My Dear Steemian Friends,
Today, I'm going to talk about the uniqueness of the NGO organization that I worked with helps the local communities through a micro hydro system.
WHAT IS MICRO-HYDRO
Micro hydro is a type of hydroelectric power that typically produces from 5 kW to 100 kW of electricity using the natural flow of water. The construction of a micro hydro system is normally pretty site specific and will depend on the type of landscape and other considerations.
WHY MICRO-HYDRO
Electrifying local communities through Micro-Hydro help local communities that was unfortunate in term of development. We should be grateful on the privilege that we have right now, because, in some communities, they still depends on oil lamp to provide them visibility at night. In some cases, they depends on generator for them enjoy electricity.
Kids will have difficulties when they want to make revisions at night. People cannot continue to do their work during sun down because it is very dark, so they have to call it a day, and wait for tomorrow sun light. So, by installing “micro-hydro” or “solar panel” or “hydro and solar hybrid”, we can actually stop this from continuing to happen. They also have the rights to enjoy having electricity. This will enable them to extend their working time, making event at night, study, enjoy electronic devices such as Television, Karaoke, cooler box, fan and many more.
Lighting is important for many reasons: it allows people to do work at night; it allows women to separate rice husk from the padi and children to study after dark. It allows crafts to be completed and dances to be practiced. One wise elder in one of the communities even said “We can see each other with the lights”. In every village, the lights allow people to sit up at night and talk.
Microhydro projects enable villagers to charge their hand phones, watch sports and run karaoke machines. Television provides a source of news, and in some cases the community energy projects power telecenters as well.
WHAT IS COMMUNITY MICRO-HYDRO
We define community-based energy systems as those that are not only owned by the community, but also built, supported and managed by the community. The purpose of the community energy project is not simply to provide electricity, but also to empower the community to provide for their own electricity and in their own way. To that end one quarter of the budget of for the projects is typically dedicated to training and building community capacity. The community further contributes to the projects by contributing labor, materials, and (in some cases) capital.
The success of community micro-hydro system will depends on the community itself. “If they want it, they have to work hard to get it”, in other words, funder provides the grant (money) and the contractor installed the micro-hydro system along with the communities. If the communities do not participate in the gotong-royong (share workloads), then, there will be no work force. No work force means the project will be delayed.
Once the project is completed the community is responsible for managing the system as they see fit. As a result, the management systems are very diverse. The management model that the contractor recommends consists of a management committee of competent community members, a regular payment scheme that allows operators to be paid and repairs to be made without external assistance, and strict load management.
The final critical piece of community participation is a watershed management plan. Before each project is complete, the organization leading the project helps the community to map the watershed surrounding the micro-hydro system.
That's all for now and thank you for reading by post.