rural areas. For Solomon Islands, for example, the
incidence of access in remote areas, beyond the quite unusual case of a
personal petrol or diesel set belonging to a relatively affluent
individual, is confined to those communities described in the following
sections of this paper, and comprise a negligible statistic in terms of the
nation's rural populace. In essence, the majority (86%) of Solomon
Islanders live outside the major town centres and have no access to
electricity.

The results of tackling this problem are patchy but generally quite
unimpressive, as is the future with the prospect of perhaps one rural
village in four throughout the world having nominal access to electricity
by the end of this century. There are a wide range of published
explanations for this lack of progress, but it can be argued (Bryce, 1994)
that the problem is rooted, at least partly, in the constraints imposed by
institutional structures on project appraisal and design rather than in any
economic, physical or technical difficulty in implementing programs.

APACE has approached the problem of lack of rural community access to power
in both Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. The wealth of
experience gained justifies some brief description in order to highlight
the dilemmas now being faced for wider application of micro
hydroelectricity to remote communities.

3. An outline of APACE rural community power schemes

Agaun scheme:

In the remote upper Daga Mountains of Papua New Guinea, several acres of
cardomom trees were being grown to maturity by most indigenous family
groups during the 1980's in a bid to export the seeds. However the returns
available from sun-dried and smoke dried cardomom was insufficent to cover
the high cost of freight from Agaun. A pilot experiment showed that
controlled electric drying would transform the numbers by producing Grade A
quality seed, worth three times that of the previous product.

APACE's involvement followed a request from another Non Government
Organisation (NGO) on behalf of the Daga speaking people in 1988. It was
taken on as a response to the proposition that economics may be a route to
longevity and replication. The completed project will exploit more
favourable hydraulic resources than those of the next three schemes
discussed below, and appears to have considerable economic potential. The
capital cost of the scheme (if not the "in kind" effort) is expected to be
recovered in less than a year, and could encourage funding towards local
self-help in training and the development of more enterprises based on
similar power resources in other areas of the region.

The Australian branch of the requesting NGO was to provide the funds but
this source dried up when the project was midstream, due to a change in
intitutional priorities. APACE then found support from the Australian
Government, the local provincial governmenmt and members of the project.
However, the scheme had already suffered considerable delays. Moreover, the
original vehicle for funding approval had not allowed the protracted
appraisal/negotiation process described in the three examples below. This
fact contributed to further delay, because of the relatively weak level of
community involvement. Thus the increasingly protracted implementation time
undermined the creation of strong local community support and the
concommitant skills base that is a prerequisite for the long term viability
of this technology.

As a result of these difficulties, the system at Agaun is not yet complete,
although electricity is expected to flow reliably during 1994. At the time
of writing, the scheme is close to commissioning stage in a technical sense
and one of the authors (together with an APACE trained Solomon Islander) is
at Agaun for evaluation and local institutional strengthening.

The Agaun scheme better satisfies conventional technical and economic
criteria than any of the next three schemes described below, and its
completion will satisfy amply most normal levels of evaluation. However,
the prognosis on a broader analysis of sustainability would be less
favourable. Neither endogenous development beyond the Agaun scheme, nor
generational transfer of skills are likely without applying the same
protracted process of community strengthening and sharing that took place
during the appraisal stage of the three Solomon Island schemes described
below.

The lesson that community participation is as fundamental to success as
technical and economic factors may be difficult to absorb within the
conventional structures that permeate aid delivery today (cf.Bryce, 1994),
but it must be accepted in the rural context. In recognition of this
lesson, the current discussions about developing local management
structures and cooperative mechanisms in Agaun are being facilitated by the
presence of a Solomon Islander who has the experience of helping his
community develop its own hydroelectric potential.

Voko scheme:
The Voko tribe in Western Solomons requested assistance in 1978 for
electric lighting, vegetable coolroom and community workshop. An
appraisal process happened over the ensuing four years, determining
feasible technical and funding options and appropriate ways to design a
project for such a context. Both parts of the team, the Voko people and the
APACE project group, gained considerable understanding of their
responsibilities and the implications of the proposed project.

The scheme that resulted was not in the textbooks of the day, either in a
technical or a managerial sense. A micro hydroelectric power system for the
water resources and terrain was not conventionally viable, but became so
via the enthusiasm and ingenuity available within a community-centred
project. Australian and Solomon Island designs were hybridised into a
design that could be maintained and upgraded by local materials and skills.
The Voko community constructed the civil works, installed the machinery,
wired and tested the electrical cabling. The community thereafter operated
the physical system, and have successfully grappled with the load
management, maintenance and development cost issues that accompany such a
new and very large system (relative to that context) applied in a novel
community-based setting. Basic data relating to the Voko scheme at Iriri
village is included in the Table 1.

