Eco plan lights up Indian village

AN ENVIRONMENTAL scientist in west Cork has “lit up the lives” of people in a remote village in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

Bandon-based Declan Waugh of Partnership for Change, a not-for-profit climate change organisation, worked with Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to establish a solar-powered co-operative in the village.

The project was funded by Partnership for Change, which was supported by the “Lighting a Billion Lives” campaign.

The partnership’s funding helped to install the solar power technology, train the co-operative members and provide rechargeable lamps to every household in the village, which has a population of 250.

“Knowing that so many people, especially women and children, have benefited from the provision of clean renewable energy light sources to their rural village in India is very rewarding,” Mr Waugh said. “It will make a real difference to their everyday lives.”

Mr Waugh approached Dr Pachauri about the idea at a climate change conference in London and invited him to participate in a conference on global warming in Cork in November 2008.

Partnership for Change, which works with communities to support their transition to a low-carbon future, has also supported flood relief in Pakistan and is involved with a project to create Ireland’s first “climate change park” in Skibbereen, Co Cork.