A Project Completion Report for

Harnessing Solar Power for Multi-use Water Systems (SOLAR MUS) in

SIX REMOTE HILLSIDE VILLAGES IN NEPAL

April, 2013

Raj Kumar G.C.

rkgc@idenepal.org
Engineering and Water Resources Program Coordinator
iDE Nepal

A Project Completion Report for SOLAR MUS 1

 1. PROJECT OVERVIEW

Access to safe drinking water and sanitation are considered basic human needs and are
fundamental to health improvement, growth and development. A large proportion of people in
Nepal lack access to these vital services. According to reports, only 75% of the population has
access to safe drinking water from an improved water supply. Women spend significant amounts
of time and effort carrying water for domestic purposes which deprives them of time for other
activities. These communities are disproportionately poor (with poverty compounded by the lack of
access to water and energy) and tend to be from marginal ethnic/caste groups. Most of the poor
settlements in this mountainous country are situated at high elevations, and are therefore
burdened with even poorer access to water as low cost gravity fed water systems are not suitable.
For these settings, a powered-pump solution is required. Fossil fuel or grid options, if available,
are an option but they are typically unreliable and/or cost-prohibitive in these typically remote
communities. These circumstances create the need for an alternative method of supplying water to
the remote hill areas of Nepal. This method would rely upon electrically powered pumps. The
solution needs to be energy efficient, reliable and have a lower operational cost.

Solar photovoltaic is a suitable technology for the concerned region because there is abundant
sunlight for the majority of the year. Although there are periods during which the panels receive
reduced light, the conditions surrounding usage prevent this from being a major hindrance. During
the cloudy and rainy periods of the monsoons, water output decreases but is still sufficient for
domestic needs while the irrigation demands are satisfied directly by the rainwater. Winter brings
another challenge for pump output as morning fog reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the
panels but the near-right angle orientation of the panels relative to the rays of sunlight allow the
panels to still be effective during the winter.

This project brings together iDE-N's experience in MUS, irrigation, water management and
appropriate sustainable business models with Renewable Worlds experience in renewable energy
and business models for income generation in extremely isolated communities. Solar powered
water pumps, as a reliable system of lifting water, are critical to the success of this project. The
traditional gravity-fed MUS, as previously implemented by iDE-N in Nepal, are designed to give
priority for drinking water, with overflow water from the drinking water tank being used for
agriculture and other uses. Householders are trained to use micro-irrigation systems to make
efficient use of the MUS water for their agricultural needs. Micro-irrigation is a financial boon to
households as it results in higher crop yields, longer growing seasons (as crops can be grown in
the dry season), and better market prices (as these crops tend to be more scarce at that time of
year). Increased income means that households can cover the costs of ongoing operation,
maintenance, and replacement costs of multiple-use systems. Because they better meet the water
needs of communities, multiple-use services also decrease conflict related to water access as well
as damage to infrastructure caused by illegal or unplanned uses.

In an effort to overcome the water-related plights facing these communities, an agreement was
reached to form the Solar MUS project. The agreement parties are Renewable World (RW) and
iDE; SAPPROS Nepal, one of the leading national NGOs, chosen for experience in social
mobilization and also responsible for the technical installation component; and the solar solution
provider, SUNCO Energies Renovables S.L., Barcelona, Spain with Sustainable Energy Nepal
(SEN), Pulchowk, Lalitpur, Nepal, their country liaison. The agreement is entitled 'Harnessing
Solar Power for Multi-use Water Systems in Six Remote Hillside Villages in Nepal Solar MUS'
and in effect from 13 January 2012 to Dec 31, 2012.

A Project Completion Report for SOLAR MUS 2

 2. PROJECT OBJECTIVE

2.1 Initial Project Objective

The goal of this project is to tackle poverty in remote areas of Nepal by enabling poor, isolated
communities to increase the income generating capability of their agricultural activities. To this
end, iDE-N will develop and install affordable, solar powered water delivery systems in areas
where gravity fed systems are not be viable.

The project will also attempt to develop viable institutional and financial models, based on learning
through this initiative, for wide-scale replication of solar-powered Multiple Use Systems (MUS)
approaches.

