solar eco village - bonn

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World Renewable Energy Acceleration: No moretime to waste

World Renewable Energy Assembly 2005World Renewable Energy Assembly 2005

(WREA 2005)(WREA 2005)

November 26th to 30th, 2005

Hotel Kanzler,

Bonn, Germany

Appendix- 3


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By

Raymond MylesSecretary General-cum-Chief Executive, INSEDA

and

Regional Coordinator, INFORSE, South AsiaThird Floor, St. Soldier Tower, Vikas Puri,

New Delhi-110018, India

SOLAR ECOSOLAR ECO--VILLAGEVILLAGE

(Promotion & implementation of sustainable energy based eco(Promotion & implementation of sustainable energy based eco--

village development programme in the desert state ofvillage development programme in the desert state ofRajasthan, India)Rajasthan, India)


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Why Solar Eco-village?

Poor people have been living in some of the worst conditions forPoor people have been living in some of the worst conditions forcenturiescenturies

In spite of this, these people have learnt to survive, as thereIn spite of this, these people have learnt to survive, as there were nowere noother options available to themother options available to them

However, massive destruction of ecology and environment andHowever, massive destruction of ecology and environment and

desertification is threatening the survival of humankind, and thdesertification is threatening the survival of humankind, and theeworst affected would be the poor people living in rural areas ofworst affected would be the poor people living in rural areas of thethedeveloping countriesdeveloping countries

Plight of the poor for centuries and now due toPlight of the poor for centuries and now due to

destruction of microdestruction of micro--ecoeco--systemssystems


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Current plight of poor due to destruction of theirCurrent plight of poor due to destruction of their

support systemsupport system-- i.e. the local microi.e. the local micro--ecoeco--systemssystems

2 billion people live below the poverty line, globally

Number of poor, both in terms of total figure as well as in percentagehas been going up over the years

Majority of poor, marginalized and deprived people live in the ruralareas of the developing countries

This gap has been steadily increasing, with population growth, andthe lack of activities to address livelihood of such groups in asustainable manner


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Energy and Poor

Almost 2 billion people in the world, mainly poor and coming from

the developing countries of the world have no access to sustainableenergy

And this situation is steadily worsening with the demand of energygoing up and the current energy production and electric power

generation is not going up with the in the same proportion

As energy being inputs to all the other services, including thosemeant for poverty reduction are not reaching the poor either due to

inadequate supply or high cost of transmission due to remotenessfrom the main grid, thus the status of poor remain the same.


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Situation in India

Major percentage of India population (75% of about 1.2 billionpeople) approximately 900 million lives in 600,000 villages, spreadthrough out the country, some of the villages are located in veryremote and far-flung areas, therefore inaccessible- refer Map-1.

Over 35% of people in rural areas of India are living below thepoverty line, at subsistence and below subsistence level

Majority of the people living in these villages have either no access

or only limited access to sustainable energy.


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Rural people and present energy use for domesticpurpose in India

Rural people in India have been meeting their domestic cooking needs fromfuel wood, seasonal biomass from crop and animal residues, burnt asinefficient fuel, which are mainly collected by women

This is one of the main causes, which contributes to their drudgery andleads to both indoor and outdoor pollution and environmental problems

Efforts have been made in the last two decades to solve the rural energy

problems, using renewable energy technologies, however, taking energy inisolation will not solve the problem in a sustainable manner.

India has been involved in the systematic promotion/ implementation of lowcost house hold biogas plants in rural areas of the country, in the last over

two decades, under the National Project of Biogas Development (NPBD) ofthe Ministry of Non-Conventional Sources of Energy (MNES), Govt. of India

However, Biogas and other RET programmes are merely energy promotionprogrammes, being implemented in isolation and thus not addressing the

other more important needs of the rural people, especially the poor.


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Learning & experience

Government sponsored RET promotion programme is mainly an energy technologyoriented implementation programmes, and people/end users are expected to adjustto the new RET.

Therefore, it is generally left to the implementing agency as to how they implementand integrate RETs with in their other developmental programmes, at the local level.

This is one of the main barriers in addressing poverty reduction through RETs

The male of the house is not so critically aware about the drudgery of the female inthe household:

in collecting fuel wood and making dung cakes as fuel etc. The cooking of food; and much less concerned about the indoor pollution due to cooking, affecting health of woman,

girl child & children staying with their mother while cooking in rural areas.

