Night sky lit up for the first time in Swat village

100 KV hydropower station set up in Boyun village in collaboration with locals.

SWAT:

Streetlights lit up the night sky for the first time in Swat’s Boyun village on Thursday. Adults and children came to the streets overjoyed, marvelling at the wonders of electricity, and danced to celebrate their over six-month struggle to make the “near impossible” task of electrocuting their village a success.

“It seems like Eid all over again,” said Hazrat Muhammad, a local activist; his voice dampened by the shouting and whistling of celebrating villagers. Minutes ago, streetlights were switched on, illuminating the village streets for the first time using power from a 100 KV hydropower station they strived to set up. “A year ago it was just a dream, and today it’s real and happening. It’s unbelievable,” he said.

Marginalized, deprived and neglected, Boyun village, located 4km from central Kalam, lacked every basic facility and was cut-off from neighbouring areas. “Let alone electricity, we were hopeless that any development work would be conducted in our village. We had knocked the doors of every concerned official, but all our efforts went in vain,” said Habib Gul, an elder of the village.

It was a little over a year back when team of the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), a non-government organisation (NGO), visited the village and sensitised residents on ways to resolve their own problems collectively, recalled Gul. The organisation, in collaboration with international NGOs, stepped up to help resolve the linchpin of their woes, the unavailability of electricity, and mobilised the villagers to set up a micro hydropower station.

Anwar Khan, an expert on micro hydropower projects, told The Express Tribune that installation of a 100 KV hydropower station in Boyun was “an impossible task” as the village did no have its own water. He said that on average 35 to 50 people from local communities worked daily on the project for the past six months, adding that the project materialised “only due to the sheer hard work and collective effort of the villagers”.

“Today, we can proudly say that our village is with electricity, at much cheaper cost and free from loadshedding,” said Jalat, another resident. “This [feat] holds more meaning for us, more than a bulb lighting the dark; it is a reminder of our achievement after 65 years of wait and of our struggle towards a better future,” said Jalat.

Children, though not as eloquent as Jalat, hope to benefit from facility in their own ways.

A tenth grader, Hazrat Syed , said he loves to study but has not been able to invest enough time in it because he works in fields during the day with his father. “When I used to get the time to study, it would get be too dark to read,” said Khan. “Now I can work with my father in the fields and also study in the evening with ease,” he added.

The micro hydropower station was inaugurated by the board members of SRSP in a ceremony at the village. Rural Support Programme Network Chairman Shoaib Sultan Khan said, “The real power lies in the communities as it is they who organise and work for collaboratively. If community members are honest and dedicated, they can make impossible tasks possible.”

The initiative was funded by Open society Foundation, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas programme and Australian Government Overseas Aid Program.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2012.