Sun struck: Jharkhand villages get water, light through solar power

Paharsingh is a hamlet, situated about 52 km from Ranchi. The village has a population of only 87 people, belonging to the primitive Birhor tribe.

Till a few months ago, the village had no source of drinking water. The villagers had to collect water from a hand pump located in a far-off village.

However, their water woes came to an end when a solar water pump of 1,200W capacity was installed in the village. The initiative was taken by Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA), run by the Jharkhand government. The agency works with the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy.

The project, which cost Rs 7 lakh, now also lights up the streets of the village.

The agency, with the help of the ministry, generates electricity from the solar plant and provides it to remote villages.

It plans to cover 224 remote villages of Jharkhand by the year-end through solar home lighting and street lighting systems. The JREDA has recommended more such units in remote villages of the state to ensure drinking water supply.

Under this programme, one solar home lighting system has been installed in each house of Paharsingh village and 1,211 solar lights have been installed in the streets.

"Over 84,000 people belonging to the SC/ST category have benefited from this programme and the JREDA has spent Rs 2,392 lakh on this project," says project officer Prakash Kumar Das.

"We are also doing a pilot project of providing power through bio-fuel. A diesel generator set of 5 KVA capacity has been installed in Gardih village of Nawadih block in Bokaro district. The engine runs on vegetable oil and supplies electricity to the village," Das adds.

The tribal village of Paharsingh, with 100 houses, gets 4 hours of power daily from the engine that runs on karanji oil, the seed of which is available in the village.

A machine for manufacturing leaf plates was installed by the villagers with the help of the agency, after a performance study of the engine running on different vegetable oils was made available by the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.

The electricity is supplied to the machine by the solar plant for 2 hours everyday. The villagers are happy because the availability of electricity has increased their income due to the sale of leaf plates. The total cost of the project is Rs 15.79 lakh.

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