Some of the key lessons learnt from RET promotion by NGOs in rural India:


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Need for addressing issues effectively

Technological approach to the implementation, treats the RET as an end in it self,where the people (End Users) are expected to change and adjust to the needs of thenew technology, developed outside their local socio-cultural environment.

In other words local people are expected to invest their savings in technologies soldby manufacturer who used rural areas as market place, without addressing to theimportant needs of the local people.

In the light of the practical experience gained and lessons learnt, NGOs led byINSEDA decided to re-look at RET implementation strategy in rural areas of India.

Threadbare discussions & critical review gave a new promotional and implementationstrategy for RET, keeping people in the centre, can be called Socio-technical.

In the Socio-technical approach the local community/people (the end users) areconsidered and recognized as the primary stake holders and are kept in the center of

any developmental, promotional and implementation programmes, the RET is only bea means to empower people, and would be adjusted and modified to suit andadequately address the important needs of the targeted people/community.

This new shift in approach would require change in the existing mind set ofpromotional and implementing agencies as well as the other external stakeholders.


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Solar Eco-village to address the socio-technical

issues effectively

Based on interaction and feedback with INSEDA members, it was

felt that a comprehensive approach was required in which thepromotion of RET will be used as an important tool to address theproblems of the local community, based on the lessons learnt.

The best approach was to take village as the smallest unit of

development and integrate RET based on the consideration for therestoration/conservation of existing micro-eco-system, following apeople-centered approach.

Thus the idea of community oriented Sustainable Energy basedEco-village development or the the community oriented solar eco-village development programme was conceived by the SecretaryGeneral, INSEDA.


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A simple conceptual solar eco-village model

n A simple, people-centered solar eco-village development (SVED) modelwas first conceptualized by INSEDA in the year 2000- refer- Chart- I.

n Subsequently, based on interaction and feed-back with INSEDAsmembers, Master Plan and programme as well as a broad strategy was

worked out for implementation of pilot demonstration-cum-training model, asa starting point See map of Bharatpur with the location of 12 village- Map- 3.

n As against other models, the local people (community) were kept in thecenter-this was the starting point of discussions, which lead to the present

Solar Eco-village development programme, presented in this paper.

It was also recognized that once placed on the ground its should getevolved based on the learning curves, therefore required lots of flexibility.

INSEDA in partnership with WAFD (Womens Action For Development), agrassroots womens development organisation, mobilized very smallfunding from an overseas funding agency, to start a joint programme in asmall scale in 12 villages (where WAFD was already operating for adecade), in the Bharatpur district of Rajasthan (India), to convert these

existing villages in to people-centered solar eco-villages.


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Some basic information about SolarEco-villages programme area

(Refer- Map- 2,3 & 4)


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Approximately 800-900 million people live rural areas of India, in 600,000villages, spread through out the country, some of them very inaccessible.

Majority of the people living in these villages have either no access or partialaccess to sustainable energy and have chronic shortage of power supply.

Rajasthan is a state suffering from poverty and drought, and in which the

status of women is very low, even as compared to the Indian standards.

Rural areas of Bharatpur district have no exception to this. The averagepopulation of the target villages is 600 to 800, the inhabitants belonging todifferent castes.

Bharatpur is located about 200 km from Delhi and 50 km from Agra (homeof Taj Mahal). Bharatpur is the home of the famous national bird sanctuary.

But in the past one decades or so the agro-eco-system of the Bharatpurdistrict has become very fragile, due to its close proximity to the Mathurarefinery (located 30 km from Bharatpur city), destruction of forest, as well asunprecedented use of chemical inputs (fertiliser, pesticides and insecticides)and over-exploitation of ground water for irrigating agricultural crops.


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Rural areas of the Bharatpur district and other districts in Rajasthanstate have been suffering from drought and poverty for centuries.

One of the biggest problems in the area is soil erosion; land

degradation and depletion of fertility of sub-soil each year, causedby population growth and widespread use chemical fertilisers,pesticides and insecticides.

The main livelihood of the villages in the area is animal husbandryand agriculture.

The principal cultivated agricultural crops are wheat, mustard, fodderfor buffalo and cattle, and lentils and chilli in some areas.

Due to very low annual rainfall during in the last few years,groundwater level in Bharatpur district has been steadily going downat an alarming rate.


