Accra, Sept. 11, GNA - Five women from the Upper West Region have been selected to be trained in solar engineering and roof-top rain harvesting technologies at the Barefoot College in India from September 15 to March 31, 2010.

The women are expected to be trained in fabrication, installation, repair and maintenance of solar lighting and rain harvesting and be able to solar electrify their own villages and harvest rainwater without any help.

Mr George Ortsin, National Programme Coordinator at the Global Environment Facility, Small Grants Programme, who announced this at a press conference in Accra on Friday, described the solar project as a step towards solar electrification of deprived, vulnerable, poor and remote rural communities in the Upper West region. The women are Afia Kanza from Siiru, Bonubia Dira from Zukpuri, Vienakuba Kaabeu from Mantari, Memumata Sadari from Gilan and Salamatu Osman from Dupuri.

Upon their return, the women are also expected to construct rural solar electronics centre in their villages while the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environmental Facility help to raise local resources to provide the villages with solar panels and other hardware for the solar electrification project. The programme is part of a UNDP Global Environmental Facility Small Grants Programme launched in July to mainstream climate change mitigation models that have been successfully tested and practically applied in rural development.

Mr Ortsin said the emphasis of the training would be on practical work requiring skills with hands.

He said a cluster of 120 houses in the selected rural communities would be solar electrified and each family would be taught how to harvest and store rainwater to be used all year round. "A community solar energy development committee would be formed in each community to manage the solar facilities, set and collect tariffs, pay monthly allowance to the women engineers and manage a community solar energy development fund."

The project, which is to be the first ever technically and financially self sufficient solar electrified village project in the Upper West Region, would also enhance energy security. Mr Ortsin explained that the women who had no formal education were selected to show the critical role women played in the promotion of renewable energy in Ghana as well as break the myth and barriers surrounding renewable energy usage in Ghana. "The women who are grandmothers are more likely to remain in their villages to help develop, maintain and sustain renewable energy systems." He emphasized the need to mainstream solar energy into rural energy mix and said the project was likely to minimize poverty and improve the welfare of the rural people. "Solar power in deprived areas will promote access to energy for lighting, radio, television and charging of batteries for mobile phone; it will be a life changing experience," he said. Mr Joshua Awuku Apau, Executive Director of Earth Services, an environmental NGO, advised the women to make an impact on the community with the knowledge they would acquire from India. 11 Sept. 09