Art of Life

"One can live in a number of ways, and no one can be a judge of how life is to be lived. But there are times when we may find that life itself has become an art; the entire process of living is transformed from something mechanical and separate to ourselves to something which is deeply personal and conducted with the finesse of an artist. Our attitude which may have been complacent at one time, may at another become ever-changing and persevering, similar to the persistence of the painter stroke until he arrives at the perfection that he seeks. Along the way, much happens & much is learnt. In the end we have the masterpiece of the realization. "

"In the Art of Life, we will introduce such instances where a perception, an attitude, an insight, an experience, can bring out some beautiful aspects of human nature. Each tale may not be true in the strictest sense of the word or that which is apparent to the eye and understood by the mind, but underneath the surface, in subtle terms it explores and expresses itself, and lets out the fragrance of its inner truth for all to take in."

-Anonymous

http://nextfuture.sriaurobindosociety.org.in/may08/nf_home.htm

Facilitating Locals to Develop Micro Hydro

One key aspect of the Purna Guma micro hydro is the creation of local developers. There are two main lessons that has led Gram Vikas to facilitating the creation of local micro hydro developers:

1. The previous projects were done using developers from Delhi and Bangalore. Once the developers receive their payments, they do not stick around, especially in malaria infested Kalahandi, Orissa. They are always willing to have assistance by phone/email...but in the end it is really discouraging for villagers to keep trying to troubleshoot when they haven't been given any training. For instance, we've had to fix the Karlapat gate valve on our own multiple times since its commissioning 1.5 yrs ago. A few months ago the shaft of one of the turbines had sheared, with no clear explanation. It took 2 months to repair. Such events affect the people's faith in the technology.

2. In the past GV micro hydro staff have been part of a special project syndrome. Since the micro hydro projects are pilot projects, they are seen as very special. Indeed 24hrs of clean electricity is special, but in the case of our staff, he feels he has to prove what he knows. In reacting to their insecurities, GV micro hydro staff failed to facilitate villagers to hold their own meetings, to do simple trouble shooting, and simply to emotionally own the system. In the end the staff leaves because he has come down with malaria too many times, and villagers have no choice but to take on the staff's technical and social duties. The villagers that have taken on the responsibilty of keeping the system alive are a handful of individuals which were voted to be the micro hydro committee. In the end, when the entire village hasn't gone thru the process of taking managment and technical responsibilities gradually, they end up chastising the committee and viewing Gram Vikas as an electric company that maintains the micro hydro. We have worked hard in the previous project to break this cycle of shunning responsibility...still, often the old mindset creeps in.

Having learned from the above two lessons, Gram Vikas is taking on a new approach to community-based micro hydro in the case of the Purna Guma project:

1. Design and manufacture the turbine and controller locally

With the help of Practical Action, we are transferring the know-how of building micro hydro turbine and controller to Bhavanipatna, a town 1hr away from the micro hydro villages. No more need to eternally wait for Bangalore/Delhi based developers for repair work. The villagers can take a bus to Bhavanipatna and meet the manufacturer in person. We've come across a very sincere and excited machine shop owner in Bhavanipatna, Pobitro Dada, who I am already seeing blossom into a local turbine developer.

He has an electrical engineer friend who we are hoping will learn how to build controllers. The only remaining task to localize is the civil works. Vaishnav Singh from the Karlapat system can transform into a civil works expert, already being involved with Purna Guma construction and local government buildings.

2. Faciliate mentoring between experienced villages and new villages

Vaishnav Singh and Anand Singh from the Karlapat system have been mentoring Purna Guma from the early stages. Essentially the social mobilizing that was done by GV staff is now being done by local leaders. It has worked wonderfully, especially since Vaishnav and Anand have gone thru difficult times and know in hindsight how certain processes, e.g. group meetings, corpus collection, recording trouble shooting in log books, etc. can chance the course of a micro hydro project.

The vision is to have the social and technical leaders of each micro hydro project form a cooperative. This would allow locals, who have no choice but to live in these remote areas, to drive the development process and also can make an income by implementing micro hydro for their region's villages. There is a new site in sight--Pui Guda. Beautiful dark rock and falling water. I am hoping Vaishnav Babu will form a team and will implement the project on his own.

3. Faciliate the community to manage and drive the construction process

Despite Vaishnav Babu serving as the consultant of the civil works at Purna Guma, the community is blessed with 3 hamlets that each have very pro-active leaders who always thinks 2 steps ahead. There have been so many pleasing instances in the last 2 months (the construction period) where Purna Guma has shown that they will lead their own construction. While I continue to try and convince Karlapat to bury it's penstock (it's been 2 years!), Purna Guma leaders were lecturing to us about making the sure pipe is buried to prevent damage from UV rays and falling rock. In addition to Purna Guma having innate qualities of leading the project, not having any GV engineer on-site has made a huge difference. Although I have an engineering degree, Purna Guma is the first time I've managed any hands-on construction. The villagers see how little I know...and they know there is no one else. So they pester Vaishnav Babu and the masons for answers. They also learn from their own experience. The best part has been to watch them thru their mistakes. They never get discouraged; they simply try again and again until they get it right. For instance, we were measuring and cutting rods for the channel. They knew how long the rods needed to be, but they kept mis-reading the measuring tape which did not consecutively mark inches (e.g. the 13th inch was labled as 1", since the foot was already noted). Jay Singh Babu, the best of the leaders, kept making the same mistake...but not once did he get upset or give up. ...I guess surviving in the forest gives such people great energy to be persistent.