11 May 2011 17:22
Source: Alertnet
By Syful Islam
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AlertNet) – Power-hungry Bangladesh has doubled the number of homes with solar-generated electricity systems to 800,000 over the last year.
Demand for the systems is growing as the country curbs new connections to its overburdened power grid and as costs for the solar panels come down, according to a range of non-profit groups now providing them across the country.
“You can call it a green revolution since our combined efforts are helping light remote villages and reduce carbon emissions,” said Abser Kamal, chief executive officer of Grameen Shakti, an organization that promotes the use of renewable energy in Bangladesh, in part by installing solar home systems and providing market-rate small loans to help people purchase them.
The company hopes to install an additional half million of the systems this year, largely in rural areas, he said in a telephone interview with AlertNet.
The systems use solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity. A typical $300 home unit allows the user to power light bulbs, a television and a fan.
Over half the households in Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries, lack a connection to the national power grid, according to government statistics. The country’s power plants can generate about 4,200 megawatts of electricity but demand is more than 5,500 megawatts a day, meaning many would-be users regularly lack power.
The government has committed to producing at least 5 percent of the country’s power through renewable sources by 2015, and 10 percent by 2020. As part of that effort, Solarium Power Limited (SPL), a private firm, has been given permission to install an 18-megawatt solar power plant expected to cost 2 billion taka ($27 million). The plant is expected to cut Bangladesh’s carbon emissions by 100,545 tonnes a year.
But home-based solar panels are also playing a role. Groups like Grameen Shakti that are helping install the systems hope to bring them to a total of 35 million users in Bangladesh by 2015. Last year, Grameen Shakti installed 200,600 of the household solar units.
“The demand for (the) system is rising enormously,” said Ruhul Quddus, the head of Rural Services Foundation, a Bangladeshi development charity that is also installing the solar units. “Each month we are connecting 35,000 new households. It has huge potential in the remote villages which have no possibility to be connected to the national power grid for 50 years at its current rate of expansion.”
The home solar units also are providing a new source of income for some Bangladeshi families, particularly in rural areas, he said.
“With a small (solar home) connection one can power four lamps and one black and white television set. Some people use one or two lines and lend the rest (of the power) to others to earn money,” Quddus said.
A typical home solar system costs 20,000 taka ($300), with users paying 15 percent of the cost as a down payment and the rest over 36 months at an interest rate of 6 percent.
The government-owned Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) is supporting the program by providing credit at 5 to 8 percent interest to the charities installing the systems.
Monir Hossain, chief of SolarEn, a foundation launched last year to expand the solar home systems to urban areas, said poor people are now particularly interested in solar energy because the monthly installment payment for a home system are cheaper than the cost of a month’s worth of kerosene and candles.
“The monthly kerosene bill for four lamps stands at 1,600 taka ($23) whereas the installment for a (solar unit) is only 750 taka ($11). This is cutting their costs by almost half and also reducing carbon emissions, saving the environment,” he said.
Solar power use is surging in urban areas in part because the government has stopped providing new connections to the national power grid as a result of continuing power shortages. Recently, solar power systems were installed in the prime minister’s office, the Central Bank building and the new offices of Grameenphone, a telecom giant.
Solar power is also being used increasingly for heating, irrigation, mobile phone base stations and small three-wheel vehicles. Realtors are becoming interested on solar energy since they have no other choice after being refused national grid connections for their newly built projects.
Jamshed Ahmed, a resident in Noakhali district who purchased one of the solar home systems, told Bangladesh’s national news agency that the connection has improved his life.
“My seven-member family and our neighbors can now enjoy TV programmes at home regularly. Now we can become aware of the country's current affairs,” he said.
Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at youths1990@yahoo.com
Monday, May 23, 2011
Early warning system aims to save fishermen's lives
18 Apr 2011 16:36
Source: alertnet // Syful Islam
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AlertNet): Mamtaz Begum still remembers the day 12 years ago when her husband Ansar set off from his village of South Tetulbaria, in Bangladesh’s Barguna district, for a seven-day fishing trip.
