Solar Power and Regenerative Agriculture in Burma

Working again with Alein Ein, the Myanmar NGO that helps communities recover from the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, Solar Roots went to a community in the north west of the Ayerwaddy Delta, near Pathein. This was a village called Kandaw and the population belongs to the Pwo Karen group. Although not badly damaged during Nargis, the people of Kandaw stand out as having started one of the most successful savings group in the Delta area. What is a "savings group"? Well, we've all heard of the very popular micro lending schemes, where villagers can borrow small amounts of money at low rates of interest to start a small enterprise. However, in the usual model, this money comes from outside the community and the interest generated goes back to the big city, where the bank is located. Alein Ein have pioneered a new model where the community sets up a savings group and members contribute a small amount each month. But with 100 members, as in Kandaw, the saved amount accumulates quickly, and is soon ready to be lent out to a group member. Alein Ein has used this savings group concept to great effect in fostering community building in the areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis.

The villagers of Kandaw are rice farmers and proud of the Pwo Karen culture and language. They even have a few motorbikes in the village - but almost no-one had electric lights or phone charging capacity. Alein Ein invited us to come to the village to give a 2-day solar training and I saw this as an ideal opportunity to test out some of the new small solar home systems. Previously, we had introduced systems where the recipient had an LED light and a battery, but had to take the battery to a central charging station twice a week. The new systems we introduced at Kandaw are self contained units which include 2 LED lights, a USB phone charging port, a charge controller, a battery and a solar panel, all designed to work together. One model, from China, cost around $36 and another, larger system, built in Myanmar, cost $55. We brought six of the Chinese and four of the Myanmar systems. I like to support local enterprises where I can and I suspect that the Myanmar system will be more popular, as it is more powerful and can be repaired locally.

I had two volunteers from UC Berkeley with me and the villagers treated us all like loyalty. We were given meat at every meal, which I am sure the villagers only eat occasionally, when no guests are around. The Pwo Karen are Buddhist, in contrast to their cousins, the Sgaw Karen who live in the mountains near the Thai border and are Christian. To a greater degree, the Pwo Karen have been able to hold on to their culture and language, since they have been less affected by outside influences. We were treated to a two hour presentation of their traditional dances, with all the young folk dressed up in traditional costumes. We were also presented with Karen tunics for MIchael and myself and a dress for Lisa. It was humbling to be treated so well by people who have so little.

I did my usual  2-day solar training, explaining the basics of photovoltaics and emphasizing the need to carefully manage the usage of the system during the rainy season, when the available sunlight is much reduced. In point of fact, it was rainy season when we were there - extremely hot with violent daily rainstorms. I will be very interested to revisit Kandaw, to check up on the performance of these solar home systems and see if they really hold up in the rigors of the tropical climate. It will be a delight to check in again with the good friends we made during our first visit to the good folks of Kandaw.

Please let me know if you like the work that Solar Roots is doing. Your feedback and continued support is what makes this work possible. Thank you, Bruce.