Stefan Rostock and Coney Njinkeng
World Rivers Review, August 2006
It is cooking time in Bansoa, and rush-hour for Mrs. Tagme at her
corn mill and cassava grater. She offers her services to other women in
the small village situated in the hilly West Province of Cameroon. Her
corn mill and cassava grater are the only ones within a 5-kilometer
radius. A small Pelton turbine connected with pipes to the creek behind
her house turns her mill. In the evening she connects it to a generator
for electricity. Her children use the light for additional learning
hours; she listens to the radio and can even offer TV evenings to
friends.
The Pelton turbine is produced in the major regional town,
Bafoussam, by local technicians, using local materials. The technicians
have been brought together by ADEID, a local NGO that has been working
for 15 years on small hydropower solutions.
ADEID has installed micro hydro in Cameroon and other African
countries. It helps local communities find donors for the high initial
costs of the installations and to create local committees for
maintenance and management. Training by ADEID for women and men from
the concerned villages creates rural capacity for administration and
maintenance.
In Baleng, 5 km west of Bafoussam, two communities organized as
Community Group Initiatives (known by its French acronym, GICs) are
building their own micro-hydro installations. The German Protestant
Church Development Service supports them with loans for the high
initial investments. The villagers are contributing as well. When
electricity production starts, every consumer contributes monthly to
pay back the loan. After the loan is paid off, the monthly contribution
can be used for maintenance or other development efforts in the
villages.
Technically, micro hydro is not very complicated. If the terrain is
steep, even small rivers can produce electricity with a Pelton turbine.
If the slopes are gentle, a waterwheel can do the work. ADEID is
looking to introduce more complex turbine designs to local technicians,
as well as increase the capacity of installations.
Currently, 96% of Cameroon’s grid-based electricity comes from large
dams located on the same river system, the upper Sanaga River. This
increases vulnerability to changing rainfall patterns from climate
change. Droughts in 2002 gave a taste of things to come.
Local electricity solutions are the only chance for rural areas.
Since the privatization of Cameroon’s electric utility in 2001, the
prices of electricity have gone up; connection costs are often
unbearable, and new electrification is concentrated on urban areas.
It is evening in Bansoa. In most houses candles or oil lanterns
bring some light. Mrs. Tagme and her neighbors are using energy-saving
light bulbs. The children are studying longer. Her son will open a bar
and her daughter continues maintaining the mill and grater, and with
the incoming money she is going to open a small kiosk. Electricity is
bringing new ideas into rural Africa.
The authors are with Action for an Equitable, Integrated, and
Sustainable Development / Action pour un Developpement Equitable
Integre et Durable, ADEID
