UNISON

Empowering Local Community for Rural Development - ELCO

Batken province is situated in fertile and densely populated Ferghana Valley, which is divided by national borders between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and has been for a long time a place of ethnic tensions of its mixed population. Due to a lack of job opportunities in the region, men of the village seasonally work in other parts of the republic or bordering areas of the neighbor countries. Thus, almost all daily responsibilities and duties in the families are carried out by women. Every day they have to bring home drinking water from local water pipe, make pressed dung and pick up wood for heating and cooking. They have to rear, take care of and educate their children. Since the lack of energy resources contributes to daily difficulties and tension in this conflict-prone region, the main goal of the project was to reduce some of the structural causes of conflict in this part of the country through rural infrastructure rehabilitation of energy and sanitation systems.

The project’s core objective was to build the capacity of local communities in rural areas, civic organizations, local authorities, private sector and science to work in partnership to contribute to the sustainable implementation of Millennium Development Goals 7, 1, 2, 3 and 4. The project aimed to empower local people of Kommuna village with knowledge on energy efficiency, environment and health issues and with practical experience improving their living conditions and in this way foster sustainable development and reduce poverty in the region. ELCO also aimed to promote alternative energy systems development, energy saving measures and eco-sanitation examples that take into consideration economical benefits, but also benefits beyond economics, such as environmental and social betterment of the target region.

The main activities conducted within the ELCO project was reconstruction of the school in Kommuna village, applying energy efficient measures and construction of new eco-sanitation toilets for school children. The members of local community have actively participated at the construction works and have been trained in the process on energy efficiency as well as construction and maintenance of eco-san toilets.

Kommuna school is heated by coal. Due to non-insulated heat pipes (from boiler to school building) and poor condition of the art of the school, there were huge energy losses. The performed thermal insulation was necessary to save energy, resources and protect environment and also to improve the learning conditions of local children. Implemented measures lead to reduction of the volume of coal burned during heating seasons and to reduction of estimated 169 tons of CO2 yearly. According to UNISON’s preliminary analyze of the school building and calculations on the base of the energy certification of building's methodology, the performed thermal insulation measures help to reduce energy consumption up to 60%.

Newly constructed toilets were built using eco-sanitation methods, which have multiple positive effects on human health and environment. Ecological sanitation, through urine diversion, contributes to food security, less pollution, better resource management of water, nutrient and soil. It contributes to health and well-being of local community in two direct ways: less transmission of diseases (killing pathogens at the source prevents contamination of environment and drinking water and thus protects from the spread of infectious diseases such cholera, hepatitis, typhoid fever and diarrhea) and increased food security in Batken province.

Within the project, active members of local community (mainly women) were identified and trained as Eco-Team on the fact that better indoor environment, hygiene and sanitation could be achieved under lower energy consumption and by locally available materials. The scientific approach used as a solution for school and toilets has been properly explained to local people by trainings and dissemination of information materials. School teachers and more than 320 pupils of the local school have also been introduced to toilets’ benefits and the system of their use, and were able to start new school year in much better conditions than previous years.

Since the building chosen as the object of this project serves to a wide public of the village and the cooperation with the local authorities and local community during building of the project was assured, UNISON believes the new eco-sanitation school toilets and reconstructed school building in Kommuna is an achievement which will encourage other communities in the region to adopt similar actions and at the same time raise ecological awareness among young people. The essential importance of the project lies in the scientific, energy saving and environmentally friendly solution to the problems in the poorest area of Kyrgyzstan, where the energy dependency of the country and the lack of natural resources feed potential conflict. The successful implementation of the ELCO project constitutes a significant contribution to the peace and stability of the region.

Nurzat Abdyrasulova, UNISON