2.2 Specific objectives

To increase annual incomes of 180 poor rural households by $150 per household
through locally appropriate business strategies such as high-value horticulture and
other water-dependent enterprises,that support and sustain incomes from productive
water use activities.
To improve the health of 180 poor rural households by increasing access to clean
drinking water, water availability for hygiene and sanitation, and through improved
nutrition.
To reduce the time and physical effort that women and children spend collecting water.
To increase participation of female children in education.
To increase the control that women have over household finance and increase the
participation of women in decision-making.

3. THE PROJECT

This project has helped build a total of six Solar MUS installations in the high hills and a solar vane
pump water system in the plains of Rupandehi, of the Terai district. The systems have benefitted a
total of 1,410 people from 240 householdsincluding 696 women. 39.6% of the households are
classified as indigenous and 14.6% are from the Dalit community. Aside from household hookups,
2 primary schools, 1 sub-health post, 1 community building and 1 orange nursery have also been
serviced. Two of the schemes are implemented in the Syangja districts and one in each the Kavre,
Kaski, Gulmi and Rupandehi districts. The total project implementation cost is calculated to be Nrs.
8,702 thousand out of which community has contributed kind and up-front cash equivalent to NRs.
1,468 thousand, which constitutes about 17.18% of total. The project has emphasized working in a
partnership with government and other likeminded organizations. This emphasis has helped by
generating significant matching resources (40%) towards the projects. Major contributors are
project DDCs, municipalities, VDCs, DAOs, local community groups, ICCA, SunCo, Martel Family
and Friends MUS, JICA, John Stigi Foundation, Small Irrigation Cooperative etc. Final project
beneficiaries and cost summary are detailed in table 1.

A Project Completion Report for SOLAR MUS 3

 SCHEME SUMMARY Table: 1

Beneficiaries Total Project Cost (NRs.

S. Households Population in thousand)
Scheme Name
N.
Janaj Othe Commun
Dalit Total M F Total Donor Total
ati r ity

Tanke, Anekot - 3, 4,
1. 7 2 50 59 155 161 316 1,273 511 1,785
Kavre
Lamdanda, Malangkot
2. 51 2 17 70 225 215 440 1,339 117 1,455
1, Syangja
Sirubari, Waling
3. 5 27 32 110 89 199 1,473 204 1,678
Municipality -7, Syangja
Andherikhola, Pallikot 5,
4. 26 26 81 87 168 1,770 455 2,224
Gulmi
Lausikhola, Dhital 2,
5. 31 15 46 124 122 246 1,217 181 1,398
Kaski
Sub Total 89 35 109 233 695 674 1,369 7,072 1,468 8,540

Madhuri, Basantpur 6,
6. 6 1 7 19 22 41 162 162
Rupandehi
Total 95 35 110 240 714 696 1,410 7,234 1,468 8,702

4. PROJECT DELIVERABLES

Altogether 11 sites in the project districts were selected for pre-feasibility studies to ascertain the
appropriateness of the project from technical, social and economic perspectives. After conducting
a detailed technical feasibility survey, only six of
sites were deemed suitable for implementation. The
eliminated sites were deemed non suitable for
various reasons including water source deficit,
source conflict, availability of alternate water
systems in the community, community hesitation to
provide the necessary labor and cash contribution,
as well as extreme water lifting heights.

The project has emphasized the formation of water

user groups and a steering committee in each
MUS users fetching water in TankeSolar MUS, Kavre. scheme. Steering committees are normally
comprised of 7 to 9 members; nearly half of which
are women. Each committee is initially run through
an orientation, after which they take the lead of the project. They start with project planning,
followed by the implementation and evaluation of the scheme by mobilizing community, and the
collection of required matching funds; after installation they are also responsible for the overall
operation and maintenance of the system. The project is structured so that a paid caretaker in
each project community is responsible for immediate Operation and Management (O&M). The
caretaker receives job training during scheme construction. Table2 below details the major project
deliverables.
A Project Completion Report for SOLAR MUS 4
 PROJECT DELIVERABLES
Table: 2

Deliverables/ Milestone Quantity

Site selection, Feasibility studies and field surveys 11
Users Group Formation & Orientation 7
Engineering & Construction of MUS 6
Solar Panels & Water Pump (including Caritas Pump) 6
Operation and Maintenance Training 6

