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| Thursday, 10 June 2004 |
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Small technologies bringing big boons to rural Lanka by Chandani Jayatilleke Small is beautiful - an internationally renowned German economist, environmentalist and author, Ernest Fritz Schumacher wrote some decades ago referring to the importance of promoting alternative technologies that would not damage the environment among less-privileged communities.
He advocated a technology that was appropriate, smaller in scale - that is intermediate - that use local labour and resources, but are more productive than traditional technologies, yet simpler, less capital intensive and intrusive than imported environmentally destructive technologies. This was at a time when the world thought development can only be gained through mega projects. And he challenged this notion and said it was not the answer for developing nations. He pointed out that the poor communities should have opportunities where they could use simple technologies that can be affordable and convenient. Though many people did not agree with him, his concept became popular. While Schumacher's book - 'Small is beautiful' became an international bestseller, he also initiated an institution called ITDG - Intermediate Technology Development Group an which is now operating in several countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America with support from its head office in the UK. ITDG South Asia office located in Colombo is on a mission to promote Schumacher's concept in Sri Lanka and so far, it has gone into many areas of alternative technology development such as micro hydro energy, disaster mitigation, solid waste management, small scale transport and road development and is promoting various income generation technologies among the rural people in the country. The institution is also known for promoting technologies which are environment-friendly. It has made breakthroughs, suffered setbacks and has also received both bouquets and brickbats during this mission. Micro hydro as an energy option for the poor is a key area of ITDG's focus with a number of years of experience. ITDG initiated micro hydro power projects in 1991, by rehabilitating abandoned micro hydro systems in the estate sector. The estate sector already had some neglected sites which had been used during colonial times, ITDG Country Director, Dr. Vishaka Hidellage said. The tea estates provided a testing ground and ITDG managed to rehabilitate 10 micro hydro systems in the plantation sector with the support of the rural people and community organisations, she said. In Sri Lanka, only the Ceylon Electricity Board has the approval to generate and distribute electricity in the country. Though the law does not allow any company to generate and distribute electricity bypassing the national grid, micro hydro power sites were allowed because the power was used by the rural people only for their households. It was not for any commercial purpose. Also such projects in villages have given the villagers an opportunity to make use of their talents in many different areas. According to Dr. Hidellage, ITDG does not get involved in providing funding but helps connecting the communities with the financial institutions. In mid 1995, ITDG convinced the World Bank to support village hydro promotion through the Energy Service Delivery (ESD) project, by making funding available for rural communities for micro hydro. A WB team had arrived in Sri Lanka then to develop a program to promote solar energy. "We managed to meet them and persuade them to visit a few micro hydro sites which we had already commenced in two villages, Kalugaldeniya and Kohugoda. Though they were reluctant at the beginning, agreed to visit the sites and eventually considered community managed micro hydro for the proposed credit program," Dr. Hidellage said. In Sri Lanka, as we have experienced in the past, power generation and connecting a larger community to the national grid has been a difficult task due to various problems including infrastructure facilities and administration problems. Successive Governments have been trying out various methods to increase power generation in the country to meet the fast increasing demand, yet there's much more to be done to acquire sufficient generation capacity. And governments have been making statements that their target is to provide electricity to 80% of the population. Then what will happen to the balance 20%? How could they get electricity? asks Dr. Hidellage and says: "Our target is to reach this 20% who are actually living in difficult rural areas." Actually at the beginning many people were puzzled as to how mini hydro can be worked in rural areas, she said. They had many questions, such as, can the introduction of alternative technologies in villages empower the lives of rural folks, can such technologies support the villagers to meet their energy requirements, can the communities manage such responsibilities by themselves? or in the long-term can they continue with alternative technologies? Hopefully, answers for these questions have already been found by those who raised the questions. To prove this, ITDG has been able to set up over 200 micro hydro sites in different areas in the country, since they first appeared in early 1990s. ITDG has also done research and pilot projects on other energy sources such as wind, solar and bio-gas. And it plans to promote more projects in these sectors. In addition to the power sector, the institution has got activated in many other poverty and injustice reduction areas. "We consider disaster risk is another key factor similar to class, caste, gender, ethnicity and poverty that contributes to the marginalisation of communities. To address the concerns of communities at risks, we have initiated a disaster mitigation network. In the agricultural sector, the introduction of small technologies such as a dryer in cashew processing has done a world of a difference to the lives of rural communities. Many people have gained profits in addition to convenient methods of processing, thanks to these cost effective technologies. Transport and road construction in the rural areas is another major issue taken up by the ITDG. Its transport work has focused on identifying and developing technologies to address rural transport needs. "Our transport work began with a trailer added to the bicycle, as cycle based transport was the most common mode of transport in the rural areas to carry heavy loads of food, water and people. We introduced an extended bicycle to address this issue," Dr. Hidellage said. Encouraged by the ITDG, the communities had mobilised to identify and address their transport problems by themselves and the most popular option chosen was a community run bus service. "Through this project we encouraged and linked communities to local government, financial and other organisations to pursue their development needs. And today, we are happy to say, many rural communities operate and manage bus services by themselves in several rural villages," she said. Likewise, rural communities also build their own roads supported by the ITDG and several other NGOs. Projects of this nature which have been started by ITDG should be continued and promoted further among rural communities. The Central government, as we have seen in the past, would not be able to go that far to support rural communities. Therefore, it is necessary that local government bodies work with NGOs such as ITDG and support the poor and empower them with a view to eradicating poverty. As ITDG has experienced in the past, introducing simple technologies and sharing knowledge with them will be the key to success. |
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