Quite extraordinary efforts were required of both APACE and the recipients,
in training, technical R. & D., administrative challenges besetting a new
management method, major disruption to community lifestyles during
construction and continual small local challenges over the past decade.
Given this effort, it may be comforting to view this system in isolation as
a quite successful model. There are no other examples to parallel this
scheme in the Solomon Islands until the Vavanga system was opened in 1993
(cf. below), and it is difficult to quote any other village community power
system in the Pacific that has operated reliably. In that sense the Voko
system is certainly outstanding.

It should also be noted that the more normal paradigm of a micro
hydroproject, as an engineering endeavour rather than a community
endeavour, has since been tried repeatedly and there is ample evidence of
its failure in most settings. Meltzler (1993) observes that the number of
half-finished plants attests to the importance of management and community
ownership, and confirms that the process of setting up such structures is
often lengthy and complex. Given that these considerations are often
underestimated by engineers, rural electrification will continue to have
its failures when viewed as purely an constructional project without strong
local input.

Nevertheless, the very uniqueness of the Voko example over so many years of
operation suggests that it must be considered a shaky model on which to
presume rural electrification will spread within the Pacific region.
Voko scheme:

The Voko tribe in Western Solomon Islands requested assistance in 1978 for
electric lighting, vegetable coolroom and community workshop. An appraisal
process took place during the ensuing four years, determining feasible
technical and funding options, as well as appropriate designs for a project
in such a context. All members of the project team, consisting of the Voko
people and the APACE group, gained considerable understanding of their
responsibilities to, and the implications of, the proposed project.

The scheme that resulted cannot be found in the textbooks of the day,
neither in a technical nor a managerial sense. A micro hydroelectric power
system for the water resources and terrain was not conventionally viable,
but became so via the enthusiasm and ingenuity available within a
community-centred project. Australian and Solomon Island designs were
hybridised into a design that could be maintained and upgraded by local
materails and skills. The Voko community constructed the civil works,
installed the machinery, wired and tested the electrical cabling. The
community thereafter operated the physical system, and have successfully
grappled with the issues of load management, maintenance and development
costs that accompany such a novel and very large system (relative to that
context). Basic data relating to the Voko scheme at Iriri village is
included in the Table 1.

Quite extraordinary efforts have been required both of APACE and the Voko
community over the past decade. Training, technical R. & D., administrative
demands besetting a new management method, major disruption to community
lifestyles during construction and continuing small local challenges have
demanded a strong commitment from both groups. Given this effort, it is
rewarding to view this system as a quite successful model. There were no
other examples to match it in the Solomon Islands until the Vavanga system
opened in 1993 (cf. below), and it is difficult to find any other village
community power system in the Pacific that has operated so reliably for
more than ten years. In that sense the Voko scheme is certainly
outstanding, but its very uniqueness makes it a shaky model on which to
presume that rural electrification will spread successfully within the
Pacific region.

This view is supported by the consequences of the more commonplace paradigm
of a micro hydro project - as an engineering endeavour rather than a
community endeavour. This has been tried repeatedly and there is ample
evidence of its failure in most situations. Meltzler (1993) observes that
the number of half finished plants attests to the importance of community
management and ownership, and confirms that the process of setting up such
structures is often lengthy and complex. Given that these considerations
are often underestimated by engineers and aid donors alike, electrification
in remote communities will continue to suffer failures if the process is
viewed purely as a constructional project with little need for strong local
participation.

The success of the Voko people led to great interest in micro
hydroelectrification in Solomon Islands. However, the limitations imposed
by sources of funding on such 'grass roots' development enabled new schemes
to reach fruition within a time frame which allowed adequate preparation
within each community before access to power actually ocurred.

Vavanga scheme:
A consortium of tribes, predominantly Vuru, requested assistance in 1986
within a similar context although there were important social and
environmental differences. The locality of Vavanga was close enough to be
accessible to help from Iriri people. Appraisal procedures spanned a
similar period of four years, and the technical option was again a micro
hydroelectric scheme, although the hydraulic resources were similarly not
favourable in a conventional sense. The basic data for the resulting
scheme, operating for the past 12 months, is included in Table 1.

