Posted on 17/04/2009 by Ian MacWilliam
Source: Afghan Update (UNAMA quarterly magazine)
The district of Surkh-e-Parsa lies at the upper end of the Ghorband Valley, not far from where the road begins to climb the bare hills to the Shibar Pass. Three green valleys converge at the district centre of Lolinj. The local people grow wheat and tend their fruit trees, but they have always been poor. For them, even before the war, the notion of electricity was a distant dream. The nearest government hydropower station was in Siahgird, far down the valley, and that was destroyed many years ago. For the people of these valleys, when the sun set, the day ended and they had little choice but to settle down for the night.
But in recent years, all that has changed. About seventy per cent of households in the three valleys – home to some 30,000 people — now have electricity. Now there is light to allow children to study and people can continue their lives after sunset. The electricity runs flour mills, charges mobile phones and powers satellite television, which brings news of the outside world into this distant corner of Afghanistan. During the day it can also run washing machines and other labour-saving household devices.
via ReliefWeb » Document » Clean and green: Renewable energy for Afghanistan.
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