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ePaper created 2015-12-01, 11:33:23 | version 1.43.00
37akzente 3/15 T he people of Ocote Tuma now divide their lives into two distinct eras: the dark ages and the age of enlightenment, the period of monotony and that of opportunity. The eras before and after the advent of ‘la mi- cro-turbina’, as they call their mini hydropow- er plant. As Freddy Orozco puts it: ‘They are two different worlds.’ Orozco chairs the com- mittee in Ocote Tuma which manages the power plant that has fundamentally changed the lives of local people. Electric light first arrived in the little vil- lage in the north of Nicaragua eight years ago. In those days, 17 families inhabited the village that nestles amid the landscape’s tropi- cal rainforests and rolling green hills. Today there are 70, and the number is rising. ‘We have population growth of 25 per cent per year,’ Orozco says. And yet Ocote Tuma is not exactly the centre of the universe. It takes about six hours by car to the capital Managua, three of them on adventurous, bumpy, winding dirt tracks. The route takes us past simple wooden huts, mango trees and small cocoa and banana plantations. After Haiti, Nicaragua is the sec- ond-poorest country on the American conti- nent. Well over a million people here have no electricity. And that is how it was in Ocote Tuma, until in 2007 the community collaborated with the central government to build a small power station. They were supported by GIZ on behalf of the Directorate-General for In- ternational Cooperation at the Dutch Minis- try of Foreign Affairs. Above the village is an idyllic waterfall that tumbles down from a great height. So the inhabitants created a res- ervoir to store the water, laid a pipeline to the village and connected it to a hydroelectric generator. In total, the hydropower plant cost USD 40,000. The project is part of an international in- itiative with the goal of providing remote communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia with sustainable electricity. It is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Eco- nomic Cooperation and Development in co- operation with the Dutch Directorate-Gen- eral and other donors from Norway, Australia, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Seven hydropower plants have been built in Nicara- gua alone. But none are as successful as the one in Ocote Tuma. For the village has reinvented itself. Every day people are moving here from the sur- rounding area to enjoy the wonders of elec- tricity. Suddenly the villagers are discovering opportunities they never had before. Tales of improvements wherever you go Victoria Jarquín knows all about that. Thanks to the new electricity supply, she was able to quit her job as a domestic worker and set up a business of her own. She now owns a ‘pulp- ería’, a sort of general store. Her business has no name, the sign above the door says simply: ‘Bienvenido’ – welcome! It is Tuesday morn- ing and the cheerful shop owner has plenty of trade. An elderly lady is buying a cold drink, a boy wants a kilo of malanga, a root vegeta- ble typical of the region. Jarquín weighs it out, puts the vegetable in a bag and hands it to the boy. ‘Nine córdobas,’ she says, around EUR 0.30. Jarquín’s store sells everything from scrubbing brushes and blouses to cuts of meat. ‘My bestsellers are cold drinks and chicken,’ she explains. She keeps both of these in the chiller cabinet, which her store now can run thanks to the electricity supply. Jarquín was born 35 years ago on a farm near Ocote Tuma. People used to get up at sunrise and go to bed at sunset. So as a teen- ager Jarquín looked for an escape and headed to the district’s main town Waslala, where she took a job as a domestic worker. She was away for twelve years. But when she heard about her village getting electricity, she de- cided to return home immediately: ‘I just had to take advantage of such a great opportu- nity,’ she explains. Her father raised a micro- loan from the bank, enough to procure the building and her first items of stock. That was four years ago. As a domestic worker she earned the equivalent of around EUR 100; these days she has roughly three times that in her cash register at the end of the month. Sometimes more. ‘And I’m my own boss, so I can make my own decisions. It’s wonderful,’ she says with an infectious laugh. ‘I’m so proud of my business.’ On every street corner in Ocote Tuma, people have stories like Jarquín’s to tell, sto- ries of improvements and new opportunities. The school principal describes how he can now hold lessons in the evenings thanks to electric light; the village joiner can make beds for the villagers and desks for the school be- cause he has access to powerful electric tools; and in Ocote Tuma they are particularly proud of their health centre – this too would not exist without electricity. Every day a doc- tor and nurse provide health care for 80 pa- tients, many of them travelling long distances on foot or on horseback to attend the clinics. ‘Ocote Tuma is a good example of how cru- cial energy provision can be for the social and economic development of a community,’ says Javier Gutiérrez from GIZ in Nicaragua. All issues concerning the ‘micro-turbina’ are discussed by the village’s hydropower » Light at last: in Ocote Tuma children can now learn for longer and businesses can remain open later. Access FOR MILLIONS The Energising Development (EnDev) initiative creates access to renewable energy for people who are living without electricity. Since 2005 it has reached 13.9 million people in 24 developing countries. Its many positive outcomes include improvements in health, for example through replacing coal-fired stoves. In addition to private households, electricity has been supplied to 16,000 social institutions, including many schools and health centres. www.endev.info