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Low rainfalls during the season has also resulted in the lowering ofwater table in a number of wells, thus putting them out of regular

work, and creating almost drought like conditions in the last 3 years,affecting the agricultural and animal husbandry operations, whichhas contributed to further impoverishment of the local rural people.

Often water has to be carried from further and further away, whichhas increased the workload of women living in the area.

One of the biggest problems is soil erosion, land degradation anddepletion of fertility of sub-soil each year, caused by the widespread

use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides & insecticides. Farming is mainly dependent on external inputs and requires high

cash resources.

If for some reason crops fail which normally happens in the target

area once in four year cycle due to failure of monsoon and othernatural disasters, the farming communities go in to heavy debts.

Often the rural people are unable to repay to the money lenders andother lending agencies, which further impoverish them, as they arealready living at subsistence/ near subsistence level.


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Women and young girls often get respiratory disorders whencooking food indoor on open fire.

Cooking related problems, like drudgery and health and disease ofwomen and infant children, in rural areas.

This problem could also be solved by introduction of other affordablerenewable energy technologies, like smokeless cook stoves,biomass briquettes and solar cookers, while reducing pollution,

protecting the local environment and reducing carbon dioxideemission to the atmosphere.

Womens drudgery and present form of energy

utilization in rural India and possible solutions


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Gap between RET development in India and

their acceptance

Many low-cost, small-scale renewable energytechnologies (RET) have been developed in India.

However, awareness and information about the fieldapplications of these RET are not spreading fastenough for people especially in the countryside, to

understand their benefits for accepting and large-scaleadoption.


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Till date over 3.5 million household biogas plants have already been

built in the rural areas of India. This figure looks very impressive, butwhen compared to the potential of building household biogas plantsusing the manure from bovine (cattle and buffalo) population inIndia, it would be more than 15 million and could go up to 20 millionas the bovine population is also increasing. Thus only 25 percent of

the total potential of bovine manure has been covered till date.

Since the Indian biogas programme comes within the purview of theMNES, in spite of best efforts, the implementing individuals andorganisation, only concentrate on advocating the energy potential ofbiogas plants. Thus the other important aspect, which is organicmanure production from biogas plants, is not promoted vigorously.

Status of biogas implementation, gaps betweenpotential and achievements and limitation of

subsidies based implementations


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Status of Biogas and other RET Implementation inBharatpur under the Government sponsored schemes

As far as Bharatpur district is concerned it has not been given any target forbuilding biogas plants, for the past few years (either from the stategovernment or any other intermediate nodal agency for building biogasplant) under the NPBD (National Project on Biogas Development) of theMinistry of Non-Conventional Sources (MNES).

Due to non-availability of subsidies the farmers in the Bharatpur districts(and for that matter in the entire Rajasthan state for building biogas plants)only those people who are willing to meet the entire cost of the biogasplants from their own resources at present, can build them.

Due to this restriction in allocation of subsidies, so far using these funds forintegrating the biogas programme within the Solar EVD programme has notbeen possible.


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Some of the key problems in the proposed

solar eco programme villages

Lack of employment opportunity Lack of sustainable energy

Lack of Irrigation facilities

Most of the farmers take only one crop per year, if failsdue failure of monsoon, they get into heavy debts frommoney lenders, and migrate to cities in search of jobs

Lack of credit and marketing facilities


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Rationale of taking village as the smallest unit ofdevelopment to establish model solar eco-village

From the practical point of view, based on the discussions among the representativesof the two programme partners it was decided to consider village as the smallest unitor micro eco-system for undertaking solar EVD programme.

The rationale and basis for this realisation and understanding was because thevillages are recognised by the official agencies in India, as both socio-politically aswell as administratively defined as the smallest geographic units for promoting andimplementing any developmental programmes.

Therefore, a programme like this has greater chances of getting replicated in any

geographical area in India by mobilising government funds for development.

Thus making such a programme sustainable would be easier, after the NGOs havedemonstrated the concept by successfully implementing and operating it for aconsiderable period of time, to show the practicality of EVD concept in a small scale

having value for replicability for different situations.

Later on the NGOs could use these units as the training-cum-demonstration centresfor other NGOs and MLPIs as well as government agencies for wide disseminationand replication of such models with appropriate modifications.


