Weather Update and my trip up north

On sunday we ventured out to a beach in a town called Malpe. We weren't expecting any good weather, but after a little time the sun came out and it was roasting. The sea was warm and pretty clean so we spend a while in the waves. Later we brought a lot of attention to ourselves by digging a big hole to bury Vidyut in...

We stayed the night in Mangalore and managed to watch some of the Olympics- even staying up til 2am to watch the 100m final. 

Since we got back to Ujire yesterday it has been raining. Non stop, seriously heavy, tropical rain. About 24 hours of it! There was some thunder and lightning last night too which was pretty impressive.

I now understand why everyone has an umbrella round here. I find it quite ironic that having lived most of my life in England and never having bought an umbrella, but on coming to India I've got one after less than a week!

So tomorrow I'm off to a place called Gulbarga which in in the extreme north of Karnataka. I'll be doing a needs assessment and observing cooking habits at a small institution. Should be interesting, though I'm not quite sure what to expect. I'll travel up there with Deepti who is doing some different work in the area, looking at trials of solar fencing, and Robin who's going to assist me (especially with translation!).

Its meant to be a 16 hour bus journey to get there, which isn't a particularly fun prospect, but is a true Indian experience :).

16 hours rattling around in an old bus

First week at SELCO labs

Its nearly the end of my first (6 day - yes we work saturdays) week at SELCO already. Quite a lot has happened.

The massive tree in the middle of the university building

Much of this week has been spent looking into the feasibility of designing an affordable smoke extraction solution for the rural poor. I guess I should give some background to this.

There has been a huge amount of investment into improved cookstoves around the world, it has even become a political issue in many places. Many companies and NGOs have attempted to create scientifically designed "rocket stoves" which burn biomass very efficiently and with reduced levels of smoke and harmful gases as well as supposedly reducing the amount of fuel required. However, there are several problems with these improved stoves and their distribution, which are often overlooked.

There has been a lot of field testing of many types of rocket stoves in urban and rural areas. The reason for differentiation is that cooking habits vary widely in different places and amongst different people groups. Any intervention means changing peoples habits which is incredibly difficult.This is one of many reasons that a "one size fits all" solution is not the answer. It has been proven many times that in real live, the stoves don't come close to their quoted efficiencies which have been measured in a lab or in controlled field tests. In some cases, people who have received these stoves have kept them to use only on special occasions- reverting to their normal 3 stone setup for their usual cooking needs. In some of SELCO's tests in urban areas, users have not understood how to use the stoves properly or their benefits and therefore not been keen to use them. 

After water and sanitation, indoor air pollution is the largest environmental threat to health in developing countries.It is an issue that effects women and children most, but smoke inhalation appears to be a minor issue in the minds of many women who are used to cooking indoors in thick smoke. 

There has been some efforts in the area around Ujire to put improved stoves to use, which have not been particularly successful- but there are still many, many people in this area breathing a lot of smoke.

I've spent a lot of this week looking into cookstoves, but have also been helping others with their projects- testing new solar panels with Vishal, development of some small scale agricultural machinery designs with Seb and looking at small scale biogas collection with Vidyut. 

Me on top of the roof with some solar panels

Seb working on the small scale rice dehusker

We have had time in the evenings to do a few fun things - and have been out for some fantastic meals. My favourite was at a local place called Sapna where we had a delicious 3 course dinner with mango juice for about Rs. 125 each... Thats about £1.50.

We went swimming in a nearby river (much to the upset of our auto-rickshaw driver who later tried to call Seb 3 times to check if we were OK), played a bit of cricket, and taught the Indian guys how to play (touch) rugby.

An evening swim in a nearby river 

Some cricket on the college campus

On monday or tuesday next week I should be going to a place called Gulbarga in the north of Karnataka to check out the cooking setup at a small institution which has asked SELCO to do some consultancy work looking at alternative fuels etc. Not sure how its going to work- and its meant to be a 15 hour trip each way!

My first few days in India

I arrived in Bangalore last Friday at 5am. Confident on the exterior but mildly apprehensive, I stepped out the airport, concerned about the high chance getting lost in the 3rd biggest city in India with only a few printed out Google maps, some contact details and marginally faulty British mobile phone. After failing to make it to SELCO's Bangalore office, I managed to get a auto-rickshaw driver to take me to the hotel I was going to be staying at that night. I crashed out when I got there due to getting no sleep on the plane and 2 hours later grabbed my maps and valuables and started to walk to the office, sadly too late to avoid a huge downpour of warm tropical rain.

My first trip on an auto rickshaw

I spent most of the day at the office, meeting people, calling Sam at the Ujire office, getting an introduction to SELCO and eating my first south indian meal: some kind of veg curry and rotis (like a thin dry naan). Tasty and spicy, but difficult getting the hang of eating with my hand.

