Fuel
sources are extremely scarce in high-altitude pastoral communities.
Every day, people spend hours laboring to collect what little
fuel there is in these harsh climes: thorny shrubs and animal
dung. Burning these fuels in open hearths causes chronic eye,
respiratory, and throat infections, particularly among women and
children. Furthermore, fuel collection has repercussions on the
entire ecosystem through increased erosion and less browse for
livestock. From reading religious texts to cooking and spinning
wool, daily tasks critical to survival in the Himalaya are accomplished
by the weak light of candles. Many of the villages in which DROKPA
works have no source of electricity.
DROKPA is partnering with local communities to introduce and encourage the use of solar lights, solar cookers, and greenhouses. In the regions where DROKPA works, the sun shines more than 200 days annually and solar lights can brighten lives in myriad ways. Solar lights are great solutions to energy needs at community institutions such as this, and local schools.
Solar Lights
Solar lights are a positive, affordable solution to energy needs in remote pastoral communities. Photovoltaic lights are a tested and trusted technology in Himalaya and across the Tibetan Plateau and are a top local priority. Since 2001, households owning solar lights has increased from 20 to 150 in the Panzang Valley of Dolpo alone!
Solar Cookers
Solar cookers reduce exposure to smoke thereby reducing respiratory and eye diseases. Parabolic reflectors provide clean, efficient, and renewable energy sources that make a huge difference in locals' quality of life.
Greenhouses
The Dolpo Alternative Energy Project has taken on an exciting new dimension: greenhouses. In 2004, we helped build a greenhouse in Panzang Valley and, in 2005, partnered with local villagers to build another school greenhouse, this time in Do Tarap Valley. Greenhouses enable local communities to lengthen short growing seasons by germinating seedlings early, produce vitamin-rich vegetables, and demonstrate the potential of household kitchen gardens. Greenhouses bring nutritional benefits by making possible the cultivation of previously unavailable vegetables like carrots, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, and more!
Your support of DROKPA's alternative energy program will brighten the homes and improve the health of these ancient and vibrant communities, while reversing environmental degradation in some of earth's most forbidding and majestic environments.
New
Developments and Future Plans
DROKPA
is now working with local villagers, regional governments, and
other international organizations to provide solar light systems,
solar cookers, greenhouses, and solar dryers for medicinal plants.
DROKPA is also working with community members to explore other
avenues for alternative energy solutions, such as mini-hydro stations,
solar powered water pumps, and solar water heaters. DROKPA will
continue to collaborate with local villagers, regional governments,
and other international organizations to provide renewable, alternative
energy technologies and training to schools, community temples,
and other village-level organizations in remote pastoral communities.
We are also working with local communities and Nepali alternative
energy companies to help maintain and protect pastoral lifeways.
Before the Chinese assumed control of Tibet and closed the Nepal/China
border, pastoral communities throughout the Himalaya interacted
freely with nomads in Tibet. Pastoralists throughout the northern
Nepal/Tibet border were dependent on Tibet's winter grasslands
to sustain their herds of yak, sheep and goat, and horses. However,
the border closing cut off critical supplies of winter fodder,
creating a short-term emergency in which thousands of livestock
starved, and a long-term shortage of winter range
Today, DROKPA and its local, national, and international collaborators
are working to reverse this critical shortfall. In the coming
months, we hope to introduce solar-powered water pumps, which
have great potential to increase food and fodder supplies by irrigating
agricultural crops, providing drinking water, and growing desperately
needed winter hay. These water pumps also have the capability
of helping to establish vegetable gardens, greenhouses, and cultivated
herbal nurseries, which will help to improve community health
and conserve the natural resources of these high, dry, trans-Himalayan
ecosystems.
Together, this coalition of partners can decrease the incidence
of disease, arrest environmental impacts from fuel collection,
reduce time spent in hard physical labor, and improve the quality
of life in places like Dolpo. But we need your help!
For a more complete description of DROKPA's alternative energy projects, please
click on our Annual Reports below