In 1986, a consortium of tribes, predominantly Vuru, requested assistance
within a similar context to the Voko community, although there were
important social and environmental differences. Vavanga is located close
enough to Iriri to access assistance from the Voko people. Appraisal
procedures, with their essential process of decision sharing and community
strengthening, spanned a similar period of four years. The technical option
was again a micro hydroelectric scheme, although the hydraulic resources
were just as unfavourable as in Iriri in a conventional sense.

With respect to Vavanga, APACE was motivated partly by an effort to extend
the scale of endogenous technical and social support necessary to be more
confident of sustainability for the original technology sharing with Voko
people at Iriri village. A new technology, whether it be diesel, solar
photovoltaics, hydro or bicycle power will not survive the generations if
it remains isolated. The scheme took advantage of experienced and trained
Voko people to assist in construction, training and guidance in community
development and organisational issues faced at Vavanga. In turn, the
Vavanga scheme has generated skilled individuals and a community capacity
that now assists Voko and other people in their power scheme construction,
maintenance and upgrading.

Despite these limitations, APACE was motivated partly by a determination to
extend the range of endogenous technical and social infrastructure and
thereby better sustain the original technology transfer at Iriri. Any new
technology, whether it be diesel, solar photo-voltaics, hydro or bicycle
power is unlikely to survive the generations if it remains isolated.

The Vavanga scheme took advantage of experienced and trained Voko people
being available to assist in construction, training, and the guidance in
community development and organisational issues faced by the Vuru. In turn,
the Vavanga scheme has generated skilled individuals and a community
capacity that now assists the Voko and other people in power scheme
construction, maintenance and upgrading.

Basic data for the completed scheme, which has now been operating for the
past 12 months, is included in Table 1.

Ghatere scheme:
The Ghatere community is similarly accessible to Iriri and Vavanga
assistance. It comprises several family grouping, notably from the Iguana
tribe. The village is the largest in the immediate region and serves as a
centre for educational and health needs. The scheme envisaged at Ghatere
and currently under construction is summarised in Table 1.

The result of this particular cluster of systems has been a marked increase
in support capacity, in an environment otherwise devoid of technical
infrastructure. The systems are stand alone only in the narrow sense
implied by an electrical engineer. An Electrical Association has been
tentatively proposed by the three communities in an effort to cement and
extend this capacity. There has emerged a clear recognition by each
community of the need for institutions to 'collectivise' their isolated and
individually controlled power systems, in the limited but crucial areas of
skills, spare parts, manpower, and economic applications for the
electricity.

Ghatere scheme:

The Ghatere community is equally accessible to assistance from the Iriri
and Vavanga communities. It comprises several family groups, notably from
the Iguana tribe. The village is the largest in the immediate region and is
the centre for educational and health services. The scheme envisaged at
Ghatere and currently under construction is summarised in Table 1.

Agaun scheme:
This scheme is situated in the remote Upper Daga mountains of Papua New
Guinea, and begun in 1988. It will exploit more favourable hydraulic
resources than of the three schemes discussed above, and has considerable
economic potential. APACE's involvement followed a request from another
NGO on behalf of the Daga-speaking people, and was taken on as a response
to the proposition that economics may be a route to longevity and
replication. Funding was supplied by the Australian branch of the
requesting NGO, but dried up when institutional priorities altered and the
project was in 'midstream.'
APACE subsequently found its own support from the Australian Government,
the local province and member contributions, but the project suffered
considerable delays. Moreover, the original vehicle of approval did not
allow for the same protracted appraisal system used for the three systems
described earlier, and some additional delay can be attributed to the
relatively weak initial level of community involvement. This protracted
implementation time worked against the necessary strong local community
support, and the concomitant skills base that is a prerequisite for
viability.

In a technical sense the scheme is close to commissioning stage, and at the
time of writing one of the authors (together with an APACE Solomon Island
national) is at Agaun for evaluation and local institutional
strengthening.

In short, the system at Agaun is not yet complete, although there is every
likelihood that electricity will flow reliably in 1994 to support an
agricultural processing industry. Given that institutional structures are
possible that are representative of all clans and supported on a regional
level, the economic prospects are bright in the short term. Cardomom trees
had been grown to maturity over several acres by nearly all family
groupings in a bid to export the seeds, but the cost of air freight out of
Agaun was found to exceed the returns on sun-dried or smoke-dried cardamom.
In a pilot experiment carried out as part of the project, it was found that
controlled electric-drying transforms the numbers by providing a Grade A
seed price three times that of previous shipments. The financial cost of
the scheme (if not the in-kind effort) would be recovered in less than a
year, and could provide the funding opportunities for local self-help in
training and development of enterprises in other regional areas based on
similar power resources.

