Goodbye Kathmandu............

Today I leave Kathmandu for Dublin via a stopover in Delhi and London.  Its lashing rain outside which is great as I always find it hard to leave a place I love when the sun is splitting the skies.. and therefore this makes it a little easier.  The weather has changed noticeably the past few weeks, with monsoon season kicking in slightly earlier than usual.  Last week Kathmandu received severe downpours of rain causing traffic chaos and widespread flooding.  At times like this it’s best to avoid the streets as the entire sewerage system gets washed onto the roads and is not very pleasant to get around at all!  However, I had managed to escape the worst of it as had taken a short trip up to Pokhara to visit some micro-hydro sites and to do a small bit of trekking.

The first hydro site was located in Tikhedhunga in the Annapurna region and consisted of a 40kW generator powered by a Pelton turbine.   It was commissioned 16 years ago and supplies much needed electricity to the village.  The project has been extremely successful so much so that more recently a second 40kW turbine was installed nearby which supplies electricity to the village of Ulleri.  Both of these are tourist villages and supply electricity to Tea Houses and households mostly for lighting, water heating and charging mobile phones.  The wealthier community members (i.e. those mainly engaged in tourism) can afford to pay more for their electricity and therefore subsidise the less well off.  This is only right as the proprietors of the Tea Houses have the most to gain from a reliable supply of electricity.  However, without both contributing to the overall project it would not be financially viable.

The second micro-hydro site was in Tadapani and was a brand new installation, commissioned only in the past six months. The civil infrastructure for the project is large with water being collected a good distance away from where electricity is actually being generated.  Similar to the last, a Pelton turbine is used to generate electricity.  However, this project also has a ballast tank filled with water and two sets of heating elements controlled by Triac’s that switch on/off when the demand drops in the villages thus stabilising system frequency.  Despite its size, the system is about half that of Tikhedhunga with a rated output of only 25kW.  This hydro site supplies electricity to the small neighbouring villages of Deurali and Ban Thanti in the west and Bhaisi Kharka and Tadapani to the east in the Annapurna Conservation Area.  The project was having operational difficulties with voltage stabilisation which is not surprising when I walk the distances between the villages.  Finally I briefly visit a small old mechanical mill that is used for grinding millet.  The turbine looks like it has been replaced many times and just consists of blades carved out of wood from the local area.  It only operates in monsoon season where there is ample supply of water.  As monsoon had yet to fully hit the hills it was still out of operation. 

Aside from visiting the micro-hydro installations I did a bit of trekking in the mountains and met some wonderful people and saw some spectacular views.  I also managed to persuade one of the local cooks in a Tea House I was staying, to give me a MoMo lesson.  Momo’s are Nepalese dumplings that are usually either vegetarian or meat with chicken or buffalo.  I have become addicted to the vegetarian ones and so listen intently and take notes so that I can replicate the process when I go home.  I’ve actually bought a cooking book too as I have really enjoyed the food over here and want to be able to cook Nepalese style when I go back to Ireland.  And speaking of food, on the last day of the trek we bought a goat from one of the villages on the way down off the mountain.  Amore, our guide who had been walking with us had invited us over for a nice home cooked meal and to meet his family.  I was wondering if I was going to be able to eat after becoming friends with the goat the day previous but I have to say it was a delicious meal (although I only ate very little as wasn’t feeling particularly well at the time).  In general though, I haven’t been eating very much meat at all over here, maybe once every two weeks as the vegetarian food is just so good.

I arrive into Delhi airport and have about two hours to kill before my next flight to London, and so I start thinking about some of the highlights from my trip.  It is really hard to narrow it down to specific experiences but I think one of the best decisions I made was to take Nepali classes.  Even though I can still speak just basic Nepalese this makes such a difference when you are out in the communities where they really have no English at all.  Especially since I was staying in people’s homes I always wanted to be very polite and courteous and thank them for their hospitality.  Although for me being able to converse with small children was so rewarding as they suddenly lose their shyness and open up to you when you ask them a few questions in Nepalese.

Another highlight for me was the people I worked with in Nepal from project partners to Government institutions, private companies to charities and NGO’s.  My co-workers in our South Asia team headed up by Nick and consisting of myself, Lata and Cecilia made every day an adventure.  Also the iDE staff members, with whom we shared office premises, were just so easy to get along with.  And of course I couldn’t forget the kitchen staffs that were just terrific, always smiling and cooking delicious ‘mitho’ food day in day out. 

During my last week, Binod, an iDE member had his last hurrah, tricking me into eating a chilli which I thought was nearly going to kill me!  It’s not the first time he had done this to me either.  Maybe he saw an easy target because I am so trusting but I reckon it’s more likely because he can manage to keep an absolute straight face even when I grill him on the level of spiciness of the chilli’s.

However, probably the most memorable moments were the reception we got in the small communities when we were carrying out the solar MUS installations.  The kindness and hospitality that these people showed us was immense especially when they have so little to give in the first place.  I will remember these moments for a very long time and I hope to visit again at some point in the future to see the long term impacts that the projects will have in these communities.

Finally I would like to add my sincere thanks to the DIT Foundation and Renewable World once again for making this happen.  I will take home some unforgettable experiences and some wonderful friends.  Oh, and I think I have now been bitten by the development bug!