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Preparing to go to the village
of Banco to complete a solar installation
Ji Duma's president, as well as Daniel, Kuiyate and Dumbya (the heads
of the new enterprise that is being created) travel with us to the village
of Banco to continue their training. Two locals from Banco will learn
how to complete the installation as well as to make sure that maintenance
of the system will be taken care of.
Car trouble (besides the two flats)
while heading to Banco
Banco, a remote village in the southern
part of Mali (about a 4 hour drive from Bamako)
The Niger River
Many Malian villages do not have wells and are therefore, obligated to
gather water from the Niger River, an extremely contaminated source. Women
often have to walk several kilometers in order to find water. Wells in
villages provide a clean and accessible source of water.
The traditional means of pulling water
from the well
Two of the primary objectives of the solar project were to develop means
for Malians to generate income through small business and to improve rural
women’s condition in a country where women are compelled to spend
4-5 hours each day collecting water and firewood for cooking.
The well in Banco that provides water
to the children at the school as well as part of the village
The
well was hand-dug by locals, hired by Ji Duma. President of Ji Duma, Loriana
Dembélé, secured funding to build the well from a Catholic
Church group in Rome, Italy.
Instructions/diagram on how to connect
the charge controller, panels and battery
Daniel
Dembélé (head of Afriq-power) and Kareem Keita (the local
trainee in Banco), installing the charge controller in the school Director’s
office
Daniel Dembélé (head of
Afriq-power) and Kareem Keita (the local trainee in Banco), installing
the charge controller in the school Director’s office
Installing the Malian produced solar
panels on the Banco school
Daniel Dembélé, Dumbya and Mamadou
Kouyate from the new micro-enterprise and Ji Duma, as well as two locals
from Banco, installed the two 35 watt PV modules that they made the previous
week in Bamako on the school. We ran a four wire two way cable between
the two buildings since the charge controller panel and battery are in
the director's office. Everybody was quite excited to have the light in
the night.
…Malian village living….not
a cakewalk…
Putting
together the pump
Building the structure needed to hold
the solar panels
Solar panels on the structure
The solar pump in the well
Children in the village of Banco seeing
running water for the first time because of the solar powered pump we
installed in the well
Mounting the 1000 liter water tank on
the structure to hold the water that is pumped from the well by the 12Volt
DC pump
Leaving Banco after completing two successful
installations with the villagers
When I left Mali I realized that with less than $6,000 that I managed
to raise, we completed the following: 1) The development of a local enterprise
manufacturing solar panels and cookers locally 2) The completion of 7
locally constructed panels 3) The installation of two of the locally made
panels in Banco that powered 6 lights and a solar pump and 4) The construction
of 6 solar cookers. We could not help but be proud that such a small amount
of money involved in this project is in stark contrast to the hundreds
of thousands of dollars that characterize most development projects.
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