The skys the limit on 'the road to nowhere'
|
By Jane Eason, Practical Action
NEPALS mountainous landscape is a breathtaking experience for thousands of visitors every year but it has proved costly for isolated communities, such as those in the mountain village of Bharpak. In Nepal, one in three people live on just £1 per day, surviving by growing and selling food. Transporting crops to market or buying from traders often involved long and dangerous journeys and in bad weather conditions, proved impossible. This meant the village saw an increase in the price of food and other goods. Even items such as soap were becoming scarce and expensive. Practical Action (formerly the Intermediate Technology Development Group) came up with an innovative scheme to build a new aerial ropeway system, the winch powered by micro-hydro. This simple yet very effective system spans 2.5 km of tough terrain over a one thousand-metre climb and act as a freight lift to deliver and receive goods. This solved the problem of traders refusing to undertake the treacherous six-hour journey to Bharpak and surrounding villages and meant the price of food and other essentials fell drastically. The charity co-ordinated the scheme and worked with the Bharpak community to come up with simple solutions to make the ropeway work. Hundreds of people are now reaping the rewards of the aerial ropeway system and as a result, the Bharpak community have seen prices for salt, rice and building sand fall by a rupee per kilo, while previously scarce products such as soap and oil, are now commonplace. The schemes success lies in its simplicity the energy produced by the micro-hydro scheme powers the lift by day and supplies the village with electricity by night. And locally trained operators can carry out nearly all of the maintenance work. Ropeway systems are an excellent solution for Nepal due to its high mountain ranges and 6,000 rivers which run through the country. It is also difficult for homes in rural areas to link up to established roads; building new roads would be very expensive and often conditions mean many roads would not last more than one season. This relatively simple micro-hydro aerial rope system has changed the lives for the people of Bharpak. Money has been saved and much less time is spent on transporting goods, giving people more time to spend on education and enjoying free time. For 40 years, Practical Action has been working with poor communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America to come up with practical solutions to poverty through using appropriate technology. |
Printable version
top of the page