Solar Power to Villages in Karen State, Myanmar

(The author regrets the consecutive national holidays in Japan caused delay to issue the activity report.)

Soon after the independence of Burma in 1948, the people of "Karen" was one of the 1st ethnical groups that revolted against the central Burmese government to achieve independence (then after, broader authonomy) in their areas.   More than 60 years of appalling civil battle continued and, at last, by the end of last year KNU(=Karen National Union) signed the ceasefire agreement with the Myanmar government along with the other 7 ethnical armed groups(=EAGs).

To encourage further steps toward permanent peace and wishing the people in the KNU areas feel the value of peace, BHN started a project to install solar electric systems into 1,370 households in the areeas of the state of Kayin(=Karen). 

Infrastructures of all kinds are definitely lacking in the EAG areas and Myanmar is now in the middle of rainy season, the access to the villages are possible only by boat and on food, hence, our engineers were making research visits to remote villages, one by one, on foot staying overnights in the houses of villagers.

Actual installation works are expecdted to start from the end of October(depending on the weather circumstances) and the procurement of materials and the preparation of standard work arrangements are now under way.

Kaw Tar Ho(KTH) village is located in the Eastern area of the State of Kayin(=Karen) ,about 1 hour drive from the capital of the state, Hpa An with 175 households(about 700 vilagers).   KTH village suffered from armed clashes several times and many of the villagers are returnees from refugee camps or IDPs(Internally Displace Persons).

Mainly due to the lack of irrigation system the villagers can produce rice crops only once a year, whereas, in most areas in Myanmar, they usually produce twice a year. 

Their well is shallow and dry up in dry seasons and ,until some years ago, they used to get water supply from the deep well in the village of Shwe In Don(SID) located about 700m from the village, however , the cost for the fuel was too expensive for them to cover and they were getting water from nearby places on their shoulders day by day.

BHN was about to close the works for the fiscal year (which ends by Mar.), we decided to install solar powered pump for the well in the village of SID so as to be able to supply water without fuel cost for both villages.    The water pipe to connect to the village of KTH has been discarded for some time but the villagers volunteered to repair them.

 In early June the water pump started to supply water for the 2 villages.

In the past 3 years BHN has, by the end of March, installed solar power generation systems in 3 hospitals, 8 high schools, 1 town hall and 7 villages without doctors in Kayin(=Karen) state in Myanmar.

The government of Kayin state has also installed solar power systems into many households in the state.   However, the government staffs responsible for remote areas do not have knowledge on solar electricity to advise villagers.

To comply with such situation, along with the request from the state government, BHN conducted trainings for the government staffs both in the class rooms and by field practices.    After the days of study and examinations BHN awarded "Solar Power System Adviser" title to 19 qualified government staffs.

In the graduation ceremony held last January more than 100 government directors & staffs clebrated the award recipients.    These staffs are now going around in the state countryside wearing the blue shirts with letters on the back read "Solar System Adviser"/ 

MYanmar is blessed with natural energy resources like gas, oil and water, yet only 30%of its people has the benefit of electricity supply.  Especially, in the areas of battle fields of armed crashes that lasted over 60 years, almost all kinds of infrastructures are definitely insufficient.

BHN has been supplying solar gnerated electricity for many public facilities in Kayin (Karen) state and, where requested and radio wave is available,also installed radio telephone sets powered by the solar systems.

In the 7 small and remotely located villages that have no access to doctors(nor access to the national grid services) located in the traveling area of Shan Ywar Thit Hospital, BHN installed special radio telephone sets.  Radio telephone wave was very feeble in those villages and we built large antennas on tall polls , thus enabling villagers to contact with the hospital at any time whenever help from the doctors were necessary.

However, many of the villagers have still no or minimal access to currency economy and it is difficult for many of them to pay the phone charges sustainably.  In such moment, XMobile co., a virtual mobile service provider, offered us to donate some part of its sales to help those people in need of access to telephone services.

With the funds donated from XMobile BHN purchased pre-paid telephone cards and presented them to each of the fillages and schools where BHN installed telephone systems.

Recently we have completed solar power system installation works in the District Hopital of Hpa Pun, the high school of Naung Ta Pwe and the high school of An Kaun.

The hospital of Hpa Pun is a big district hospital with 100 beds and was equiped with a small gasoline generator, however, the running cost for the generator is high and the power was not enought for all the facilities and it was seldom used.

In An Kaun high school, the school space  was too little to place batteries and often suffering from floods.    So, the parents of the students voluntarily worked to build a hut with a high floor to protect battery systems.

During this rainy season Myanmar suffered from a gigantic floods that caused big damages in many districts and our next work will be able to start from next November, which is also after the genral election of the country.