A 620 Acre Triangle of land located between the Pun Hlaing and Hlaing Rivers bordered by water and an industrial estate. The challenge to design and build an 18 hole Golf course in conjunction with a modern housing estate. Amd was requested to design water and waste water treatment systems. At the time waste water was not usually treated beyond a septic tank throughout most of Yangon. The British had built a drainage system for downtown Yangon aimed at a maximum population of 500,000 inhabitants. At Pun Hlaing, it was proposed that waste water would be discharged into a series of canals and lakes located on the estate. This created the need for proper waste water treatment. As the golf course and housing estate were relatively flat, centralized gravity sewerage was considered difficult. The Amd proposal was to install separate and individual Biofilter systems for each of the large canal facing homes. The addition of higher density Apartment and villa style developments required larger biofilters. The proposal went forward (1999) with the importation of biofilters from Australia installation began in 2000. These were situated above brick in ground construction. This solution immediately rendered the laying of long gravity pipelines redundant. Potential infrastructure costs were descaled. After more than a decade the large estate dwellings are still serviced by independent household waste water systems, which was the first time Yangon residential homes had installed modern wastewater treatment.
Amd was also asked to design a potable water treatment system based on the existing tube well water quality. Initially a 50m3 per hour system was installed for phase I which included major show houses and the Golf club house. Two years later a second plant room was constructed to facilitate newly developed areas of the estate, Amd completed that in 2003.
The original plan and concept for PHGE was developed by Mr. Steven Nelson, a visionary Australian project manager. He made a master plan comprising lakes and canals, roads, infrastructure, electrical substations, water treatment, golf club houses and apartments. Provision for a school and hospital and sporting fields were all included and constructed. Initially Steve brought grass from China where he had been engaged in a previous project. Within an eight year period the basic estate framework was complete. Today PHGE is the most well serviced housing and Golf Estate in Myanmar.
Many other industrial estates and housing projects were planned and extensively advertised. Almost none of these projects came to fruition and when they did, the quality, structure and maintenance were completely lacking. It is a credit to Steve Nelson (Pun Hlaing Estate Project Director) and his team that they succeeded where others simply could not. Today the fully drained Golf course suitable for play during the Monsoon, a lake system and mixed residential dwellings provide a unique setting.
