JUMLA, Oct 8: Mun Bahadur Dangi of Dangiwad village of Jumla never went to school. Neither he had any experience of studying late night using oil lamp. However, he always had a dream to see electricity replacing oil lamps and children of his village studying with ease. Just one and half years ago, the dream suddenly got fulfilled thanks to the wind energy installed by Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) in his village.
Life changed drastically as people of the village and surrounding area could enjoy electricity. However, things are not that exciting anymore. Due to technical problems, there has been obstruction in power supply forcing the villagers to live in darkness.
“It came as a flash and now it's gone suddenly,” notes Dangi. “Now, we are already used to electricity. It's difficult to manage without electricity,” he added.
According to Dangi, joy of the locals knew no bounds when they could discard the oil lamps and torch lights. The power was enough for them and the surrounding villages at the time of installation.
Advisory task force recommends keeping marriage age at 18
“We had access to mobile, radio, television, internet and everything else. Our children no more had to struggle with the traditional light for studying,” he stated. “But now, it seems we have been once again pushed to the dark era,” he added.
Krishna Bahadur Dangi, gatekeeper at the powerhouse, stated that 140 households had received power the first time when the wind energy was installed.
“It was a miracle for them. People were overjoyed when they got electricity,” he said. “But now, they are so much disappointed,” Krishna Bahadur stated.
According to him, fault in the inverter has caused the technical glitch. Power has not been supplied for the past few days. A good engineer must be called to repair the plant, according to Krishna Bahadur.
“An engineer had been called, but that did not work. It seems that we need better engineer,” said Krishna Bahadur. “Whenever the fault is, tools and machines need to be brought all the way from China for repair. That is another problem,” he added.
Other staff was not available for comment. Locals say that even small fault causes huge problem as there are no technicians. They reported the powerhouse staff as saying that the installation would work for 40 years. “But it's been just one and a half years and it has gone out of order,” said Mun Bahadur.
In total, 120 batteries have been installed at the powerhouse. Locals pay Rs 150 per household for electricity. “The money is not enough for repairing and to pay for the staff. So, such problems are not easy to solve,” Krishna Bahadur said.
