PAKISTAN: Cheap, Clean Energy Blowing in the Wind

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Zofeen T. Ebrahim

KARACHI, Oct 1 2005 (IPS) - Till about seven months back, the village of Ghulam Muhammad Goth, north of this port city, had no electricity. ”Now our village seems alive even after sunset, till almost midnight,” says a beaming 18-year old Perween.

At a distance of about 10 km from the national power grid, Perween and about 800 other residents of Ghulam Mohammed Goth could not think of active life after dark until modern windmills changed all that.

A small ‘windfarm’, consisting of 18 wind turbines each capable of generating 500 watts of electricity and installed by the state-run Pakistan Council for Renewable Energy and Technologies (PCRET), was enough to power, in each home, two low-energy bulbs, a fan and, most importantly, a television set.

The arrival of electricity will not change many things for Perween and other women in this village of mostly thatch-roofed mud huts. They will still have to contend with smoky, wood-burning stoves and worry about fetching water from a distance.

But, the fact that the villagers can watch television at night has suddenly made their lives more interesting, even if it is staid government -controlled programmes.

”We all gather after dinner is over and watch a play, listen to the 9 o’ clock news, some religious programmes or even watch those giving cookery lessons,” said a pleased Farida, Abdul Hakim’s wife.

There are still only three television sets in the whole village, owned by the more well-off households, but everybody is welcome to troop in and watch. Surprisingly, the hot favourite is still cricket- even with the women.

But sitting together before the flickering screen after nightfall and while nimble fingers fly at the embroidery, has enhanced the sense of camaraderie that comes naturally to village women.

Celebratory events are more fun. ”Oh, it’s so much fun to sing and dance through the night. I like the nighttime festivity as days are always hot,” says Tasnim.

Daytime is busy with the routine chores of life in a backward village and, for most of the women, sheer drudgery, but the arrival of electricity seems to have made it all the more bearable.

For the planners, the big question is how to extend the benefits of cheap and environment-friendly windpower to more of the 10,000 or so small villages and settlements in Sindh province that still remain without electricity.

Ghulam Umar Sarhandi, the director of PCERT, explains that he sees ”no big impact evident for the moment”, but is optimistic that by 2010, something like five percent of the primary energy needs of Pakistan will be met through different renewable energy resources- wind, solar, small hydro plants and biomass.

Wind energy, is favoured along this coastal belt of Pakistan. ”Solar radiation is not strong enough due to cloudy/partly cloudy weather from April to September, but solar energy projects have been initiated in some interior areas of Sindh where the sun’s rays are better captured,” said Sarhandi.

Another problem with installing photovoltaic cells, that harness solar radiation, in the coastal areas is maintenance. ”The cells have to be kept squeaky clean and this is not always possible due to the moist sandy wind blowing in from the coasts, but this does not hamper the working of the wind turbines”.

So far, 15 villages have been electrified using wind power and PCRET plans to complete 35 more by June 2006 and has a target of doing 200 villages by 2010.

While the pace is slow, Sarhandi feels that given the fact that fossil fuels are depleting, not to mention polluting, there is little choice but to look to resources like wind, solar and even wave/tidal energy on the coastal stretch.

With the benefits of electrification apparent, there is also growing popular demand from the villagers which the government cannot easily ignore and officials at PCRET think they are looking at the beginnings of a revolution.

”Now when I have to move about the village after dark I’m not scared of snakes or the scorpions and I can see my way,” says 12-year-old Shamsheer, Abdul Hakim’s daughter, talking about practical benefits that people in urbanised Pakistan have long taken for granted.

”Not only can we play at night, but we can safely postpone doing homework to the night.,” says Shamsheer who studies in a one-room school, where kids from the village gather and learn as much as they can from a teacher who comes in just three or four days a week.

”She (Shamsheer) won’t ruin her eyesight reading under a dim kerosene lamp,” says her mother glancing away from the television that is still to wear out its novelty.

”I learned about the big storm that occurred in America,” by watching television, she said, referring to Hurricane Katrina.

The ‘idiot box’ has brought about an awareness about the rest of the world to the villagers that would otherwise have been impossible. ” We are not educated. There are only two women among us who can read a newspaper and even there is no one to fetch a paper to us -our village is so remote”.

”Now thanks to the television we come to know many things within and outside our country. We not only know about storms in America but it is possible to learn about storms that are coming this way – quite worrisome,” says Shamsheer’s mother. The credit for getting in good quality Australian and Spanish-made windmills to this small remote village, which not many people have even heard of, goes to a young man of the village – Shahanshah, the person who has made it to Grade 12.

”These are double the price of the Chinese models, but their working efficiency is far better,” says Shahanshah knowledgeably.

”There is a plan to indigenise the technology and talks are underway with engineering universities and workshops for local manufacture,” says Sarhandi.

”I am very fond of surfing the Internet whenever I am in Karachi. That is how I learnt about PCRET and their work and started e-mailing them and persuading them to start a pilot project in my village,” explains Shahanshah, in between calls on his cell phone-another technological wonder that is changing lives in these parts.

It took Shahanshah almost a year of continuous interaction over phone and internet with PCRET before things actually got moving.

”Last week, I was driving back from Karachi, when the city was plunged in complete darkness due to a major breakdown, but as I approached my village I could see, from a distance, tiny specks of light and I said to myself, we will probably never have blackouts here,” said a proud Shahanshah.

The villagers will seeing and even hearing many firsts. ”For the first time the people are able to hear azan (call to prayer) clearly from the mosque-earlier the noisy generator in the mosque would drown out the muezzin’s call,” said Shahanshah, who has plans to organise cricket matches at night for enthusiastic kids.

Electricity bills are still an alien concept, though they are inevitable in the long run. ”Right now the maintenance cost is negligible. But we’ve told them they have to maintain the storage batteries which could give out in a couple of years and will need to be replaced with money pooled in,” said Shahanshah.

”We’ve asked the villagers to form committees and nominate one person to be responsible for each windmill,” says Zulfikar Mehdi, a PCRET field officer who is glad for the other subtle changes that electricity is bringing to village society.

”Some of the women know how to change the fuse, change the water in the batteries, operate the windmills by turning the right switches on and off – they are the prime users and the menfolk may not be available at all times for these simple tasks,” says Shahanshah.

Ghulam Muhammad Goth is now the envy of villages nearby.

”People from Issa Zehri Goth and Abdullah Goth have come and checked out our windmills. They have asked me to assist them in getting the windmills installed in their villages too. I’ve given them PCRET’s contact,” says Shahanshah.

Mehdi nods an affirmative and says PCRET has indeed been in touch with other villages and is looking at the possiblity of replication.

Meanwhile, there is more coming the way of the lucky villagers of Ghulam Muhammad Goth. ”They will soon get a bigger 3.5 kilowatt windmill that is capable of lifting water from a canal that feeds off the Hub Dam,” says Sarhandi.

”We can also give them solar-powered geysers (a PCRET speciality) that can provide hot water in winter, but for that they will have to pay,” said Sarhandi recalling the realities of resource-short villages in Pakistan.