Although the Agaun scheme better satisfies conventional technical and
economic criteria than any of the above three schemes, and its completion
will amply satisfy this normal level of evaluation, the prognosis on a
broader analysis of sustainability would be less favourable. There is
little likelihood of an endogenous development beyond the Agaun scheme, or
a generational transfer of skills, without another process of community
strengthening and sharing that simulates the protracted appraisal process
that happened in the three Solomon Island schemes listed above. This lesson
that community involvement has major importance alongside technical and
economic factors is difficult to absorb in the present conventional
structures that permeate aid delivery (cf. Bryce, 1994) but must be
accepted for rural contexts. The present evaluation visit to Agaun
involves an experienced Solomon Islander, who has helped his own community
develop its hydro potential, in recognition of this lesson and in order to
facilitate discussions of local structures and cooperative mechanisms.

Manawai scheme:
Manawai is a harbour settlement, accessible only by sea, in the East
Are'Are region of Solomon Islands. Hydraulic resources are quite favourable
for support of a wide region of villages in terms of educational, health
and economic industries.

This project was first requested in 1986, and has undergone a long
gestation period while funding options were explored. When a specific
promise of funding emerged through local efforts in late 1993, there had
already been a good deal of communication and appraisal of the technical
and social context. A community strength and commitment had built up over
the years since APACE's first contact and its original site visit through
an invitation in 1987. The Manawai scheme enjoys prospects for longevity
that also build on the strong Solomon local skills that have emerged
through the Voko, Vavanga and Ghatere schemes. When APACE personnel,
including a Voko and a Vuru facilitator, arrived in August 1993 for final
feasibility studies, the local enthusiasm and understanding were emerging
to complement the economic and technical ingredients for success. An
awareness and training exercise was subsequently conducted by the Voko and
Vuru people at their own hydro sites for the benefit of some key Manawai
people.

Feasibility of the scheme has now been established, and at the time of this
Conference the final approval now awaits an expert Technical Committee
residing in Germany. Provided the long years of preparatory work
undertaken by Manawai residents is not squandered by a change of management
method, involving the imposition of decisions and expert personnel from
outside bodies, the Manawai community can look forward to a speedy
implementation of their power scheme. With that important proviso, the
result is likely then to be successful in terms that will satisfy both the
economic and technical evaluators as well as those that delve further into
the social and cultural aspects.

However positive these remote area power systems are seen in their
individual contexts, and as a 'package' of models for local capabilities,
there are wider questions to ponder: How are 'grass roots' initiatives on
customary land reconciled with Government institutions? Can a set of
electrical standards developed for the rigours of rural traditional
architecture be melded with Government Standards that are less rigid? Can
appropriate technology be tolerated and encouraged within an institutional
framework at Government level, where influences from Western 'experts' are
strong? Is there a role for Provincial or National Authorities to monitor
and control such developments in line with perceived priorities or
interpreted responsibilities. These questions need addressing to allow all
parties, not simply the local recipients to be a part of the process of
embedding a very important resource within a democratic framework. The role
of Local Area Councils and Governments must be addressed as legitimate
stakeholders with legitimate responsibilities, and the ways must be found
by communities, voters, politicians and public servants to move the initial
successes from technology sharing to a fully embedded technology, in which
the characteristics for success are retained and nurtured by conciliation
and understanding at all levels.

The degree of success of these projects, best demonstrated by the
increasing local cooperative assistance as each scheme takes advantage of
its predecessor for deepening skills and experience, works to make these
questions more critical.

The Western Province project; a response for wider sustainability:

4. Conclusion

This paper has summarised that part of APACE's work over the last fifteen
years which has particular reference to micro hydro-electric technology
transfer in the Pacific. In addition to the less tangible social benefits
provided by the advent of electrical power in these remote communities
there have been some destinct outcomes to APACE's activities, both positive
and negative. On the positive side, one result of the particular cluster of
systems in Solomon Islands has been a marked increase in support capacity,
in an environment otherwise devoid of technical infrastructure. The schemes
are standalone only in the narrow sense implied by an electrical engineer.
An Electrical Association has been tentatively proposed by the communities
in an effort to cement and extend this capacity. There has emerged a clear
recognition by each community of the need for institutions to
'collectivise' their isolated and individually controlled power systems, in
the limited but crucial areas of skills, spare parts, manpower, and
economic applications for the electricity.

