Practical Action Field Trip

On Friday we drove to Chitwan district by 5pm, stopping at 3 gravity ropeways and three tuins on the way. Tuins are cable crossings for people so I had a go in one. You sit in a metal cage and cross by pulling on the cable. The schoolchildren who were using it told us they would otherwise have to walk upriver half an hour to the nearest bridge and back. That's after having walked about an hour down the hillside.

Teo, Rosemary, Shirish in tuin

Local use of tuin

The three gravity ropeways we saw were in various states of use. The first was not in use when we visited. The second had been operating but was resting at the time. It seemed a very efficient operation, run by a cooperative of producers. The span was an amazing 1412m, and looking at the records it seemed to run a minimum of 8 loads a day. In the peak season, it carries 80 – 90 loads per day, a load being 100 kg. The farmers send down tomatoes, oranges, beans, cauliflowers, peas, garlic etc and each 100kg sent down can haul up 1/3 of that weight in oil, rice, salt and other consumables required by the hilltop community. The operative is paid 4,200 NR /month and the growers pay 0.75 NR per kg to use it. This particular ropeway has been in use for 2 years.

Ropeway records

 

Another one was transporting sacks of satsumas. It was 3.30 pm and there were about 40 sacks there, though some had already been removed. Operation was continuous, and the station open from 7 – 7 daily. We bought some to eat and it surprised me to see the others just casually throw the peel on the ground. Litter is quite unsightly here, though both urban and rural shopkeepers have quite a cleansing ritual morning and evening. They sweep the front of their premises into the gutter for the garbage collectors and throw down water, not only on their own shop fronts but on the road in front of them. This is designed to keep down the dust, which is everywhere, on account of the largely dirt roads and copious traffic. The main problem as I see it is the lack of personal responsibility for litter and the incomplete garbage collection, so there are places which seem to be always piled up with rubbish. However, in general I find it better than expected.

Oranges fresh from the hill-top by ropeway

Pushkar enjoys a fresh orange

Practical Action's gravity ropeway project is nearing completion. They had a target of 15 ropeways, 10 are already installed, 4 are near complete – perhaps 2 months off – and one we saw is in the early stages – work has started on the lower station, but the steep hillside and 600 m height difference present a major challenge. The practice is to prove the efficacy of a technology and encourage the government to take it up. Only when the government has committed to incorporating the technology into its development plans will PA consider the project complete. By this stage thorough documentation will have been completed and made available to the government. Prior to this the locals are trained in the management and ongoing care of their system so that it will continue to be used when PA pull out.

Next day we visited Dhauwadi by jeep. Fantastic journey - After the end of the tarmac road, there remain 16 km to travel on dirt roads, which took us 2 hours, 

ending right at the solar charging station for the village. The roof of this brick-built hut is covered with solar panels and inside are housed the storage batteries and multiple charging points. Village members pay 5NR (about 5p) to charge a solar lamp or mobile phone, outsiders 10NR. Mobile phone coverage is surprisingly good in such rural areas, as there is often a mast on a neighbouring peak.

After talking to the operative and some of the users we went to see a smokeless stove in action. There was much discussion with the householder about the drawbacks and difficulties encountered in its use, which will be taken back to the drawing board to arrange improvements for future versions.

Seeing the wife cleaning the barley seed I joined in. The seeds are pressed hard against the bottom of the woven basket to remove the husks which are separated off by tossing and blowing. Then bits of stems and grit are picked out. The grain is mashed with water and made into flat bread, or distilled into alcohol. I wished I had learnt more Nepali, but was glad that at least I could say where I was from and ask how many sons/daughters she had. Also learnt the word monghur for the pig I was scratching, though later was laughed at for using this word. It seems that monghur is a white pig,; black pigs are songhur! This took some sorting out as you can imagine; again I was glad I knew the words for black and white.

We had lunch in this village, rice, lentils and potatoes, eaten with our fingers, watching the still making liquor and the goats being fed leafy branches. This is subsistence living but more comfortable than I had expected, the houses were mostly brick built and tin roofed, unlike those in the next place we visited.

Next day we left early and had breakfast en route – dahl, puri, pickles and sweet waffles called jeera.  

We drove for about an hour on dirt road then met a guide who led us up the (very steep) hill for an hour or more. It was hot and very hard work for me, the oldest of the party by at least 10 years. At the top was a small community of 8 households, all mud and thatch. There are 28 children, 17 of whom go to school. I tried to communicate but most success was through the camera. They wanted more and more pictures taken to view on the screen.

This village was the object of a trial for wind power. A test turbine is in place, transmitting data to a recorder, which is periodically visited to download the data,as on this occasion.