Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho

by STG International
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho
Solar Jobs & Energy - Village Minigrids in Lesotho

Project Report | Mar 12, 2021
When life gives you lemons - fix a bridge

By Matthew Orosz | CEO & Project Lead

Bridge to Ha Makebe - after the storm
Bridge to Ha Makebe - after the storm

Hello again everyone from (now) sunny Lesotho!

Today I am so proud to tell you about a project that our team undertook this past month to help the community of Ha Makebe.  One usually thinks of the rains that follow a drought as a blessing - which they are - but here in Lesotho we got one weekend of exceptional downpour last month that was so intense it ended up washing out bridges across the country.  As you can imagine, this left many communities in a tough spot - including Ha Makebe where we are currently in the last stages of construction.

Ha Makebe actually has two dirt road connections to the main (paved) road, but the community invested the effort last year to fix the grading of the shorter of the two so that they had a much improved (quicker, less wear and tear on vehicles) way to get back and forth.  This rainstorm ended up washing out the bridge on that road (picture attached), leaving the community in a bad spot.  Because of the wide ranging damage, the Government informed them it would be months - at minimum - before this could be addressed.  At that point the Local Council approached Onepower asking if we might be able to help...

As it turns out, we have very recently procured some heavy equipment (for the minigrids construction - with funds from CarbonTrust) that came in very handy for this task.  With permissions from the Roads Department to undertake the repair, we set a goal for ourselves to make sure not only that the bridge was reassembled but also that it would be resilient to any future storm of this nature.

Our team spent about a week of long days retrieving the large rectangular blocks for the walls from the places they had washed down-river, building containment walls, filling with cobble, moving tons and tons (over 100 tons!!) of dirt and stone.  (I am sharing assorted photos of the process so you can picture this!)  The community of Ha Makebe also stepped up, coming to help find the rocks needed and collect them into piles so that the large equipment could transport them to the bridge.  But - in the end - the bridge looks as if nothing ever happened!  You'll see in the last photo the construction crew - Onepower staff and our day labour team from Ha Makebe (the folks who have been helping string electrical wire over the past months) posing for a celebratory photo with the equipment that did the heavy lifting.

This project was obviously a short distraction from making progress on the construction of the minigrid, but it was a project that everybody on our team was proud of - proud of what it meant to be helping the community and proud of our ability to do real engineering on short notice in a challenging environment.  It was incredibly rewarding for me to see how much our team has grown - in numbers, in technical knowledge, and in determinataion.

We are also making excellent progress on construction of the minigrids - having completed the powerhouse (where the batteries and inverters live), the reticulation, installaiton of the transformers, and installation of readyboards (an "instant" circuit breaker box plus light in one) at over 100 of the houses - but I will save more updates on that for the next report!

Wishing everyone good health as we hopefully are approaching the end of this crazy year.

-Matt

Onepower heavy equipment, on site!
Onepower heavy equipment, on site!
Ha Makebe community pitches in
Ha Makebe community pitches in
Stone and materials moved to the bridge site
Stone and materials moved to the bridge site
Replacing the large stone walls of the buttress
Replacing the large stone walls of the buttress
Filling between the walls
Filling between the walls
Bridge repair complete - team photo
Bridge repair complete - team photo
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.

Sign up for updates

Organization Information

STG International

Location: Cambridge, MA - USA
Website:
Project Leader:
Matthew Orosz
Dr.
Cambridge , MA United States
$37,731 raised of $40,000 goal
 
425 donations
$2,269 to go
Donate Now
lock
Donating through GlobalGiving is safe, secure, and easy with many payment options to choose from. View other ways to donate

STG International has earned this recognition on GlobalGiving:

Help raise money!

Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.

Start a Fundraiser

Learn more about GlobalGiving

Teenage Science Students
Vetting +
Due Diligence

Snorkeler
Our
Impact

Woman Holding a Gift Card
Give
Gift Cards

Young Girl with a Bicycle
GlobalGiving
Guarantee

Get incredible stories, promotions, and matching offers in your inbox

WARNING: Javascript is currently disabled or is not available in your browser. GlobalGiving makes extensive use of Javascript and will not function properly with Javascript disabled. Please enable Javascript and refresh this page.