The emergence of a strong local skillbase and growing support
infrastructure resulting from the Voko, Vavanga and Ghatere schemes bodes
well for the future of new projects such as the Manawai scheme. However,
the success of this project, which was first mooted in 1986, may be
joepardised by some of the negative effects of APACE's work.

Manawai is a harbour settlement, accessable only by sea, in the East
Are'Are region of Solomon Islands. It is the centre of religious, economic,
health and education activities for the surrounding population, amounting
to nearly three thousand. Hydraulic resources are good and commitment to
the scheme has built up in the community, some 600 permanent residents, in
the years since APACE was first invited to visit the site in 1987. More
recently, when APACE personnel, including a Voko and a Vuru facilitator,
arrived in August 1993 for a final feasibility study, high levels of local
motivation and understanding were apparent; essential ingredients for
success alongside the economic and technical factors also present.
Subsequently, an awareness and training exercise was conducted by the Voko
and Vuru people at their own hydro sites for the benefit of some key
Manawai villagers.

The feasibility of the scheme is now in no doubt from every aspect save
funding which now awaits the approval of an expert technical committee
residing in Germany. However, political pressures from central government
in Solomon Islands may threaten this initiative which has already been
adopted by the regional government. The demands of democracy often require
government representatives to demonstrate association with successful
development processes to maintain their positions. The initiative and
commitment of a few hundred villagers has shown the way towards a potent
mechanism for successful development which may no longer be permitted to
remain at the 'grass roots' level of activity. Thus the long years of
preparatory work by the people of Manawai may be squandered in the face of
new approach to management; one involving the imposition of decisions and
expert personnel from outside the region and representing attitudes which
may threaten the long term sustainability of this project.

Thus it has been shown that no matter how positive a change these remote
community power systems appear to bring to their individual contexts, and
even as a packaged model of local capability, they raise issues within the
national community which need to be resolved if the process is to be more
widely implemented. Such questions as: how can 'grass roots' initiatives on
customary owned land be reconciled with national economic imperatives? how
are such developments to be integrated into fledgling government
institutions? can appropriate technology be tolerated and encouraged within
the institutional framework of Government at levels where the influences of
Western 'experts' is strong? is there a role for Provincial and National
Authorities to monitor and control such developments in line with
externally driven priorities? and many more need to be addressed if all
parties, not just the local participants in the schemes, are to contribute
to the process of embedding a very important resource into the democratic
framework of the country. Legitimate stakeholders in the development
process must be found within all levels of government, from Local Area
Councils to Parliament, to build on the initial successes of technology
exchange to create a sustainable infrastructure for the long term.

The potential for success demonstrated by these projects, and amplified by
the increasing amount of indigenous co-operative assistance as each scheme
takes advantage of its predecessor's expanded skills and experience, makes
timely solutions to these issues critical.

6. References:

Bryce P. " Energy Supply in the Pacific; a caricature of the interaction of
technical, political and environmental issues", Energy, Economics and
Environment International Conference, Australian Institute of Energy,
Sydney, March, 1994

Srinivasan M., " The assessment and role of small hydropower in rural
development", Workshop on Small-scale hydropower technology application in
the Asian rural setting, A.I.T. Bangkok, Thailand, NRECA publication, 1981,
part5, p.308.

Saunier G. and Mohanty B., "Overview and guidelines for rural
electrification", Rural Electrification Guidebook for Asia and theced
residents.

Table 1 omitted.

Copyright 1994

Allen Gianatti

Facilitator ET-PERTH
gianatti@cleo.murdoch.edu.au
Tel +61 +9 +2744729

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Date: Mon, 4 Apr 1994 14:01:18 +0800
Subject: ET-PERTH Facilator Announcement.

Dear Participants,

If you wish to ask any of the authors any questions please post the
questions to ET-PERTH. The face to face conference commences on Wednesday
and the questions asked by the electronic particpants will be passed on to
the authors for reply.

Post any comments or questions on the abstracts to ET-PERTH@SEARN.SUNET.SE
and in subject line include paper id.

Thanks

Allen Gianatti

Facilitator ET-PERTH
gianatti@cleo.murdoch.edu.au
Tel +61 +9 +2744729