5. PROJECT PERFORMANCE

The latest measurements of water discharge at the header tank were found to meet design
specifications. Referring to the Table 3 below, the water volume required by a community for a day
can be lifted in a mere 3.5 hrs in the Sirubari and Lausikhola schemes and a very acceptable 8.77
hrs in the Lamdanda scheme. It should also be
noted that the solar radiation was only at 39%
(out of 100), the volume of water elevated
increases and has a more consistent flow as the
value of solar radiation increases. Presently, all
the parameters are set at optimum levels and
therefore the systems are functioning in a fully
automated capacity. The pump starts to work
when there is enough solar radiation and
sufficient water at the source reservoir tank. The
system is set to start pumping when solar
radiation reaches 30%. Field verification has Solar MUS in Dhital, Kaski
shown that the pump systems are currently
working for more than 8 hours each day: from 7:45 am to 4:30 pm during sunny days. These
observations confirm that the lifted water volume is sufficient to meet the design demand. Lifted
water is collected in a header tank above the
community and distributed to the community
through a gravity fed system.

In the first installations of the Solar MUS a few

problems emerged the main issue was that the
pump didn't lift the designed volume of water. The
issue occurred in schemes located in Tanke and
Lausikhola. The issue created doubt for the overall
performance of the solar solution. To rectify the
situation, SunCo provided, at its own cost, solar
panels for rest of the schemes that were larger
than specified in the design and contract
agreement, which means the system would work
Kedar Sapkota, Solar MUS farmer in Tanke
harvesting vegetables from his MUS plot for longer durations and would work better on
cloudy days. Finally, it was determined that panel
size was not the problem, rather there was an electrical phase mismatch from the pump drive to
the pump motor; this eventually resolved all the worries and the systems have been functioning
without problems.

A Project Completion Report for SOLAR MUS 5

SOLUTION PERFORMANCE
Table: 3
Measured Lifting Water Time require
Scheme Name Frequency Flow Height Volume to lift the
Radiation (m) (lpd) volume (hr)
( 1%) Rate (l/s)
Tanke, Anekot - 3, 4, Kavre 43 Hz 0.80 64% 64 20,250 7.03
Lamdanda, Malangkot 1,
39 Hz 0.81 39.0% 51.3 25,560 8.77
Syangja
Sirubari, Waling Municipality -
48 Hz 1.01 50.0% 81.4 12,890 3.55
7, Syangja
Andherikhola, Pallikot 5,
45 Hz 0.80 54.0% 76.9 17,685 6.14
Gulmi
Lausikhola, Dhital 2, Kaski 43 Hz 1.02 40.0% 79.5 12,750 3.47

The project has successfully implemented these schemes that lift water to heights ranging from 51
m to 81 m with delivery length of up to 350 m. The systems are efficient and are equipped with
a automatic controller that functions in conditions as low 30% solar it starts working when it detects
30% solar radiation and stops working when water level reaches pump level.
Some of the main issues and risks associated with the program are highlighted as follows:
At the conceptual stage, the anticipated water lift height was an average of 30 meters from
the water source and the average beneficiary households per scheme was anticipated to
also be 30.As the program progressed, it became clear that this height is too low for the
typical rural Nepalese application, which is why the real average water lift height was 70 m
while the average number of beneficiary households was 47except Madhuri water system
in MUS in Rupandehi).These changes led to increased project cost and as a result the
project team decided to implement the solar vane pump water system (low cost option)
replacing a Solar MUS. The vane pump water system was implemented later in Madhuri,
Basantapur of Rupandehi district. The capacity of the vane pump solar system
comparatively lower than the Solar MUS.
The project failed to be completed within the initially stipulated schedule (by December
2012) because the contractor, SunCo, failed to deliver and install the pump and panels on
time. Initially SunCo had said that it would take maximum of two months for the pump and
panels shipment meaning which would have seen them delivered by the middle of
December 2012, but it took three more months even on agreed date of delivery, this has
compelled to extend project time again and again, initially two months and one more
months later.
The project utilizes relatively a new type of technology for the Nepalese context; this made
scheme site selection more difficult because of the lack of knowledge and community
exposure to the technology.
At their own expense, the solar panel supplier ended up providing significantly larger
panels than contracted for after doubting the ability of the original size to provide the
necessary power output.

