A long way to go

Worldwide more then 1,5 billion people have no access to electricity. In Afghanistan - twice as big as Germany - the situation is similar. Only 6% of the population have a chance to get connected to the grid. A centralised supply can´t be realised due to the geographical situation and the high costs. Only Kabul and a few big cities have a centralised supply with an electric grid, which is permanently overloaded.

		Afghan families that don´t live in the city but in the wide apart villages or even in the mountains will stay without a connection to the electric grid. Therefore they have to make use of other sources of light, like candles or dangerouse oil lamps.

To counteract the rural exodus and also to help returning refugees to be able to go back to their villages it is important to improve the living conditions in rural areas.

After 20 years of war and civil war, as well as a nationwide drought, the situation is marked by a high dependency of the population on humanitarian and technical aid from abroad. Therefore rebuilding the country and a decentralised energy supply is the centre of our efforts.

As most of the afghan citizens can´t read and write it is very important for us that people have the energy available to run a radio, as an important way to get information.

VAIT (Verein Afghanischer Ingenieure in Deutschland) developed a solar lantern that unites several advantages. It looks like a traditional oil lamp. This means that people find it easy to get used too. With a 7 Watt energy saving light bulb one can use light that is 10 times brighter than the one of an oil lamp for 4 hours a day. A radio can be plugged into the lamps base. Running the radio form the rechargeable battery of the solar lantern saves hazardous and polluting one-way batteries.

The solar lantern is adapted to the afghan situation in:
handling
maintenance
design
ecologic criteria
economic criteria

We support the production of this solar lamp at our centre for renewable energies in Bedmoschk and its dissemination throughout the country.
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