SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT |
NORDIS
WEEKLY October 2, 2005 |
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The Chapyusen micro-hydro: electrification to the people |
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By Montañosa Research and Development Center (MRDC) Situational Background Chapyusen is a sitio of Barangay Can-eo, one of the 16 barangays of Bontoc, the capital town of Mountain Province. It is also the remotest and can only be reached after an hour hike from Tucucan and Can-eo. Chapyusen is one of, if not, the poorest communities in the municipality. It remains an isolated village characterized by agricultural under-productivity, food resource scarcity, and inadequacy of livelihood opportunities. All of the 24 households depend on rice farming for livelihood but the produce could barely provide six months supply of the staple. Left with no stable income with which to buy food and other pressing household needs, the men usually go out of the community to seek seasonal employment in neighboring villages and in Baguio City. The women, who are usually left behind to tend the farm and care for the children, have taken the initiative to assist their husbands in generating cash. Granted with financial and technical support from the Baguio-based Montañosa Relief and Rehabilitation Services (MRRS), the community started producing woven products for commerce in 2002. But the impact it brings to the household economy is easily overwhelmed by the soaring prices of basic necessities and prime commodities. The prevailing local crisis calls for every member of the family to contribute labor just to ensure that food is served in the table. Even children are not exempted as they take over household chores while their mothers are busy weaving. They also do the tedious manual pounding of rice with the use of mortar and pestle. Add to their workload at home, school children have to walk for an hour daily to attend classes in Can-eo, some 3 kilometers away. Worse, people of Chapyusen have to contend to pine pith wood (saleng) or kerosene lighting. This brings the children a hard time studying their lessons at night. Chapyusen remains the only un-energized community in the municipality. They also use flashlights to move around the house. A parent shared that on a monthly average, she spends P100 and P90 for kerosene and batteries, respectively. The Microhydro Project The concept of a micro-hydro project (MHP) in the community cropped up during the drafting of the community’s food production program by the Chapyusen Mangum-uma Organization (CMO), an affiliate of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA). Based on the program, Chapyusen aims to attain food sufficiency through enforcing local livelihood opportunities related to agricultural productivity and diversification for both consumption and income. Critical to its implementation is the establishment of a community-based and community-owned power system for the following energy needs: (1) Lighting; (2) rice milling; (3) sugar pressing; (4) blacksmithing; and, (5) carpentry or wood works. In 2001, the CMO forwarded a request to MRDC to conduct an initial feasibility study on putting up an MHP. The MRDC is well-known being the pioneering NGO, which facilitated the establishment of the Ngibat Micro-hydro Project in Tinglayan, Kalinga in 1994, the first ever in the Cordillera Administrative Region. An initial study by MRDC indicated that the development of an MHP is fairly possible. Water testing done at the Toy-ob Creek showed that it could generate 6.8 kilowatt-hour (KWH) of electricity during the rainy season. However, water-flow tends to drop to a critical level during the months of February to May and not enough to run a 5 kwh turbine. Categorically, this means that the community will experience three to four months without electric power during the dry season. The people were willingness to pursue the project despite this limitation. With the assistance of CPA, they developed a work plan and a sustainability plan which were integrated in the feasibility study. In June 2004, the project formally began with the clearing of the irrigation canal and construction of the power house. As agreed upon, CMO took the lead role in community organizing and mobilization. The ubfo, an indigenous system of cooperative labor-exchange, was institutionalized and strengthened. It proved to be the key to sustained mobilization. All members contribute to the hauling of materials and provide manual labor in all phases of construction works and installations. On the whole, the residents of Chapyusen provided 625 person-days of free labor throughout the duration of project implementation. In March 2005, the MHP was finally tested yielding positive results. However, it is in the middle of the dry season and the flow of water at the Toy-ob creek was at its lowest and not enough to run the facility. Fully satisfied that the facility had indeed worked, the people requested Can-eo to let them tap water from creeks within its jurisdiction. The latter conceded saying that the MHP is a remarkable feat worthy of support from the whole I-can-eo tribe. Finally, in July 18, 2005, the MHP was inaugurated and switched-on providing 24-hour non-stop electricity to the community. The event was witnessed by local government officials and invited guests from different parts of the province. Initially, the electricity output is controlled at 960 watts that is more than enough to light individual houses using two 20-watt fluorescent lamps. As a maintenance fee, the CMO General Assembly approved the motion for each household to pay P20. monthly. The amount is too small compared to the P190 per month that they used to spend on kerosene and batteries. The MRDC engineers advised the people to maintain the present capacity while learning the basic management and operations of an MHP. They said that electric supply could be increased to 4 kwh but it would only be done when the PO could operate the facility on its own. When this time comes, other hydro-powered facilities like rice mill, sugar presser, and blacksmith and carpentry/woodwork shops could be installed. Today, the people of Chapyusen are enjoying the fruits of their cooperative undertaking. The children can now do their night chores faster and study their lessons with convenience. The women are the most delighted saying that they can now weave over time to complete their quota. This will give them additional time to tend the farm during the day. Everybody agreed that the MHP was the most trying and challenging project in their lives, and at the same time, the most gratifying. Contemporary Challenges The MHP has built up the people’s capacity to develop their own local resources while ensuring affordable access of poor households to electricity. It also becomes an opportunity for the people to improve their organization by participating in all phases of project implementation. The institutionalization of ubfo in community mobilization had meted out a positive outcome by restoring traditional cooperative practices and free utilization/exchanges of individual skills towards a common objective. Sadly, such community-based initiative in the development of power sources is not in the government agenda. Instead, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo opted for energy deregulation by passing the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) which would only facilitate the entry of foreign companies to exploit and plunder the country’s resources in the guise of providing rural electrification and poverty alleviation. The EPIRA Law is a plain and systematic sale of the country’s patrimony and national economy to transnational corporations (TNCs). This is already felt locally as manifested by the planned construction of a hydro-electric dam in Talubin upstream by a foreign company. If pursued, it will dislocate the indigenous peoples in the communities of Bayyo, Talubin and Can-eo who were the traditional stewards of the natural bounties found within their ancestral domains. While some government officials in the province boast of future income from the project in terms of taxes, little do they know that it is just a paltry amount compared to the cost of environmental and social destruction it brings. More so, EPIRA guarantees super profits to the TNC by empowering them to pass on power costs to consumers. Clearly, it is profits at the expense of service. The MHP project in Chapyusen has proven that the technology to develop and promote independent low-cost alternative power sources is attainable through people’s responsiveness and unified action. Apparently, we have the capability to develop our resources even without the TNCs and make electricity a basic service to the people. # Abozaid Kazan |
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