A Project Completion Report for SOLAR MUS 6

 As the first schemes came online, improper control panel settings prevented the systems
from operating correctly. This issue made the various stakeholders anxious until it was
ultimately resolved. The project team was able to convince them that such an automatic
solar system was new in Nepal and that small hiccups might be expected. We learned that
the service provider should have thorough knowledge to diagnose and fix issues otherwise
stakeholder concerns may flourish.

6. LESSONS LEARNED

The majority of rural communities persist in having acute water shortages and frequently disrupted
supplies. Water demand has been growing not just because of increases in population, but also
because of the adoption of improved irrigation, livestock rearing and use for other domestic
purposes. Also, it is evident that existing sources are increasingly drying up in the hills, potentially
an outcome of climate change and/or the mismanagement of catchment watershed. In
mountainous Nepal, the use of solar power for lifting water is one of the most appropriate
technologies. The sunny conditions (80% of the year) make solar a great choice in light of the poor
state of road and electrical infrastructure as well as the unaffordable fossil fuels.
Solar MUS project is a new concept that requires a significant money outlay. In order to derive
maximum benefit and ensure sustainability there is requirement for regular monitoring to
ensure the MUS management committee is functioning well and that a paid MUS caretaker is
employed. This will ensure the security of the panels, pumps and the system operation. Efforts
will also be made to encourage users to contribute a portion of their increased income towards
system repair and maintenance as well as water source protection.
Given the limited water flow in the majority of the Solar MUS spring sources, the
communities need to be trained to optimally utilize the available water sources to allow for the
production of high value vegetables for income generation activities by utilizing efficient micro-
irrigation technology.
Source registration is critical as property rights for water sources are often dependent on the
good faith of spring owners which is not good enough for long-term planning.
The project operated under considerable funding constraints and therefore was executed as
economically as possible, but the system would ideally be protected by barbed wire fencing or
other protective measures around key system components such as the solar panel, water
reservoir tanks, water pump and source intake to protect them from the possible risks or
accidental damages.

7. CONCLUSION

iDE Nepal, in a pioneering effort, successfully oversaw the installation of six solar powered water
delivery systems. This project, in support of SAPPROS, relied on the financial support of
Renewable World (RW) as well as other donors and partners. It was a great achievement for the
project team to generate about 40% of the matching resources to install these six systems. The
stakeholders were particularly supportive because the novel approaches of the system that allows
for multiple uses.

Aside from the water that solar MUS supplies for domestic use, it also generates income through
the cultivation of high-value agricultural crops. Micro irrigation technology is to enabling the
efficient and productive cultivation of these high-value crops. This promotes the sustainability of
the project. The project team believes that the Solar MUS can serve as a model example so that
government planners, designers and implementers can learn from it and incorporate it into official
policies and programs. MUS communities will have a vegetable collection site, where they can sell
their crops to wholesalers and increase their income. With the increased income, households can
A Project Completion Report for SOLAR MUS 7
cover the costs of ongoing operation, maintenance, and replacement costs of multiple-use
systems. Additionally, we are establishing a local service provider that will market and sell inputs,
micro irrigation and IPM products to the smallholders.

We found that Solar MUS is a solution for communities when gravity fed sources are not viable
because the water source is located below the community. Abundant sunlight for the majority of
the year makes solar power an elegant solution for these communities.All the MUS have a MUS
management, repair, and maintenance committee. The committee has made a provision of
collecting some fees on monthly basis to be used for regular repair and maintenance.

Considering community ownership is a key aspect of making this project sustainable, their direct
involvement in planning and implementation was ensured including collection of regular funds for
operation and maintenance to ensure the sustainability of project. However, we note that each
solar MUS installation requires regular monitoring to ensure that it is functioning correctly and that
the community is deriving maximum benefit from their large investment. The monitoring seeks to
ensure that MUS management committees are operating well and that those communities employ
a competent MUS caretaker. The caretaker is responsible for ensuring the security of the panels
and pump, consistent system operation, and that community members have the requisite
knowledge to grow high value crops and to sell them in rural markets. Additionally, the users are
trained to contribute a portion of their income for the repair and maintenance of the MUS as well
as for the conservation of local micro-watershed for water source protection.

The experience gained so far shows that Solar MUS is receptive to its users; there is significant
interest in SMUS impacts and benefits as it is new to them. Going forward, the project team will set
out to develop viable institutional and financial models in order to initiate wide-scale replication of
solar-powered Multiple Use Systems approach.

A Project Completion Report for SOLAR MUS 8