Light in a Mountain Village:The Story of a Volunteer on the Thai-Myanmar Border

As always during the monsoon season, mountain areas are inundated with rain and the sky darkens. A group of children and several villagers arrive at the simple classroom that constitutes the village's elementary school, as a fluorescent light on the roof beam is busy struggling to light the whole room. A crowd gathers in front of a small black box, watching the actions of tiny people within the box. This is a typical image from the mountain village of Kray Kee, a remote place on the Thai-Myanmar border.

Last year, after a group of volunteer workers from Taiwan, the US, Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar installed a micro-hydropower system on a small river not far from Kray Kee, not only did the village elementary school have enough power to light its classroom, but a small television set also brought many surprises and much joy to local residents. In addition, villagers were now able to charge batteries to light dim electric bulbs in their own homes.

Here we are just about to install the heart of the project-the generator. Once this is completed the village will be officially "electrified."

Taipei Overseas Peace Service

Kray Kee is a small settlement of the Karen minority, located in the northwestern Thai county of Tha Song Yang, nine kilometers from the nearest main road. It used to take three hours to reach on foot, until only a year ago villagers working together finally built a simple road through the mountains, allowing access to four-wheel-drive vehicles. However, during the monsoon season, this unstable mud road becomes much more dangerous to travel along and the only reliable way to reach the village is on foot. The mountain Karen still make a living through such traditional methods as swidden farming, fishing, hunting and gathering, working hard to eke out an existence each and every day. However, as their numbers have increased, the limited availability of agricultural land and the impact of modernization and natural disasters have meant that they now lack adequate resources to meet their daily subsistence needs, and have been reduced to penury and perpetual shortage.

Three years ago the Taipei Overseas Peace Service (TOPS), which assists refugees and remote villages on the Thai-Myanmar border, helped Kray Kee to establish its first elementary school, not only employing young members of the Karen community as teachers, but also using work meetings, regular supervision and training workshops to support them and ensure that they can not only educate local children, but also undertake other tasks more akin to those of a community development worker, including emergency medical assistance, environmental protection, public health and organic agriculture.

Kray Kee is a microcosm of life on the Thai-Myanmar border. There remain many other villages that even today can only be reached on foot and not only have no infrastructure to speak of but also completely lack public services. Villages of this sort have received no assistance from public resources for long periods of time and though most have some simple form of water supply, basic power equipment has long been little more than an unattainable dream. As a result, when night falls children are forced to try and finish their homework by the weak light of a single candle.

In the spring of 2002 four university students from the US, assisted by TOPS members, had arrived in Kray Kee to conduct research work for their graduation theses, which included planning a feasible micro-hydropower project. They had completed their plans and successfully applied for financial sponsorship from an overseas foundation. But unfortunately, after the students had returned to the US implementation of the project had ground to a halt.

Usually when building a dam in a mountain area it is necessary to make do with the materials available, though it is also important to consider fully the principles and filtering functions involved.

Multinational volunteer army

At the beginning of 2003 Chris Greacen, a PhD student from the University of California at Berkeley who had been involved for some time in researching renewable energy sources in Thailand and was also the US students' fieldwork tutor, visited Kray Kee with TOPS members to assist with the further planning and execution of the hydropower project. A group headed off into the jungle to begin the necessary measurement and planning work, equipped with only basic instrumentation, machetes to cut a pathway through the undergrowth, rope to measure distances in units of ten meters, a spirit level, and surveying poles made from two dried branches.

Chris wrote down all the recorded data and drew a basic design diagram, while the rest of the team divided the remaining tasks between them, such as determining the path the water pipe would follow, the position and construction method of the dam, the type of power generation equipment to be used, and its optimal location.

Amusingly, although this team may have resembled a small team of engineering experts, in fact it was nothing more than an ad-hoc group of volunteers from different countries, who communicated in Thai, English, Chinese and Karen as they surveyed the area around the village and discussed the best course of action.

After staying one night in the village we continued with tasks not completed the previous day, only to find that a group of villagers were now keen to join our ranks. Because the electricity to be provided by the project was to be used for the village's elementary school, temple and street lights, local monks, teachers and the village elders also began to take part in the discussions and planning. This made sense because the villagers were to be responsible for all future construction work, with TOPS providing the necessary building materials and technical guidance.