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Solar Eco-village development (SEVD)

(Overall Goal)

The overall goal of the programme is togradually convert selected villages, in the

operational areas of INSEDAs memberNGOs into people-centered, renewableenergy based model solar eco-villages.


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The broad Objectives the present SEVD programme are:

Establish community oriented, model renewable energy based eco-villages by converting at least 12 of the target villages of one of the

partner grassroots NGOs of INSEDA in 2 blocks of Bharatpur districtin the desert state of Rajasthan in India,

Capacity building of local people and utilizing them for theregeneration, protection and conservation as well as optimum

utilization of the natural resources so that they will not get furtherdepleted in the future

Up gradation of skills of local artisans in the implementation, repairand maintenance of RE

Micro-credit/Financing programme as a means of income generatingactivities and addressing the livelihood issues


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Solar Eco-Village Programme:

The joint programme of INSEDA with its grassrootspartners, WAFD (Womens Action For Development) is

planned to be implemented in 15 years, in 3 mainphases as given below:

a). Pilot Phase: First 2 years- April 2002 to March 2004 (finished)

b). Main Phase- 12 years in four sub-phases of 3 yearproject each, as given below:

(i) First Sub-Phase: April 2004 to March 2007 (on going) (ii) Second Sub-Phase: April 2007 to March 2010

(iii) Third Sub-Phase: April 2010 to March 2013 (iv) Fourth Sub-Phase: April 2013 to March 2016

c). Handing over & withdrawal phase: April 2016 to March 2017


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Pilot Phase: First 2 years- April 2002 to March 2004

Selection of rural volunteers from each of the 12 target solar eco-villages forawareness, motivation, training, demonstration and implementation in theirrespective villages.

Develop capacity building of newly appointed EVD (Eco-village

development) staff and upgrade their skills to act as trainers-cum-implementers

Train barefoot volunteers to act as motivator and undertake demonstrationprogrammes in their respective villages,

Implement a few training-cum-demonstration renewable energytechnologies, as well as other environmental benign and eco-friendlytechnologies and activities in these 12 selected villages.

Keeping the goal of developing 12 model solar Eco-villages in sharpfocus, specific objectives of the two-year duration pilot project were:


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Implementation of Solar Eco-VillageProgramme

Pilot Project- 2 years Period

( April 2002 to March 2004)


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Selection of 12 villages to implement model Solar

Eco-village development (SEVD) programme

Short-listing of first group of 30 villages out of the 90target villages of the grassroots partner NGO

INSEDA joint programme partner of SEVD, namely WAFD(Womens Action For Development) is a grassroots NGO hadbeen operating in 90 villages in the 4 blocks of Bharatpur district

for about a decade, through need-based, education andcommunity development programmes for the benefit andempowerment of women, adolescent girls and children.

As a result of this WAFD had developed good rapport toundertaken any other developmental programme through peoplesparticipation.


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However, as only 12 villages had to be converted/developed asmodel Solar eco-village, the EVD staff along with INSEDAdeveloped broad criteria for the final selection through following aprocess oriented approach in four month period, which issummarized as under:

The pre-selection of 60 villages based on the desk-analysis ofsecondary data of about 90 villages (and feedback from WAFD staffwho were working in these villages) from 4 blocks in which WAFD

was already implementing community development activities/projects with focus on women, adolescent girls and children for thepast several years.

This was followed by conducting reconnaissance survey and

interaction with people from these villages 30 villages in the secondround as per the criteria fixed jointly by WAFD and INSEDA.


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Subsequently, RRA (Rapid Rural Appraisal) of these 30villages was done in the third round to select and finalizea list of 12 villages for the proposed solar EVDprogramme, with a view to short-list a more

comprehensive survey of these 30 villages

The objective of selecting 12 villages was to ensure that

even if a maximum of 2 selected villages dropped outduring the course of implementation, due to any reasons,and we are not able to replace them with other 2villages, there would still be at least 10 model Solar Eco-villages, as per the original plan of the EVD programme.


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Selection of Local Volunteers from the 12 target villages

Selection of rural volunteers from each of the 12 target solar eco-villages (2 female and 2 male per village), a total of 48 volunteers.

They were trained as barefoot volunteers, for awareness,motivation, training, demonstration and implementation in theirrespective villages.

