Lessons Galore

What great lessons I've learned in the past few weeks!

1. In India, never give a small order to a large company--it may not come thru.
4 months ago we ordered 2 motors for Purna Guma from Kirloskar, an extremely huge industry name. They could not deliver even though we had given an advance. It was a combination of low quality operations, communications, and maybe even not having the motor we needed. I couldn't clearly conclude. Thanks to a friend's reference, we were able to find another supplier.

2. In India, plan 5 times the ideal time required.
Having ordered the motors with a small-scale and referred supplier, they were shipped within 2 weeks of sending an advance payment. BUT thanks to the nation-wide truck strike, the motors were delayed for a week, sitting in the middle of rural Andra Pradesh. Finally, today I got word they have reached their destination. Of course, it will take another few days to get GV's act together in: deciding on the best vehicle to transport the motors (one that than can outsmart the state tax collectors), finding someone besides me to accompany the motors, and finding another vehicle to bring it 12hrs out to Kalahandi district. The logistics story never seems to end....

3. Avoid villagers that like to talk a lot and ride with you in vehicles.
I have been astonished at how some in the village work non-stop. They are usually the quiet and straight forward personalities, often the poorest. However, there are always the 1 or 2 that love giving themselves pats on the back, travelling with you to project some image to their counterparts, etc. Still, I am seeing everyone in the Purna Guma community transforming. Even those that talk more than work have enhanced their skills and understanding one another. The toughest social situations always turn out to be great opportunities.

4. Child labor, village accidents, and plug points.
The hardest lesson this week was realizing after it was too late that while us oldsters (about 15 of us over 15 years of age) sat around at the end of the work day, the only one of us working was Ramesh, seven years old. He kept going on with shoveling the chips for concreting. Until this awakening, I perceived child labor in the Purna Guma project to be voluntary. I finally realized that just because kids were having fun with the work did not mean they were volunteering their efforts. ...Actually, it could be either way. There are kids that skip school in order to see what's going on with the project and then there are others that come only after school. The non-tribal community members blamed the tribal (who are the poorest) families for sending their kids to contribute labor. Labor contribution, as well as a monetary contribution to the corpus micro hydro fund, allows a family in Purna Guma to benefit from the micro hydro project.

I asked why they would send their kids instead of coming themselves. The answer was simple: the adults were busy with fieldwork. Fieldwork allows them to feed their kids. However, the non-tribals hire the tribals to do their fieldwork. Yet, they said, "The tribals are only good for drinking." At this point, I understood that child labor in this project was intertwined with caste culture. ...But I still couldn't sit around with my malaria and let Ramesh do the work, while the rest of watched. Yet, I did not want to impose my values on the community. I have learned in previous projects that it is no good to preach without action. ...Still, I couldn't hold my words. They came out, "Isn't Ramesh your son too?" "How can we let such young kids do the work of adults, as we sit and watch?" Several nods came...and along with a sense of regret.

A few minutes later walking back to the jeep, I stopped by the first house, a tribal house. Went in to say hi and found out that the lady of the house had been in a brutal accident. In Kalahandi, like many rural parts of India, villagers give their labor to generate income. The laborers are often transported in open trucks and tractors. This lady had fallen out of a tractor, broken her shoulder and bruised her skull. A woman that was healthy and perfect the last time I saw her, now was half bald with a deep cut on her head, along with a drooping shoulder. Just then our all-star Jaysingh Babu (non-tribal) walks up to the house to check in on her. He has been the light of the project, always positive and supportive no matter who is working with him. He said no one wanted to touch the lady when the accident happened. "There was blood everywhere. She is tribal. But she is still of our sister. We took her to the hospital. It's a miracle that she is living now. We are lucky." The reason she was sending her young kid to work was because her older son was too busy taking care of her health.

Plug points. Everyone in Purna Guma wants plug points, in addition to lights. However, to limit the number of plugpoints and to fairly charge for the extra consumption of electricity, the plug point requires a one-time Rs. 500 fee, in addtion to the Rs. 1000 contribution to the corpus fund and double tariff. Yogesh, the young and nimble all-star worker from the Lineguda hamlet mistakenly got a plug point wired at his house...of course he likes it and of course no one will be rude and take it away from him now that it is installed. ....Yogesh' youngest kid, 6 months old, has a blown up belly. His mom says, "He has had constant diarrea for several months." I ask Yogesh when he would take him to the doctor in Bhanvanipatna. He says when he has money. ....Earlier, Jaysingh had explained that he spent Rs. 500 on his son's broken arm bills. .....I guess it's getting to me that GV wants to charge extra for plugpoints when we have such a huge project budget and we've been good about streamlining the design and minimizing the expense. Of course, nothing should be given for free...but why are we creating the burden of luxury?

Sorry for the incoherency. Will try again on this topic and others with a clearer mind.

Purna Guma's New Look

See the poles for the transmission line?



Dedicated community!

