Friday, May 29, 2009

Construction work speeding

Although pre-Monsoon had alarmed us, the last two sunny days have brought back our spirits up again. The weather finally acted in our favor and in order to make the most out of it, the villagers have been working hard to complete the construction work. The Power House is almost ready with only the construction of the foundation for the set and its installation remaining. In addition, half of the tremendously long penstock has been installed. According to Mr. Keshab Prasad Ghimire who updated us with the latest progress information and shared with us the enthusisum, eagerness and happiness of the villagers to make the project successful and finally get electricity, "villagers of all ages worked hard all day to connect the pipes and got half of it done." Looks like the weather and in fact, nature itself is indeed in our favor...positive signs like these remind me of the book The Alchemist and the possibility of making dreams turn into reality. Oh, we are so totally going to have all the houses in this village lit with electricity! yay!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Equipment arrived despite early monsoon

On 26th May 2009, Mr. Keshab Prasad Ghimire who has been acting as the local correspondent, updating us with the progress of construction in the village and communicating with us regarding any equipment or material required for the construction called us to inform that all the equipment had arrived in the village safely. Despite the early monsoon rain on Monday that had caused landslide on the way and a delay of three hours, Mr. Shyam Lama and Mr. Dhanbahadur Shangtang, the villagers who had come to Kathmandu on the truck successfully transported the equipment to the village.

Monsoon season in Nepal is expected to act as one of the biggest drawbacks of our summer project. The Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD) has said that Monsoon will hit the country early this year, possibly with first shower on 5th June, which is 5 days earlier than the normal date (Kantipur Report.) Monsoon contributes more than 80% of the annual rain (Kantipur Report) followed by torrential rain that benefits 76% of the population which depends on agriculture for living to irrigate land also causes problems of flood and landslide in several parts of the country. Early Monsoon might occupy the villagers around this time of the year in cultivation slowing down the construction work for our project. The monsoon rain can make it more difficult to work outdoors and proceed with the next step of the project i.e. to complete the construction of the Power House and to connect the pipes to make Penstock.

Let's hope that despite the possible hindrance, with the help of the villagers who are thrilled to be finally getting electricity in their village, support from Dr. Damber Bahadur Nepali who has been generously supervising every step of the progress and active participation of Mr. Surendra Mathema and his team from Power Tech Nepal and Mr. Keshab Prasad Ghimire, we will definitely succeed in our goal of generating hydroelectricity for the 30 houses.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Almost all equpiment transported!!

On 24th May 2009, after spending almost an entire day confirming the status of the equipment, on 25th May, we finally transported almost all equipment to the village. A truck arrived in the outskirts of Kathmandu Valley to pick up equipment including tin roof to complete the construction of the Power House, cement and sand to construct the foundation of the Peltric Set, 420m of High Density Polyethylene Pipe from Nepal Poly Pipe for Penstock and Peltric Generating Set from Power Tech Nepal. Dr. Nepali coordinated and led the truck team to various locations where all the equipment and materials were picked up from. Special thanks to him without whose generous help, the all-day-long endeavor would have been impossible.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Philanthropist challenges college students to actively encourage peace

"After reviewing the submissions, Middlebury College President Ron Liebowitz’s office chose to fund an additional project titled “Development of a Model Micro Hydropower Project in Nepal.” Middlebury College sophomore Dristy Shrestha has teamed with two other non-Middlebury students to develop a micro hydropower unit that will generate hydroelectricity for at least 30 households as a model with the hope to inspire and educate other villages and encourage rural development in Nepal."
(Blair Kloman
, March 17th 2009)

More at: http://www.middlebury.edu/about/pubaff/news_releases/2009/pubaff_633734972011022750.htm