These 48 people (24 female and 24 male) selected in consultationwith the local communities, were trained as train barefootvolunteers, develop capacity building of newly appointed EVD (Eco-village development) staff and

Implement a few training-cum-demonstration renewable energy, aswell as other environmental benign and eco-friendly technologiesand activities in these 12 selected villages.


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Participatory preparation of village social maps

and their dream of Eco-village in pictorial forms

During the process of regular monthly training workshops these 48rural volunteers, who together form the Rural Energy & EcologicalVolunteers Corps (REEVOCs) prepared social maps of their existingvillages.

Second exercise was done by the REEVOCs to prepare a Pictorialsketch of their common dream solar eco-village in which they wouldall like to live in. This process was facilitated by the INSEDA

specialists and SEVD Staff of WAFD.


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Model Solar Eco-Village

As a part of the exercise, the REEVOCs were formed into 4 groups to prepare (based on their own perception)their dream Eco-villages.

These were presented and based on that all of them (48members) prepared one common dream Solar Eco-Village, which will meet all their requirements (energy,

food, water, sanitation and sustainable livelihood). The above Model Solar Eco-Village, and is shown inChart-II, which they would like to live in.

Now the entire group is working towards achieving the

goals of achieving this model solar eco-village during thenext 15 years under the guidance of INSDEA & WAFD.


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Implementation of the First part of the Main Solar

Eco-Village Development Programme Period from April 2004 to March 2007

The 48 members of REEVOCs were trained on theimportant aspects of RE and other technology toundertake awareness and motivation programmes intheir respective villages

Household data collected during the pilot project, wasfed in the computer to prepare database in MS Access. Itwill be used as baseline data to measure change an d

impact, for which indicators are being finalised. Number of appropriate technologies have been

demonstrated by INSEDA and WAFD.


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Based on training-cum-demonstration the following REand the ecological and environmental oriented

programmes have been implemented in the 12 solareco-villages-Some of them are: Household Biogas Plants, Roof-top rain water harvestings structures,

Vermiculture NADEP Compost, Biomass experimental biogas plants,

Solar Cookers demonstration Household Briquetting demonstration

Programme implementation with in the solareco-villages


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Plantation of Jatropha as bio-fuel Organic farming, Sanitation and toilet

Micro-credit/Micro-financing groups for small loans forincome generation activities,

Capacity building and trainings are the on goingactivities.

As the local people are developing confidence, they aredemanding other RE gadgets. However, they have beenasked to wait till appropriate trainings are organized for

them and the local skills are up graded in the installation,maintenance and repairs, so that these facilities could beavailable with in solar eco-villages


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Map of India showing the state ofRajasthan

Map-1


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A Simple Conceptual People-centered Solar Eco-VillageDevelopment (SEVD) Model

Agriculture People Animals

Water

Energy Marketing linkages that will alsoinvolve womens groups in

production and processing of

agro-based produce, packagingand using marketing channels

Motivation and organization of

community and capacity building

of NGOs and Micro-level

People's Institutions-MLPIs, likeCBOs, SHGs, women, youth

groups and Panchayats etc.

Demonstrations of

appropriate technologies

and related activities, with a

view to integrate them within

the solar Eco village

Self-employment and

employment generation in

providing services, and

processing activities forlandless peasants, rural youth

and artisans

Chart-I


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Map of Rajasthan showingBharatpur district

Map- 2


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Map of Bharatpur district (Rajasthan state) showing SeverBlock where the SVD programme is located in 12 villages

Map- 3


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Map of Sever Block (Bharatpur district) showing locations ofthe 12 Solar Eco-Villages

Map- 4


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Chart- II


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Photos shows different stages of weaving of bamboo structures for the construction ofbamboo reinforced cement mortar (BRCM) Grameen Bandhu biogas plant, by poor

landless rural women from one of the solar eco-villages


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Photos shows laying of foundation, digging of pit and placing andfixing of woven bamboo structure for construction of BRCM

Grameen Bandhu biogas plant at a farmers house


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Photos show two different stages of construction of BRCM GrameenBandhu BGP at farmer house, using the bamboo structures weavedearlier by poor landless rural women from one of the solar eco-village


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Photos shows different stages of construction of BRCM Grameen Bandhu biogasplant, by the trained master masons a farmer from one of the solar eco-village


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Photos shows final stages of the construction of BRCM GrameenBandhu biogas plant for a farmer from one of the solar eco-village


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Thank You

solar eco village - bonn

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