Back at the hotel, I went out in search of something to eat and found a guy who made delicious kati rolls which are a street food which supposedly originated in Kolkata. I set my alarm for 1am to be awake to watch the Olympic games opening ceremony (with entertaining Indian commentary).

At the office the next day I met with Shruthi who was an architecture student doing an internship with SELCO looking into cookstoves. She shared plenty of information about cookstoves in both urban slums and rural poor areas. As it came towards lunch time I was invited to a celebration meal at a local temple which was being held by Harish Hande, SELCO's founder. I met an American guy called Headley who'd been in Bangalore for a year and a half and a girl called Surabhi who is from Bangalore and has been working at SELCO since she came back from doing her masters in London. 

It was my first visit to an Indian temple so I found it refreshing to have a walk around- it was extremely peaceful compared to the mad hustle and bustle in Bangalore (although it was situated in a very smart neighborhood). Later we were asked to come for food. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect - or what to do. As we sat down we were each given a large banana leaf, and the caterers promptly started to dish out many types curries and exotic mixtures of coconut milk, spices and rice onto them. It was both delicious and slightly baffling, but fortunately I was guided by Headley and Surabhi as to what to do and when! Fortunately Surabhi was there to correct us as I followed Headley into mixing my main course into a dessert bread. 

After lunch, Ananth (who heads up SELCO labs in Bangalore), Surabhi and I got ready to go out to a slum in the city where SELCO has done some work. We were joined by two girls, Danielle from the US and Emi from Finland, who were in Bangalore to look at related projects at another organisation. We were going to look at a SELCO Energy Centre (basically a small building with solar panels on the roof) from which two of the people living there hire out solar lanterns and can offer charging facilities for mobile phones. The energy centre seems to be having a fantastic effect on the slum community. It was interesting to hear that no one buys kerosene any more since they are able to use solar lanterns (although this currently means that they are using plastic bags to light wood fires - which is not ideal in an enclosed space!).We delivered some replacement lanterns and Surabhi spoke to the couple who run the energy centre. The wife demonstrated use of a three stone stove and an improved cookstove which she had help do field testing on. 

A standard 3 stone stove which most people cook on

We were able to understand better the problems with smoke that are encountered when cooking in a slum. The room filled with smoke which stings the eyes. Its hard to believe that people live with several hours each day in these conditions. We later had a quick coffee in a man's house, met lots of lovely smiley children (who mobbed our car as we left) and got pestered by a local drunk.

In a classy french café in UB city

In the evening we went to get some dinner at a place in the centre of Bangalore which had a photo of Gandhi and staff who dress up in old fashioned traditional clothes. To kill some time before my bus to Ujire, Surabhi and I spent some time in UB city, which is incredibly grand and featuring some classy French cafes. Its all owned by the guy who owns the Kingfisher brand - famous for its beer and, bizarrely, a failing airline.

I took an autorickshaw to the office of the bus company to wait for my bus... which was about 45 minutes late. Eventually it arrived and I clambered on to my top bunk of the "luxury" sleeper. It was definitley not long enough for me to lie down- especially not with all my luggage piled up. I got myself as comfortable as possible- ready for the 7 hour overnight trip to rural Ujire.

SELCO

The Solar Electric Light COmpany is the organisation I will be working for while in India.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SELCO_India and  http://www.selco-india.com/)

They don't just make solar panels and have branched out into other sustainable and accessible methods of producing energy, as well as lots of research and development into technologies and ideas that could help improve the lives of the (rural) poor. The organisation has won two Ashden Awards due to their efforts to improve access to energy. The organisation have already provided solar lighting to 125,000 homes and plans to provide access for many more. It focuses on enabling people to make change in their own lives and has initiatives like campaigning for banks to provide microfinance packages for the rural poor, and helping people to use the technology to create their own businesses.

When SELCO was set up in the 90's by Dr. Harish Hand - there were three myths that he wanted to dispel:

1) Poor people cannot afford sustainable technologies; 
2) Poor people cannot maintain sustainable technologies; 
3) Social ventures cannot be run as commercial entities.

Now that all sounds very exciting to me.. And it sounds like they're already proving some of these statements wrong.

Energy poverty is a concept I have been interested in for a while. Access to affordable and clean methods of lighting, heating, communication and cooking has huge effects on the quality of life of people in developing nations. I plan to write a post about this massive topic sometime in the future.


SELCO currently works mostly in Karnataka and Gujurat, and I will be based in their research and development lab in Ujire, Karnataka, South Western India.


SELCO lab's website which gives a bit of information about the developments currently taking place (here). The Bangalore part of the labs generally focusses on developments for the urban poor, while the Ujire lab (where I'll be) has a larger focus on poverty in a rural setting.