Reference :
V-P-PK-E-00952
Date :
20/08/2010
Caption :
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Buner district, near Baykhanae village.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
On the 21st August, two ICRC field officers and an ICRC water engineer from Peshawar, made an assessment of a micro hydro-electric plant owned by a local man from Baykhanae village, 65-year-old Abdul Ghafoor. The plant was badly damaged during days of torrential rain that swept across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in late July and it cut off the power supply to the four villages which the station served.
Ten years ago, Mr Ghafoor decided to do something to help his community. He sold his land in Saray union council and went to Lahore to buy machinery and equipment for the power station which he installed on the banks of a fast flowing river near his village. He has managed the plant by himself ever since, and finances its maintenance by charging householders the tiny sum of 20 rupees each per month. The electricity that his micro plant produces enables some 400 households -- about 2,800 people -- to light their homes, mill their grain, charge their mobile phones and watch TV.
Following the assessment, the team agreed that without doubt the plant needed repair, and that the project was one the ICRC could support. It will involve buying two generators, rebuilding the station's small power house, reconstructing the canals channeling water from the river, and improving access to the intake pipe and drainage outlet, which also need repair.
The work will take about one month according to the ICRC delegate in charge of the work. "What makes this such a good project is that it comes from the community and will go back to the community," he explains. "It will enable the community to recover what it had initiated, and then lost because of the rain."
Resolution :
4272x2848
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
