Company: Siemens Pakistan Engineering Company Limited
Country: Pakistan
Project Name: Siemens Pakistan Engineering Company Limited
Category: Environment
Website:
Objective:
The project aimed to enhance the quality of life of selected villages affected by earthquakes, in terms of education, health, and other social parameters in an environmentally friendly manner.
Details of the project:
After the earthquake in Azad Kashmir in October 2005, Siemens Pakistan, with the help of Siemens’ NGO, Caring Hands, launched a region-wide drive to collect funds that would allow it to provide environment-friendly, alternate energy, as opposed to diesel generating sets, which were considered a threat to the environment, to villages affected by the earthquake. The first village selected was Sharda Maidan, which had 40 houses. In ancient times this historic site was a seat of learning and Buddhist culture. The nearby mother and child center, and the rural health centre were also selected for the project.
After the completion of the pilot phase, another remote village, Butnara, was selected. Work in the village, which had 150 houses, took nearly three years because in these areas, work could only be carried out during summer. Moreover, the remote location made it necessary for solar panels, batteries, etc. to be carried on foot by porters.
About 800 children in both villages derived positive benefits through longer hours available for study, with the installation of the solar panels. The mother and child center, and the rural health center, which formerly treated between 35 and 50 patients daily, treated twice as many, also because of the solar panels that made it possible for the centers to be open at night. Thus, roughly 5,000 people were treated in both centers monthly. This was also possible because the centers could now use equipment that had previously been lying unused. In the past, harmful kerosene lamps were utilized even in the mother and child center during child birth, leading to disastrous results for the newborn. The environment had vastly improved, as attested to by the locals, since project implementation.
Villages Sharda Maidan and Butnara were so remote that they could never have gotten power from the utility company. Hence, the environment friendly solar power facility really changed the lives of the people in these two villages. Village Sharda Maidan, which was 6,000 ft above sea level, was 11 hours from Islamabad (the capital of Pakistan), plus an hour’s walk distant. Village Butnara was 9,000 ft above sea level and required six hours of travel time on the road from Islamabad, five hours of hiking, etc.