“It was a sunny day and there was no sign of storm. So my husband along with his colleagues began the trip to the sea,” she said.
But a sudden storm arose in the Bay of Bengal and the trawler carrying 24-year-old Ansar and other fishermen sank. All the men drowned, leaving Begum a widow in her early 20s, with children to care for and a precarious future.
“My husband’s disappearance left us in the sea,” she said. “We are now leading a very poor life.”
Serious storms off the coast of Bangladesh are increasing in frequency, endangering the lives and livelihoods of Bangladeshi fishermen. According to Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, executive director of the Dhaka-based Centre for Global Change (CGC), between 140,000 and 160,000 households of coastal Bangladesh depend on fishing for their livelihood.
Ziaul Hoque Mukta, a policy manager for Oxfam in Bangladesh, said that in each of the past three years the country experienced 10 to 14 storms significant enough to earn a Signal III warning level, which indicates the likelihood of very rough and potentially dangerous seas. Thirty years ago, just four or five such warnings were issued each year, he said.
“The increased number of dangerous signal storms indicates that (an) unstable situation has risen in the sea,” Mukta said. An Oxfam study suggests this is likely due to climate change, he said.
To address the growing problem, the Centre for Global Change and Oxfam, along with CARE Bangladesh and the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods have teamed up with Airtel Bangladesh Ltd for a venture that aims to use the latest telecom technologies to make coastal fishermen less vulnerable to sudden storms.
Working together, staff at the rural livelihoods campaign and at the Centre for Global Change will look for signs of rough seas and try to generate warnings 48 hours in advance of incoming serious storms. Airtel then will use newly constructed telecommunication towers to disseminate recorded warnings through digital telecom devices supplied to each fishing boat.
If a boat is caught in rough seas and capsizes, Airtel will be able to track its position and forward the information to the Bangladesh navy and coast guard. The new system is due to begin operating at the start of the rainy season, which typically begins in mid-June.
Accurate storm warnings are essential to help fishermen maximize profits while remaining safe, experts say. Many fishermen take high-interest loans from money-lenders to purchase fuel and provisions for two-week trips. If a Signal III warning is issued by the government’s Disaster Management Bureau, they are required to return to shore.
TOUGH CHOICES
Curtailing a trip can lead to a loss of income and drive fishermen into debt, but ignoring a signal can endanger their lives. More advance warning of coming storms could help them avoid such binds.
Ahmed, who directs the Centre for Global Change, cites the loss of life from super-cyclone Sidr, which struck the Bay of Bengal and coastal regions of Bangladesh in November, 2007, as an example how the tensions between protecting incomes and protecting lives can be difficult to resolve.
Before Sidr hit, taking more than 3,000 lives in coastal Bangladesh, many fishermen had repeatedly abandoned fishing trips, accepting financial losses, in response to bad weather during the monsoon season. By the time that the warning for Sidr came, many cash-strapped fishermen “remained in the sea with a hope that the warning would be proven false,” Ahmed said. For some, taking such a chance was a fatal mistake, he said.
Former fisherman Barek Dafader, of South Tetulbaria, fell into poverty after he lost two of his three fishing boats to a 2005 storm. The unreliability of storm forecasting played a role in his decision to stay at sea after a warning had been issued.
“The signals were found (to be) wrong many times. That’s why I didn’t return with my two trawlers even after the signal was given” during the 2005 storm, he said.
Dafader had to sell his remaining boat in order to repay his debts and support the seven members of his family. He is currently unemployed.
“I was working on other trawlers, but now my children don’t allow me to go to the sea since they don’t want to lose me,” he said.
Oxfam’s Mukta explained that the initiative with Airtel aims to increase the frequency of updates on storms, so that fishermen can make better-informed decisions about whether to start their return journey.
“This may help them save their lives and livelihoods,” Mukta noted.
Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at youths1990@yahoo.com
Source: alertnet // Syful Islam
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AlertNet): Mamtaz Begum still remembers the day 12 years ago when her husband Ansar set off from his village of South Tetulbaria, in Bangladesh’s Barguna district, for a seven-day fishing trip.
“It was a sunny day and there was no sign of storm. So my husband along with his colleagues began the trip to the sea,” she said.
But a sudden storm arose in the Bay of Bengal and the trawler carrying 24-year-old Ansar and other fishermen sank. All the men drowned, leaving Begum a widow in her early 20s, with children to care for and a precarious future.
“My husband’s disappearance left us in the sea,” she said. “We are now leading a very poor life.”
Serious storms off the coast of Bangladesh are increasing in frequency, endangering the lives and livelihoods of Bangladeshi fishermen. According to Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, executive director of the Dhaka-based Centre for Global Change (CGC), between 140,000 and 160,000 households of coastal Bangladesh depend on fishing for their livelihood.
Ziaul Hoque Mukta, a policy manager for Oxfam in Bangladesh, said that in each of the past three years the country experienced 10 to 14 storms significant enough to earn a Signal III warning level, which indicates the likelihood of very rough and potentially dangerous seas. Thirty years ago, just four or five such warnings were issued each year, he said.
“The increased number of dangerous signal storms indicates that (an) unstable situation has risen in the sea,” Mukta said. An Oxfam study suggests this is likely due to climate change, he said.
To address the growing problem, the Centre for Global Change and Oxfam, along with CARE Bangladesh and the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods have teamed up with Airtel Bangladesh Ltd for a venture that aims to use the latest telecom technologies to make coastal fishermen less vulnerable to sudden storms.
Working together, staff at the rural livelihoods campaign and at the Centre for Global Change will look for signs of rough seas and try to generate warnings 48 hours in advance of incoming serious storms. Airtel then will use newly constructed telecommunication towers to disseminate recorded warnings through digital telecom devices supplied to each fishing boat.
If a boat is caught in rough seas and capsizes, Airtel will be able to track its position and forward the information to the Bangladesh navy and coast guard. The new system is due to begin operating at the start of the rainy season, which typically begins in mid-June.
Accurate storm warnings are essential to help fishermen maximize profits while remaining safe, experts say. Many fishermen take high-interest loans from money-lenders to purchase fuel and provisions for two-week trips. If a Signal III warning is issued by the government’s Disaster Management Bureau, they are required to return to shore.
TOUGH CHOICES
Curtailing a trip can lead to a loss of income and drive fishermen into debt, but ignoring a signal can endanger their lives. More advance warning of coming storms could help them avoid such binds.
Ahmed, who directs the Centre for Global Change, cites the loss of life from super-cyclone Sidr, which struck the Bay of Bengal and coastal regions of Bangladesh in November, 2007, as an example how the tensions between protecting incomes and protecting lives can be difficult to resolve.
Before Sidr hit, taking more than 3,000 lives in coastal Bangladesh, many fishermen had repeatedly abandoned fishing trips, accepting financial losses, in response to bad weather during the monsoon season. By the time that the warning for Sidr came, many cash-strapped fishermen “remained in the sea with a hope that the warning would be proven false,” Ahmed said. For some, taking such a chance was a fatal mistake, he said.
Former fisherman Barek Dafader, of South Tetulbaria, fell into poverty after he lost two of his three fishing boats to a 2005 storm. The unreliability of storm forecasting played a role in his decision to stay at sea after a warning had been issued.
“The signals were found (to be) wrong many times. That’s why I didn’t return with my two trawlers even after the signal was given” during the 2005 storm, he said.
Dafader had to sell his remaining boat in order to repay his debts and support the seven members of his family. He is currently unemployed.
“I was working on other trawlers, but now my children don’t allow me to go to the sea since they don’t want to lose me,” he said.
Oxfam’s Mukta explained that the initiative with Airtel aims to increase the frequency of updates on storms, so that fishermen can make better-informed decisions about whether to start their return journey.
“This may help them save their lives and livelihoods,” Mukta noted.
Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at youths1990@yahoo.com
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