Solar Electric Light Fund Tackles Benin's Arid Land

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=51912

Western Africa's dry season wreaks havoc on the lives of millions of people year after year. The 104,000 people living in Benin's Kalale District are particularly hard hit: 95% of them rely on subsistence farming as their primary means of survival. For most, farming is limited to the rainy season due the lack of accessible water for irrigation during the dry season.

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The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is working to install low-cost micro-irrigation and solar water pumps in two villages in Kalalé District. This will create a reliable and economical means of irrigation and enable families in these villages to grow crops during the six month dry season for significant improvements in family income and nutrition. At least 20 families (100-200 people) will directly benefit from the solar-irrigation project and approximately 4,500 people living in two communities will benefit from the added supply of clean water during the rainy season. The first phase of the project, which was funded in part by the $100,000 seed money that SELF won in the World Bank's Development Marketplace Competition, began in August of 2007.



Upon completion of the project, the solar drip-irrigation technology that is being installed will provide the following:

Participating families will more than double their annual income.

Participating families will increase considerably their consumption of fresh vegetables during the dry season thus reducing malnutrition.

Project villages will double or even triple the harvest of fresh vegetables during the dry season.

Project villages will gain an average of 6,000-8,000 gallons per day or more of clean water during the rainy season.

A plan will be developed to replicate the project in the remaining 42 villages of Kalalé District.

Because the wells and solar pumps will only be used for irrigation during the dry season, the community will benefit greatly during the rest of the year from the nearly 5,000-8,000 gallons per day of solar-pumped well water. The laborious and time-consuming task of collecting water in small containers from faraway wells will be effectively eliminated.

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[Nihil]

1. K & R

I know we disagree on many things but this is an ideal application.

*This* is where solar will *REALLY* show its strengths.

Thanks,
Nihil