NEWS WIRE: Bangladesh: Cellphones and Solar Panels Distributed By Microfinance Institutions Facilitate Recovery From Cyclone Disaster

Source: The Daily Star.

Original article available here.

Mobile phone communication and solar panel power are literally saving many lives in the remote cyclone hit areas, and greatly helping rescue and relief operations.

A large number of villages in the hard-hit southwestern region of the country had been using solar panels for the last few years to get limited electricity. Many of the more than 50,000 solar panels in the region have been destroyed in Thursday’s cyclone but a good number of those are still operating.

The cyclone shattered the life and living of people in this region. Using mobile phones, which are now being powered by solar panels, many of the affected people are maintaining contact with the rest of the country.

Following the cyclone, the country’s power system tripped and most part of it remained without power for the whole day on Friday. This caused the mobile phone network stations, many of which were running on back up batteries, to stop functioning.

Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) says telecom network in 12 districts out of 22 in the southwestern region suffered a heavy blow of the cyclone.

According to the phone companies, there are 16,622 base stations in the affected region with 2,922 of these damaged in the cyclone. The companies already repaired many of the stations, leaving 996 till out of order.

On Friday, Chairman of No-10 Noltona Union Parishad Sultan Mahmood talked to a correspondent of The Daily Star from his coastal area in Barguna. He said he powered his cell phone with solar panels. The phone network was down during the cyclone hours and it resumed Friday morning.

According to the Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL) that has been financing all the home solar power projects in the country, the southwestern region has more than 50,000 solar panels. Fifteen non-government organisations (NGOs) and micro-finance bodies have been helping people install the solar panels since January 2003.

A private sector financing body created by the government with the help of the World Bank, the IDCOL has so far pumped in Tk 200 crore as loan and another Tk 60 crore as grant for the solar power project. The grant was given to projects aimed at very poor people in the most remote areas. Till recently, IDCOL has financed installation of 1,60,000 such solar panels.

“The NGOs and micro-finance bodies like Grameen Shakti, Brac Foundation, Srijani, Coast Trust etc are providing solar panels against a credit range of Tk 18,000 and Tk 60,000. Most of these panels cost between Tk 24,000 and Tk 30,000,” said an IDCOL official.

A set of solar panel usually provides between 50 and 75 watts of power. Power is stored in batteries charged by sunlight during day and is used at night to light up four small tube lights, charge cell phones and run a black and white television. This power runs for four to five hours each night.

The solar power scheme had been more than a success. The IDCOL had a target of financing 50,000 solar panels by 2008. But it has already financed more than 1,60,000 sets by this year.

Meanwhile, the BTRC yesterday held an urgent meeting with chief executives of the six mobile phone operators to discuss how to quickly restore all telecom networks affected by the cyclone. The phone companies expect to restore the damaged network stations soon, and ensure a fully functional network.

Grameenphone (GP) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anders Jensen yesterday said the company’s network was largely restored but about 2,000 base stations out of 6,000 are still running on power generators.

At a press conference in the capital yesterday, Jensen said four percent of GP’s base stations were damaged in the cyclone. Those have been restored.

He added that from the experience of the cyclone, GP will look into creating backup power source using solar panels for base stations in remote locations.

To create a better network dependency, Jensen said, GP would also look into the prospect of setting up an optical fibre network in the coastal area, in collaboration with other phone companies. GP now has its own 2,300 km of optical fibre network plus another 2,000 km of leased optical fibre network.

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