diff --git a/openquake/utils/db/__init__.py b/openquake/utils/db/__init__.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/openquake/utils/db/__init__.py
+++ b/openquake/utils/db/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+from sqlalchemy.databases import postgres
+import geoalchemy
+
+# This allows us to reflect 'geometry' columns from PostGIS tables.
+# This is slightly hack-ish, but it's either this or we have to declare
+# columns with the appropriate type manually (yuck).
+postgres.ischema_names['geometry'] = geoalchemy.Geometry
+
+
+
+def create_engine(
+    dbname, user, password='', host='localhost', engine='postgresql'):
+    """
+    Function wrapper for :py:func:`sqlalchemy.create_engine` which helps
+    generate a db connection string.
+    """
+
+    conn_str = '%s://%s:%s@%s/%s' % (engine, user, password, host, dbname)
+    db = sqlalchemy.create_engine(conn_str)
+    return db
basic stuff to setup dbloader utils