Additional 45m transported

After getting the information about the additional 45m of pipe needed to complete the required length of the penstock, Nepal Poly Pipe immediately got the 7 pieces of pipe ready. Mr.Shyam Lama came to Kathmandu right away to pick them up and transported it to the village. Although on our side it was only making a few phone calls to Nepal Poly Pipe and coordinating between them and Mr. Shyam Lama, the eagerness and interest of the villagers made it possible to get the pipe transported within 24 hours. At the beginning we were very worried because transporting the pipe could be a big problem. After spending on the peltric set and especially the pipes we couldn't afford to spend more money on renting a truck and a driver to transport just those 7 pieces of pipe. However, now, the penstock is officially 465m long and all the required amount of pipe is at the village ready to be connected so we can move on to the next phase of construction.

420m of pipe insufficient

The construction work had been running smoothly until June 8th when we discovered that 420m long pipes that had already been transported to the village were insufficient. We had been hoping that all the construction work related to the pipes i.e. connecting all the High Density Polyethylene Pipe would be complete by 8th / 9th June so that we could proceed to the next step of the project i.e. wiring in the village. The local correspondent in the village contacted us to inform that all the pipes had been used up and 45m more was needed to complete this phase of the project.

In the initial stage when the project started, the rough estimation of the length of the pipe required was made in a traditional way by using a string. Thus, the distance between the river and the location where the power house would be constructed i.e. the length of the penstock for the generation of appropriate amount of electricity was determined. In order to prevent the situation we are facing today, the length was measured three times then but that obviously wasn’t enough. However, when the construction began, the flexibility of the string used to measure caused room for error. This situation wasn’t completely unexpected but the only issue was the problem of transporting 7 more pieces of pipes that weigh 4kgs each.
We have decided to contact Nepal Poly Pipe and buy additional 45m of pipe from them as soon as possible so that the construction work can continue and we can generate electricity on time.

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!

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.

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.