A few years ago, Anil P Joshi, a social activist from the Kotdwar area of Uttarakhand, took up the task of bringing back to life defunct watermills in Uttarakhand, with the aim of producing green power.
Joshi, who heads Hesco, a Dehradun-based NGO, carried out research work to revive the age-old watermills in the hill state as well as elsewhere in the Himalayan region.
The watermill, an eco-friendly device, can harness the power of water to grind wheat and generate one to three Kw of power. There are currently 200,000 watermills in the Himalayan region. Hesco estimates that they can generate 2,500 Mw of power.
A watermill works on the same principle as a hydroelectric power plant. Water from a stream is tapped and routed through a chute. There is a wheel at the centre. Flat blades are fixed at the wheel. The force of water falling from a certain height rotates the wheel and powers a turbine.
As the concept of watermills caught the fancy of the state government, an Asian Development Bank-funded survey was carried out in Uttarakhand. The survey revealed that in 2003 there were a total of 15,449 watermills in the state, of which nearly 7,000 were defunct.
Later, the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (Ureda) took on the responsibility of reviving the defunct watermills.
According to officials here, the Centre provides a subsidy of Rs 1.10 lakh for electric generation from a watermill while the subsidy is only Rs 35,000 for mechanical functions like the grinding of wheat.
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Until now, an estimated 753 watermills have been revived, with Ureda setting a target of reviving another 500 this year.
The Uttarakhand government has also facilitated the process of setting up nine companies which are now upgrading the state’s watermills. “The basic concept behind the revival of these watermills is to make them cottage industries,” said N K Jha, director of Ureda.
According to Jha, a watermill not only produces green power for a couple of houses but also provides employment opportunities to people in small businesses like the grinding of wheat, spices and oilseeds. Kyarkuli near the hill resort of Mussoorie is one such example where the watermill is working well, said Jha.
Hesco runs a training centre at its office in the Shuklapur area of Dehra Dun. Already, people from Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have taken training in operating watermills.
Hesco, in close partnership with the Indian Army, is also reviving watermills in the border villages of Jammu & Kashmir, most of them badly hit by the turmoil in the state.
Villages in areas such as Kupwara, Baramulla, Kargil, Batalik, Dras, Poonch and Rajouri in J&K have benefited from the revival of watermills, Joshi said. “Under different programmes, we have so far facilitated the revival of nearly 4,000 watermills in India,” he said.