My World Environment Day, 2011

A few days late, but here's an overview of what I did last Sunday on World Environment Day here in India. ONergy kicked off a project in partnership with a local Rotary chapter (RC Calcutta Mid-City, District 3291) on an off-grid island in the Sunderbans, which is in East  India. 


The Sundarbans wetlands and mangrove forest is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Evidenced by a devastating cyclone in 2008, it is extremely sensitive to changing weather patterns. Electrification and water purification are critical issues. A majority of the villages are without grid access, using kerosene and diesel generators for lighting, electrification and pumping water for de-salination and agricultural irrigation.  Relying on fossil fuels for these purposes is detrimental to the surrounding environment, unhealthy, and incredibly costly.  

The event was organized and held at the site of a local NGO who works with and runs programs with villagers to promote income generation through skill building and sustainable development. 

A small training and awareness session on the benefits of solar and how to use the lamps was given to a group of school children.

"Who know's how solar works?"

Ekta from ONergy mesmorizing the group with how their
mobile phones can be charged directly from the panel!

Solar LED study lamps were provided to selected students from Classes 5 & 6 who were regular attenders at school and high achievers. 

The first two students chosen, all dressed up, so cute.

A group of students them performed a skit on stage, which was adorable. They were dressed up as elders- wearing grey powder in their hair, traditional dress, and fake beards/moustaches. Though I couldn't understand what they were saying, what I gathered was that it was a generational progress, with the elderly teaching the youth the importance of taking care of the surrounding environment. 

Love the girl in the middle with the straw beard. Some of the kids
twirled their mustaches at the ends - great style.

Students on stage performing a group skit on the importance
of managing the environment.

As always, the teacher was at the side of the stage feeding lines
to the kids who forgot or got temporarily distracted.

This purpose of this pilot was to get the program started in the community, and also for Rotary to gain awareness for the project as they look to secure funding to expand it. The plan is to set up a  "charging station" at the local school and provide subsidized lamps to 50-100 school children. They could then bring their lamps to the school to get charged during the day and be brought home to study with at night, thereby preventing them from having to study beside dim, unhealthy, and unsafe kerosene lamps.


Very entertaining Sunday, although extremely hot with lots of travel involved (trains, buses, ferries), and I suspect the heat played a part in taking me down on Tuesday. All better now though!