
LUBI Solar Pumps: Impacting The Lives Of Tribals in Orissa by an Innovative Drinking Water Application
  lubi solar
   
  December 17, 2019
LUBI Electronics has supplied more than 300 solar pumps in the Malkangiri district of Orissa, making it possible for the villagers to access clean drinking water.
The region being disconnected electrically, it is difficult to implement traditional lift irrigation techniques. Solar pumps perfectly fit the mold easing the inherent challenges and thus paving the way for further developments.
The Chitrakonda region sits in the quaint corner of the Malkangiri district of Orissa, far away from the mainland. Surrounded by the Balimela reservoir, it remains an underdeveloped rural country with the unpaved dusty roads and small houses. A thinly populated area, mostly by small tribal farmers, the region remained disconnected from the mainland until as late as 2018 when it was connected by the Gurupriya bridge.
Due to its inherent troubles and extreme infestation by ultra-left wings, the region had started witnessing large scale migration to cities. The water situation was so grim that some villages had access to only one hand pump, making even getting clean water a part of the daily hassle. Poor living conditions hygienically and poor financial conditions owing to poor agricultural yield used to be the story of this, otherwise beautiful landscape.
Connectivity to the mainland has opened the door to many developmental initiatives in the region strongly backed by the district and state administration.
An attempt has been made to solve the long-standing problem of clean potable drinking water by the means of public-private partnered initiatives and large scale investment in solar pumping systems. Easing access to water has directly affected the farm produce by increasing the scope of agricultural. Buoyed by round the year access to water, farmers in the region are finding ways to cultivate more than one crop in a year thereby greatly enhancing their financial situation.
LUBI Electronics has been the major participant in this effort to provide fresh and portable water to the Chitrakonda region. LUBI solar pumps supplied in this project are 1 HP DC system which can be considered ideal for drinking water applications.
These pumps have given access to fresh drinking water at an accessible distance from the households. These pumps have very low operation and maintenance costs and undergo few downtimes. The DC pumps are highly reliable and ensure hassle-free operation in remote and harsh conditions.
The solar panels used with the pump system are indigenously manufactured in a fully automatic facility and warrant 25 years of hassle-free operation. Considering the various benefits of solar pumps and their success in solving the portable drinking water problem in the region, district authorities are considering them for the other traditional water flooding techniques like lift irrigation.