Environmental Injustice in the Name of Energy Security

The Burmese government is building a gas pipeline from Burma, thru Bangladesh, to India. Does anyone know of websites that have current information on this project?

Here is an outdated link with pertinent background:
http://www.earthrights.org/burmareports/another_yadana_the_shwe_natural_gas_pipeline_project_burma-bangladesh-india.html

The larger picture:
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main39.asp?filename=Ws070608Generals.asp

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.

Penstock woes...or opportunities?

Based on my experience with Gram Vikas' micro hydro, I would say that the penstock laying of a micro hydro system is the most challenging task of implementing a micro hydro system. Severe leaks in the Karlapat system delayed the commissioning by nearly a year! The second system also has leaks. Yesterday, we started the laying of the penstock of the 3rd system, Purna Guma. Bad planning on my part. I was hoping that the remaining tasks--turbine, transmission, etc.--could be done in parallel in the next week...but there are delays in getting the engineers at the site. And due to communication issues, I did not know of the delays until after the penstock supplier reached Kalahandi. ...Therefore, we have a half-done penstock that will cook in the sun until the rest of the tasks can be finished. ...The woes of working with multiple organizations and suppliers...not to mention my reactive emotions....are making my life far from boring.




Un finished installation of gate valve...


The supplier we are using did wonders in fixing the Karlapat leaks, and therefore we chose to use him for Purna Guma. He had come a week earlier to finalize Purna Guma plans with the Practical Action engineer. Plans were finalized but as he started the work, it was not according to plan. We had marked a penstock pathway with the engineer and the villagers. Some goat went away with the string marking, so the villagers guessed and made the 3'x1' path required by the supplier. Luckily their guess was correct, but the supplier wanted to add additional bends when they were not required, simply so that he could finish faster. Also, the villagers worked very hard to make the path, but in hindsight, I don't think the path was needed! As you can see in the photos, it would have helped to have 1' of land to lay the penstock on...


I am bit concerned about the gradual bends...I guess PVC allows this. We'll see when we test for leakage. The earlier marked path by the Practical Action engineer had no bends...


Since I'm complaining, I might as well explain how the supplier keeps going back and forth on whether we should put anchor blocks now or later. Since I questioned his decisions, he decided most of the remaining work on the line should not be finished until the Practical Action engineer arrives.


This supplier is really trustful...but the way he managed the villagers on this project was disappointing. He expected villagers to be out at 5am, as Jaysingh Babu is in this photo, but he himself wanted to leave the site early when villagers were still ready to work. (Every outsider who visits ends up wanting to leave as soon as they come...Maybe it's the remoteness; usually it is that they are a little sick and develop some phobia to stay. I need to find a solution for future visitors.) Villagers have their regular routines so that they can fit into the day all the various tasks they need to do just to survive. They have to take their animals out, do seasonal house repairs, prepare the fields, go to town, maintain their tools. Although these tasks sound simple, they all consume great time. When you require a village to break that routine, it's awful. Usually they end up over working their bodies. Low immune systems in malaria infested Kalahandi is bad news. ...And of course the supplier will be long gone when the villager has to deal with the dilemma of spending the money to visit a doctor 2 hrs away...or just let the malaria take care of itself...Lame. ...I have yet to meet any supplier in India that doesn't make my temperature go up. ....yes, I am breathing and calm...now :)


Because the supplier couldn't get the rated pipes we wanted (10kg) in time (although now we have an extra month thanks to the Practical Action engineers not being able to come and my needing to be in the US for a few weeks), we were forced to get more expensive pipes (12-14kg).


The rising Sun makes all woes disappear...


The guy with the head gear is one of the best mobilizers in the community. He's loud and happy :). I have much to learn from him.


...Not sure why we have to use fiberglass coating for the pipes....If these systems are meant to help the climate change struggle, we need to be examining what parts of the system also contribute to environmental woes, e.g. fiberglass coating, cutting trees for pipe supports, etc.


Fiberglass roll...This saved us in the last project where there were severe leaks due to the penstock being out of spec. ..but I wasn't expecting this to be used in the project. ...It's hard to change the dynamics once work starts...unless I really get my temper out in the open.

For now, I can only take these lessons as opportunities to do better in the next project. ...I shouldn't be so hard on the supplier. He's has been passionate about helping us with the previous leaks (now another older project has leaks), but it is difficult to work with his logic.

I am finding myself in extreme emotions these days. I can't seem to deal with lack of perfection in others...even though I completely lack perfection! I can't deal with the communication gaps, e.g. when people say one thing and do another. I let the negative emotions get the best of me. It is only when a villager at the site sees me that I change a little. ...Usually the older ones know when I am down. I become their daughter for a few moments....tremendous Love is transferred in those few seconds and I feel rejuvenated. Thank you, Universe. I am grateful.

Finishing of Forebay tank

...All site efforts organized by the village construction team...no Gram Vikas field engineer require :)




Silting wall

Plastered and pretty!