Electricity and Water for 1000 Typhoon Victims

After months of rebuilding canals, power-houses, forebays and  re-intallation of new electro mechanical devices, four (4) repaired MHP systems in four villages respectively are  up and running again. This means the MHP communities are  lit up again and rice mills  grinding  new rice harvests. 

Here are the four MHP sites that were fully rehabilitated .

1. Lat-eyMalibcongAbra

To recall, the  MPH was built on 2007 serving two adjacent upland barangays such as Umnap, Buanaoand  Sitio, Cubcuba, The system used by the MPH observes the lappat – a traditional forest conservation and management scheme for environmental sustainability.

Its MHP has been properly managed by the communities. As a result, the system has been functioning efficiently until typhoons Manghut and Rosita damaged it.  

With the donation from GlobalGiving, SIBAT fabricated a three phase electronic load control (ELC)  used to balance the power demand with the power generated by the Micro-Hydro turbine. The unit fabricated and installed by SIBAT engineers is in collaboration with EWB-UK.

The forebay  was concreted to  ensure the continuous supply of water to the turbine to avoid electricity interruption. Also, a  trash rack fabricated  at  SIBAT’s  machine shop called CRETech or Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technology Center was installed as well to filter debris.  This will avoid the intrusion of sediments and debris to turbine that contributed to the wearing  out of the turbine  runner.

2. Barangay Mataragan, MalibcongAbra

After the typhoon, the generator of the MHP of this village  was damaged due to mud intrusion inside the powerhouse. This affected the supply of electricity and totally stopped the system. It took three months to restore  the electricity. In collaboration with Mataragan Micro Hydro Power Association (MAMIHPA) and SIBAT, the old generator was replaced with a new one and likewise installed to the site.

 3. Sitio  Buneg, Conner, Apayao Province

The typhoon hit badly  some civil components of the MHP system specially the power canal and the turbine inside the powerhouse. Like the other heavily silted system, the runner of the turbine was damaged and totally stopped the supply of electricity. Because of this SIBAT made an effort with GlobalGiving funds to fabricate a new turbine and was finally installed.  Electricity again was  produced lighting households and  powering agricultural machineries

  4. Sitio Bubog, Barangay Nabuangan, Conner, Apayao

The community has 18 households with a population of 80 people  connected to the system with a capacity of 8kW.  This was commissioned in 2009. The alternator was damaged by the typhoon and SIBAT replaced it with a new one together with replacing the worn out bearing of the turbine and repair of the grounded circuit breaker inside the powerhouse.

With all rehabilitation efforts and GlobalGiving’s support, electric power and water supply have been fully restored and serving the communities.

This is to thank all your support channelled through GlobalGiving. The parts, components and civil works were ensured to be of robust materials and construction work  to withstand another onslaught of damaging typhoons…but we hope these sites that have survived with their  water and electricity back would be spared from another typhoon fury in the coming years.  

This report came a bit late from its due date (this being the first update)  as we awaited news as to how the communities are rising up after the typhoon. Reeling off from the initial shock  of devastation left by typhoon Manghut, the microhydro villagers started to pick up the pieces slowly with the single objective--- restoration of electricity and water to 1000 typhoon victims and that includes them.  Nothwithstanding the lack of initial repair funds (it's advantageousthough  that Global Giving contributed specific amount a couple of weeks later) to cover some MHP components on MHP Villages), the community members capitalized on their traditional practice of "bayanihan", to jumpstart repair and rehabilitation work.  This is  local term for mutual labor cooperation,  a common practice among Filipino communities to extend a helping hand to neighbors in need.

Re-Erecting the Posts

The villagers started to salavage whatever is left of still usable wires on toppled down lamp posts, erecting and connecting one lamp post at a time.  The locally-trained technicians were in the forefront  The knowledge and skills imparted to them by SIBAT's Renewable Energy as regards basic electricity work come in handy. The posts are re-erected and reinforced by some guy wires to stand robust against similar typhoon winds that most  likely will veer again on these paths.  Working on the transmission lines will still take some weeks more to about two months but should stand ready when the powerhouses and electro mechanical devices will be fixed and operational  again.

Roofing Works

Readily whipped out byt intensity 3 typhoon windspeed, most house roofings and in this instance, the MHP powerhouse roofs got blown away. Luckily though, there are some sturdy galvanized irons that remained secured in beams of hardwood endemic only to a remote upland forested area.  The gaping holes and missing roof pieces were replaced with local carpenters leading the pack of village artisans desirous to regain back water and electricity. On top of the support given by Global Giving, the villagers willingly shelled out whatever amount they would have if only just to get  2 or 3 roofsheets to add to fixing the  powerhouse roofings back in shape. It will take several weeks before all of damaged roofs will be restored.

Earth Canal Desilting and Clearing

Typhoon Manghut was unforgiving to most civil structures of the MHP Systems. The heavy rains brought a twin assault on canals, forebays and weirs of the MHPs through floods and landslides. Desilting and declogging these civil structures in these remote villages rely heavily on manual human power and villagers would have to go through the uphill battle of removing  erosion earth residues that clogged canals, congesting forebays  with some sructures totally burried by volumes of eroded soil.  Here we see villagers slowly clearing water pathways by widening and thickening canal walls.

Parallel to the villagers's efforts, SIBAT's engineers are working on damaged electro mechanical devices which includes  turbine repairs, re-wiring works at the power houses, repairing electronic load controls and similar components in preparation for reinstallion.

At this point in time, it's advantangeous that repair/rehab work be continuous as we approach the summer months, the areas are  dry and accessible though just recently our Philippine Weather Bureau has spotted a low pressure area in Central Philipines--- we hope climate change will not really unleash storms as we approach summer.  We will update again three months from now and we hope repair jobs will have good progress by then.