• Winds of Power
• A campaign warped by hypocrisy
• Appreciations
• Too old, too soon
• Earthly sounds of heavenly battle
• 'Look and you'll find meaning'
• Calm beauty
• Kala korner by DeeCee
• Music scholar in charity concert
• The cause
• Powerless students
• A dying flicker
• Going on the air
• Letters to the editor

Winds of Power

By Kumudini Hettiarachchi

Once the younger ones have done their homework and the evening meal is prepared in the lean-to mud kitchen of this humble household, the family sits down to a meagre dinner, not by candle-light as most of us do these days, but under electric light.

For miles around, the inky blackness envelopes the scrub jungle, for the powerlines have not come this way. But Saman Kumara, 28, and his family are fortunate. They even keep a bulb burning throughout the night to ward off marauding elephants.

"We save a lot of money on kerosene oil, which we used before July 19 to light up our home. With the children running around, there was the fear of someone getting burnt. Now we have no such problems. We also earn some extra money by charging batteries for our neighbours," says Kumara who lives with his parents and brothers and sisters. What happened on July 19 to change their lives so irrevocably? "Api hulan peththak gaththa" (We got a windmill), he smiles. 

Yes, they have a windmill in their backyard which helps them to light six bulbs, work a radio and sometimes watch black and white TV.

A few other families in this area in Suriyawewa have also benefited, not through hydro-power or expensive diesel turbines but by harnessing the wind which blows so gustily across Hambantota. The second most impoverished district in this country, next to Moneragala, the people of Hambantota live in dire poverty. Farming their plots of land with banana and coconut or their chenas with mung, chillie, pumpkin, cucumber, gingelly or corn, their lives hang on the whims of the rain-gods. 

How did power through windmills come about? The answer is provided by Rohan Senarath, Programme Manager for Energy of the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG).

When working in the rural areas, the ITDG had seen how, even in interior villages men, women and children used vehicle batteries to watch TV. "They had to come 15 or 20 kms to get the battery charged once or even twice a month. 

"They lost labour hours, at least two days, through this exercise. We then conducted a survey in 1999 in Puttalam and Hambantota where the wind is powerful because of the North-East and South-West monsoons," explains Mr. Senarath.

In a pioneering effort, the ITDG imported a windmill or wind-electricity machine and installed it in Venivellara in Suriyawewa. With a capacity of three kilowatts, it provides power to 22 homes.

Then a simple design for electricity generation was drawn up, a specialist brought from Scotland and the know-how gradually transferred to a small, local entrepreneur for the manufacture of single 'wind turbines' and the project got underway. ITDG's wind research team was also in the forefront.

The first windmill produced locally was installed under a pilot project in Usgala, Suriyawewa for farmer Samarasinghe Sirisena with a family of four children. Their two-roomed home was lit up by five bulbs. They also have a radio and black-and-white TV. Though the windmill was installed free of charge, the powerhouse was constructed by Sirisena at his own cost. In addition to coaxing the dry earth to yield, Sirisena charges batteries for a small fee and has become a small entrepreneur.

"Now there are 12 such windmill units in Hambantota and one in Moratuwa. Four have been installed by ITDG with the beneficiaries meeting one-third of the cost and the rest by other organisations. We are testing whether a windmill could be installed on a mountain crest, by setting up one in Makandura in Matara," says Mr. Senarath. 

What are the benefits? It is 100% environment-friendly. There is only the initial cost of installation, with no additional fuel costs.

You can get up to 250 watts, adequate to light six or seven compact fluorescent light bulbs, watch black-and-white TV and listen to the radio. Ninety-five percent of the material needed to build the windmill is available in the country, only the permanent magnets are imported, he says.

On the other side, the "limitations" are that the wind is unpredictable, such technology would only be suitable for certain areas such as the south and the flat area from Puttalam across to Trincomalee. "It's catching on in the rural areas, where there are no hydro possibilities," says Mr. Senarath.

Mother of two, Sirimalee Ihalakodippily, 39, speaks of the benefits those who have windmills now enjoy, while her three-year-old son points at the tiny TV in their sitting room. Those days children could not study into the night because the parents were scared of the 'kuppiya' catching fire. Farmers can sort the vegetables brought from their chenas in the night and take them to the pola early the next morning. Electric light helps people to spot snakes in the night, when going to the toilet which is away from the house and also scares off elephants. 

"Life has definitely become easier with power," says Sirimalee rocking her son gently.

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