Our survey work indicated that the earlier group of US university students had underestimated the cost of the project, and on top this the US-led war against Iraq led to a sudden increase in the price of PVC water pipes. Thus the overseas sponsorship already obtained would no longer cover the full amount. It was also found that the water flow was too slow so it was necessary to increase the length of the water pipes being laid. As work was about to get under way it seemed the cost of the project would never stop increasing, but these difficulties failed to dampen the confidence of our multinational engineering team. Chris first discussed with our sponsors the possibility of increasing the allotted budget, and TOPS began purchasing the required materials, advancing money that would later be reimbursed by the sponsor, and also making its own contribution to make up the funding shortfall. We decided that we would do all we could to pool our resources and finish the project.

The enthusiastic participation of the villagers meant that the construction of the hydropower facility took only eight working days. Once it began to operate it easily supplied enough power to provide fluorescent lighting in the village elementary school and temple and to operate small electrical devices.

After many days hard work we finally finish our own personal "mission impossible" on the Thai-Myanmar border. Watching the village children fetch water from this tap was a really moving experience.

Reproducing a successful experience

Following its success at Kray Kee, TOPS turned its attention to the even more remote village of E We Jo, three hours from Kray Kee and reachable only on foot, where TOPS had also been providing educational services. After several months it was proposed that a hydroelectric system also be built there. An initial survey and assessment revealed that just one kilometer from the village was a large waterfall, making it an excellent location for the proposed project. When we discussed the idea with members of the local community, the villagers expressed their willingness to cooperate, knowing that an electricity supply would be a major boost to the development of their village.

The second time we visited E We Jo, we were surprised to discover two small fluorescent lights in the village chief's home. It turned out that following our initial survey of the area the chief had not wanted to wait, and had purchased the lights for the school from down the mountain. This enthusiasm made us more eager than ever to help them.

However, after initial planning for the project was completed, we faced the most practical of all problems: where would the funding come from? The recent economic downturn had resulted in a major fall-off in donations to TOPS, making it difficult for the organization to devote too many resources to the project. After further discussion with personnel and community residents, TOPS and its partner organization, the Karen Network for Culture and Environment, agreed a formal planning document, which was then sent to a variety of international organizations to apply for funding.

Of particular importance was the fact that although the hydroelectric plant was to be donated gratis to the local community, the community would then be responsible for all future management and upkeep. This was deemed the only way to ensure sustainable operation and prevent the facility falling into disrepair for lack of maintenance as soon as the aid team left.

In order to address this issue, the E We Jo villagers decided to establish a community hydropower committee, and by charging minimal fees, to raise funds to be used specifically for the maintenance of the facility. At the same time neighboring Kray Kee also set up a similar organization, with the aim of ensuring community resources were more effectively used to facilitate community development.

As we worked to install the small hydroelectric generator, the lack of expert personnel meant that I (standing, left) had to assist Chris Greacen with the surveying around Kray Kee village as best I could.

Working slowly towards consensus

In all honesty, the budget for the hydropower project was not particularly high, but it seemed some people were more interested in talking than taking the necessary action, and the funding failed to arrive. For us this was a challenge to our community development program, but it also provided a learning experience for the villagers. Perhaps individuals would be willing to make donations and outsource the project to a small outside firm that would quickly come up the mountain and complete all the necessary work in order to provide hydroelectric power to this remote village. But such an approach would undermine the process of allowing the villagers to express their opinions and negotiate. As a result they would in effect only be receiving ad hoc and temporary charity-an approach that can on occasions have the opposite of the desired effect, for example by damaging the natural environment or undermining traditional ways of life. For us the hydropower project was more than the provision of material benefit; more important was the mutual learning the entire process facilitated.

Although the promotion of this project really did seem to get bogged down in the details and drag on, the participation of the villagers was one of the most important and fundamental aspects of the process. Through continued communication and discussion they indicated their willingness to build the power facility themselves and learn how to jointly manage and operate this important community asset. In future they should also be able to use this experience to deal with other public issues.

