Nestled amongst a beautiful canyon and its multiple streams is the site of our new micro hydro project, the Bijapada village cluster (50 households) in Thuamul Rampur block, Kalahandi district, Orissa. We are grateful to Christian Aid for supporting our work at this site and to Antodaya for suggesting Bijapada village.
Since November, it's been quite a journey in understanding the psyche of this relatively remote tribal community. In the next few posts, I will try to describe our journey thus far, in ensuring that the project is community-led, rather than NGO-led.
Time to time, I will invite local technicians, engineers, NGO staff, and community members to blog their experiences first-hand. For now, here are photos taken during the feasibility and design studies.
One side of the weir profile:
Other side of the weir profile:
We've had to think about how the weir will be anchored into the stone...
The water flow varies from 80-100lps, depending on the water use of the upstream village and seasonal changes:
Our new team member (holding the level) and an old friend, Ranjit Deshmukh, has been the technical lead for this project. With four existing projects to improve and implementing two new projects in parallel, needless to say, my plate has been full. Therefore, Ranjit's presence has been priceless in ensuring that we do not make technical mistakes (or at least do not repeat mistakes form earlier projects).
As a newbie to micro hydro implementation, Ranjit's key role is to learn from our Sri Lankan mentors and demystify the knowledge for the local team, consisting of technicians in Bhawanipatna (nearest town) and talented youth in the villages.
See the bamboo stick? The task of preparing the bamboo to use as a measurement tool became an opportunity for the village youth to bond with our team:
Richard Russell, a volunteer from the UK, helped with note taking:
A channel, likely made from HDPE or PVC pipe, will extend from the weir to the forebay tank:
The forebay tank will be located on top of the flat stone on the right:
The HDPE penstock will have to be routed from the forebay tank location to the powerhouse via the stone walls. ....Yes, challenging work ahead!
After the first 100m, the penstock will have a nice, boring path thru the woods and on soil...
...down to the powerhouse location:
During one of our visits, when all the adults were busy with their harvesting, 3 young guides were sent to make sure we didn't get lost. These three kept an eye on us the entire visit, whether nearby or from a distant rock.
