Small hydropower stations getting popular in Chitral

PESHAWAR: The practice of construction of hydropower stations on mini and micro level by the local communities is becoming popular in the sub-valleys of Chitral which are far off from the national grid to get uninterrupted and cheap electricity.

Islam Akbaruddin, chairman of a local support organization in Upper Chitral who is managing a micro hydro power station in Oveer valley, said that once the local community get organized themselves and decided to start the power project, they found a number of non-governmental organizations which rushed to their help.

He said that the local communities provided the labour force and local materials including stones, gravels and sand while the electro-mechanical machinery and equipment along with transmission lines were provided by the NGOs.

“The community is now managing its operation and maintenance for which they utilize the amount of revenue accrued from each household as bill of electricity while the rate has been fixed by the community so affordable that we use it for cooking and heating as well to the exclusion of wood,” he said. The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme introduced the small hydro-power stations for the first time in the 1980s.

He said that all the 36 sub-valleys of Chitral have streams with perennial flow of water enough to rotate the turbine generating electricity for the nearby villages and this potential remained underutilized till 1980s.

Mirza Ali, a civil engineer, having vast experience in hydro-power projects, said that there were numerous sites in the length and breadth of Chitral feasible for micro and mini hydro power projects having capacity ranging from 15 to 50 kW where water can be directed to the turbine by constructing a few meters long power channel.

He said that hectic activities of ‘conversion of water to watts’ on community level with or without support from the donors or organisations is going on in the remote areas of Chitral which promised visible improvement in their standard of life.