incessant of power cuts and days without electricity forced them to develop a power generation system of their own. The people who developed the turbine and generator, are no great engineers, just common people from Pathanpara, a tiny village in Kannur district, Kerala. They have set up a unique and cost-effective micro hydel project that can generate four megawatts of power. In less than 90 days, these people were able to conceive and develop the project with an investment of nearly Rs 3 lakh.

The system is different from the conventional micro-hydel power systems. Instead of using a turbine, the villagers used a normal centrifugal pump for developing the system. The generating unit is replaced by an ordinary induction motor. The system uses water stored in a pond for power generation. To avoid any disaster during supply, they have also developed a system to detect and switch off the power supply if it exceeds the allotted quota of 100 units of power to a house.

What is more important about this discovery is that it comes in the backdrop of the failure of two similar projects undertaken by prestigious institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and state institutions such as the Department of Science and Technology. For these projects, the institutions invested more than Rs 20 lakh to set up a 10 kw micro hydel project at Sugandhagiri and Pookhot, both in tribal villages on the state border in Wyanad district near Karnataka.

But the joy of the villagers may be short lived. According to the Kerala State Electricity Board (kseb) and the Indian Electricity Act 1910, the present project is illegal as none other than the kseb has the right to distribute power.

Shibhu Ollikal, convenor of the 'Peoples electricity campaign' at Pathanpara said, "We never had to think twice before jumping into this project. Nearly 38 families contributed Rs 6,000 each and another 17 families contributed Rs 2,000 each for the project." People in the village feel that the government should not oppose it even if there is opposition from the kseb.

Amidst all these problems, the community at Pathanpara have already drawn up plans for the second phase of the project. They propose to generate another 10 kilowatts so that the entire community could be provided electricity. This would also mean that the power to be consumed at every household would be 300 watts.