FP2P’s Duncan Green writes: Although we have never met, I love my correspondence with Masood Ul Mulk, who works to achieve change in some of the remotest regions of Pakistan, and thinks deeply about the process. Some of his wonderful anecdotes have ended up (with due credit) in my books. He recently sent me a 7000-word ‘long read’ reflection on his engagement over several decades with micro hydroelectricity. Too long for the blog, but you can read the whole thing at the link below.
Here’s how it starts. Please try to make time for the whole thing – you won’t be disappointed.
In the summer of 1995, I sat in the shade of apple trees of the small Injigan hotel in the Garam Chashma Valley, in the remote district of Chitral, looking at the picturesque green mountain slopes across the small river that flowed through the middle of the valley. A well-resourced government institution based two hundred miles away in Peshawar, which had been created to develop hydro power in the province, had set up a hundred-kilowatt powerhouse in the valley, tapping the gushing stream coming down those slopes. The powerhouse provided electricity to a couple of hundred households. The provincial organisation also ran the powerhouse.
Today, almost 28 years from that day, I sat at the same spot watching the same powerhouse. The years gone by had not touched it. All they had done was to give it a bad reputation for remaining switched off most of the time because of maintenance issues. But what was remarkable is what had taken place since then in four neighbouring valleys: Garam Chasma, Karimabad, Parsan and Arkari. These valleys were spread over very difficult terrain. Even in good weather it would take six days to visit all the villages in those valleys. But this is what brought a smile to my face: every house in those valleys, comprising over 37,000 people and 4,700 households, now had electricity generated from small community-managed power units, when they had none 28 years ago.
The government institution responsible for the provision of electricity in these valleys had played no role in this except unwittingly, by omission, giving space to an NGO (AKRSP) to operate here and fill the gap.
A number of questions naturally came to my mind. Why had the organisation representing the State that set up the powerhouse and which was responsible for developing the power sector in the province remained ossified all these years and not gone beyond the single powerhouse in this valley? And how did an NGO take on that role and build the capacity to address the issue when it was not in its original mandate?
The answer to these questions would invariably raise questions about the state, civil society and the relationships between the two; the issue of a social contract between the people and the State and finally the lessons of how purposeful organisations could be created to fulfil an organisational mission. By doing so it would highlight how service delivery and quality of life could be improved and above all discover how change happens in societies…
Want to keep reading? Click on the link below.
This is an amazing account: very thoughtful, funny in parts and painful in others, it feels deeply honest. It should be compulsory reading for people interested in the twists and turns of change and thinking about sustainability. Thank you