Hesco's Watermills

NORTH BY NORTH-EAST: A WATERMILL STORY

Deepti Saxena / New Delhi/ Dehra Dun March 06, 2006

 

After lighting up border villages of Jammu and Kashmir, watermills, which had been in use in the mountains since time immemorial, will now illuminate India's north-eastern region.

In an ambitious plan, Hesco, a Dehra Dun-based voluntary organisation, will install watermills in Nagaland and Manipur as part of its “technology-for-peace” programme, in association with the Indian Army.

The watermill is an eco-friendly device that can harness water power to grind wheat and generate 5 to 8 Kw of electricity. At present, there are 200,000 watermills in the Himalayan region.

According to an estimate prepared by Hesco, watermills can generate 2,500 Mw of power in the Himalayan region, which is also seen as an answer to big dams which often uproot thousands of people and are very expensive.

Hesco Director Anil P Joshi has devised a very simple, inexpensive and environment-friendly technology kit that can upgrade these watermills into micro-hydel project to produce electricity.

Hesco is also running a training centre at its office in the Mehuwala area of Dehradun. Already, people from J&K, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have taken training in watermills.

“We are now focusing our attention towards Nagaland and Manipur and will install watermills in these states," Joshi said.

Hesco has acquired expertise in watermill technology. Already, the organisation, in a joint venture with the Indian Army, has installed nearly 360 watermills in border villages of Jammu and Kashmir. Most of the areas are badly hit by terrorism.

Villages in areas like Kupwara, Baramulla, Kargil, Batalik Drass, Poonch and Rajouri had benefited from watermill campaign, Joshi said.

Last month, Hesco installed its first watermill at the Haipe village of Arunachal Pradesh. "This watermill is working very well," Joshi said, adding more watermills will be installed in near future.