As for myself, I learned how to design and promote a more comprehensive aid development program. Put simply, it is necessary to put in a lot of time and effort slowly forging consensus. As the two sides interact it is important to look for the most appropriate way to proceed, because development work has always been a long road into the future.

At the end of 2003 we watched as work on the project grew nearer and still there was no news on funding or sponsorship from overseas, with the increasing possibility that missing the fallow period of January-February each year would result in the village chief's fluorescent lights being unused for another year. At the same time as TOPS decided to use its special budget to purchase the necessary equipment and building materials, the project also received a variety of assistance from other international organizations dedicated to helping refugees. Examples included the Burmese Border Consortium, which provided enough grain to cover the construction period, the Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees, which supplied vehicles to help transport the building materials, and ZOA Refugee Care of the Netherlands, which provides technical training programs in refugee camps. ZOA not only provided expert technical personnel but also helped several trainees apply to the Thai government for exit permits from camps to take advantage of this valuable learning opportunity.

Such a powerful jet of water is evidence that the generating equipment installed will work as expected.

Mobilizing an entire village

TOPS played the role of facilitator, bringing together a group of individuals from different countries and resources from a number of different organizations, as work on the hydropower program for E We Jo got under way at the beginning of 2004. First it was necessary to transport the building materials bought in a local town to the end of the nearest road. Over the next few days these were carried by the villagers on foot over a round trip of six hours, until gradually the electric cables, water pipes, generator, cement and other materials were all safely stored in the village.

All assisting groups then arrived in E We Jo to carry out the construction work. It was decided at a village council meeting to divide into three work teams, responsible respectively for building the dam, laying the water pipes, and installing the generator and cables. Over the next few days the whole village mobilized to help the technicians in whatever ways they could. Even the old women of the village, in traditional dress, lent a hand carrying things. The sight of the whole village working like this to secure its own future development was truly moving.

Over a seven-day period the project was completed, and although the technicians from the refugee camps had never really received any formal training they were able to effectively use local resources and limited building materials by applying the experience and techniques they had learned in their own lives. In this way they were able to lead the villagers in building a micro-hydropower facility able to supply power to a school classroom, church and battery chargers. The resourcefulness these people showed was quite in keeping with their history as guerillas who had fought in the jungle against the government and military of Myanmar for years.

After a final day of adjustments and testing, the generator finally started operating, providing sufficient electricity for the use of the local community. As technician Phon Chai promised the villagers, "From tonight our lives will be filled with light."

Working for a common purpose

That night we went to see the villagers singing hymns in the small local church and the sheer happiness over what they had achieved that day was clearly written on their faces. They told me that to be able to read the Bible and sing hymns in a lighted room was something they had never imagined possible, and they thanked all of us for our help in making this a reality. One woman from the village also said she would be now able to weave cloth at night.

At the other end of the village, the chief and many villagers had gathered in the school classroom to learn as much as they could about hydroelectric power generation. They also decided to organize adult literacy classes at the school in the evenings.

When the lights first came on I have to admit to having mixed feelings. The previous night everyone had gathered by the stove drinking wine and chatting about everyday things, an experience suited to a quiet night of firelight and shadows on a mountain. But this evening, as I sat under the fluorescent light I longed for the atmosphere of the previous night. Of course I also felt a little guilty that a city dweller such as myself could so selfishly want to keep such a mountain village in the dark.

I am absolutely thrilled to have had the opportunity to take part in both the projects described. Having studied social sciences I never thought I would ever work with others to build and install a hydropower system, but the smiles on the faces of the villagers were the greatest achievement of the project and made all the hard work worthwhile.

Finally, I would like to thank the many friends from different countries for their invaluable help and the people of Taiwan for their regular donations, which make TOPS' overseas development projects possible. Without your support we could never have achieved what we did on the Thai-Myanmar border or have helped improve the daily lives of so many people.

Editor's Note: As the economy in Taiwan has improved and a more international view of the world taken hold, an increasing number of people have expressed a willingness to serve overseas as volunteers. The author of this article, development volunteer Sam Lai, decided to write down his experiences in the mountainous area along the Thai-Myanmar border and we thank him for his moving story. Another article by him will be printed in a later edition of Sinorama.