BIGGEST EVER CHANGE IN ENERGY CONSERVATION THROUGH HARIT PRAYAS INITIATIVE OF CARITAS INDIA!

A HARIT PRAYAS PROJECT Village has
 become 100% CFL electrified with HARIT PRAYAS effort!

We are happy to share with you all that with Caritas India –HARIT PRAYAS program we have crossed another land mark in “energy conservation”. One of the HARIT PRAYAS project village name Semnapur pur Kala  in Sagar (Madhya Pradesh) with efforts and guidance from HARIT PRAYAS team through CBMOs ( Community Based & managed Organizations) in the form of Farmers Club & Mahila Mandals , is now 100% CFL (compact fluorescent light bulbs) village i.e. 100% HHS in the villages uses CFL (compact fluorescent light bulbs), which in turn saves about 42-54% of energy. With this Semal Kala has become the 1^st revenue village in Madhya Pradesh to be 100% CFL (compact fluorescent light bulbs) electrified village.

The story of this change has covered by a two daily Hindi nationals-Nav Bharat and Bhashkar ( fiind atched cuttings where media has clearly spell out the efforts of CARITAS INDIA through HARIT PRAYAS). Now different energy conservation agencies are moving to village for study and research!

About Semnapur pur Kala village:

Its one of the revenue village under Jamghat Panchayat and is about 35-40 kms from Sagar district Head quarter. There are 250 HHS ( 120 OBC, 80 SC, 20 St, 30 Others caste) and HARIT PRAYAS target HHS in the village is about 140 (initially), now work with entire village on sustainable agriculture and information dissemination ( through Soochna Dwar). With HARIT PRAYAS there two CBOMs  in the village- a Mahila Mandal and a Farmers club, both are linked with Bank and NABARD and are engaged in IGP, about 30 farmers are engaged in 100% organic cultivation and on a an average 60 members on daily basis access information on skill development and government schemens through Soochna Dwar ( Vilage Information Center)

How this is important for community and environment?

1.        It has reduced the bills amount by almost 50% earlier average bill mount in the village was about 250INR ( for 2 months), now it about 90 to 100 INR. So in total about INR 500-600 saving in a year per House hold which means for entire village saving  is about 250*600=150000 INR which is a high saving for  a deprived village in tribal pocket of Madhya Pradesh.

2.      It saves about 42-56% of electricity consumption ( as stated by Electricity board of MP), which in turn able to save about 200000 kilo grams of coal in a year for lighting 250 houses of Semal Kela village

3.       As per Census 2011 , in Madhya Pradesh only 67.1% of HHs have access to electricity ( source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_states_ranking_by_households_having_electricity), initiative of CFL will probably increase more Households.

4.      Probably would be able to save about 1000 pounds emission of green Houses gases released through usage of incandescent light bulb in a year.

5.      Could able to save than much of electricity, which can make another 300-400 houses light with fluorescent bright light of CFL.

How this all happened?

Initially when HARIT PRAYAS team started working in the village, one of the key issue came in front about high electricity bills and it was difficult for farmers to pay for it , thus many of them thought for disconnecting their electricity connection , knowing this situation field staff of HARIT PRAYAS team of MVSS-Sagar ( Caritas India partner organization for implementation of HARIT PRAYAS project in Sagar-Madhya Pradesh) did some basic studies in identifying the core problem and then also worked on identifying the solution for it in the form of CFL(compact fluorescent light bulbs) , instead of normal used incandescent light bulb  . Although CFL bulbs are bit high in cost in compare to normal bulb, but with regular community interaction and sharing and demonstrating in CBMOs meeting community get convinced that electricity saved and less bills through CFL and long lasting period of CFL is more profitable in compare to usage of incandescent light bulb and initially few house holds adopted it and it worked in reducing bills, and thus the magic of less bill worked and today Semnapur kala is officially a 100% CFL electrified village and villagers, electricity department gives a huge credit to Caritas India HARIT PRAYAS initiative for the same.

What Scientist say’s about usage of CFL?

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if every U.S. household replaced just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, it would prevent 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that by replacing regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs at the same minimal rate, Americans would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year.

How Much Can You Save by Using Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs?

For most people, switching from incandescent to compact fluorescent bulbs offers a lot of opportunity for energy and cost savings. Lighting accounts for 20 percent of the electric bill in the average U.S. home, and the average home has approximately 30 light fixtures. (Calculate your personal energy and cost savings with this handy online calculator, and find out how much you will be helping the environment.)

Lets make our mother earth more better through adopting sustainable approaches of energy conservation!

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