Julia Wilson '97 interviews a Dominican community activist for her research project on the role of local organizations in technology transfer.
This past summer, Cornell students helped some villages in the Dominican Republic see the light -- literally.
Five students, from a variety of programs, were involved in a project called Hydro Summer '96, developed by EcoPartners and its director Jon Katz. The year-old program of Cornell's Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) focuses on promoting sustainable ecological technology and economic development. Katz recruited five students and a Cornell faculty member to help introduce micro-hydroelectric technology to some rural communities on the island this past summer.
A majority of the Dominican Republic's more than seven million residents live in urban centers. But in rural communities, residents struggle to overcome various barriers to economic development, such as a lack of electric power and other types of municipal infrastructure.
Having spent several months on the island in 1993 and 1994 working on development projects involving solar refrigeration and computer technology, Katz, a computer consultant in Ithaca, said he wanted to enlist Cornell students in similar types of projects. EcoPartners, which Katz formed, was awarded funding from an anonymous donor and four Cornell programs: Faculty Fellows in Service, Cornell International Institute for Food and Development, the Community Partnership Fund and CRESP. The project also has had equipment donated by various private businesses.
The first step in the Hydro Summer project took place at Cornell and involved building a 2 kilowatt cross-flow water turbine for generating electricity. Katz said that technology was chosen, first, for its simplicity, low cost and suitability for local manufacturing in the Dominican Republic.
Jen Richmond '96, civil and environmental engineering, Julie Kay '98, government, and Brian Gerich '98, English, helped build the turbine, under the supervision of James A. Bartsch, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and with the help of Doug Caveny, technical services supervisor in the department's research shop.
What impressed Bartsch most during his involvement with the project, he said, was the dedication of the student volunteers, who came from a variety of majors.
"The effort the students put into it was excellent," he said. "I certainly gained an appreciation for their team work and the input from the various disciplines."
In the Dominican Republic, Katz led a team of students made up of Kay, Julia Wilson '97, rural sociology, and Ryan Walsh '98, philosophy. They spent the first two weeks running a hydroelectric workshop at the Centro Padre Arturo, a vocational school in the provincial city of San Jose de Ocoa. Fifteen Dominicans from around the country attended. They included community development workers, engineers and technicians, local activists, Peace Corps volunteers, government workers and engineering students from the national university. The workshop participants, some of whom were involved in subsequent parts of the Hydro Summer project, now form a core group of hydroelectric power advocates, Katz said.
"A lot of the object of this project is to raise the technical level of residents and help create jobs," he said.
The second phase of the project involved gathering data and working on small hydroelectric power demonstration systems in two villages.
"It soon became apparent that there is a pervasive desire for electricity, and that many areas have a significant hydroelectric resource," Katz said.
Katz and the students helped install small turbine systems in El Limon, a community of about 300 people, and in La Cumbre, a village of about 600. In El Limon, the turbine provided electricity for the village's first streetlight at an intersection for community gatherings. And in both villages, the turbines provided lighting for adult literacy night classes.
One identified need for the extended use of turbines was to recharge batteries, a common source of energy in the rural communities. Currently, rural residents are forced to transport their batteries to urban areas for charging, and they must pay for the service, Katz said.
The turbine built at Cornell will be installed, with the help of Peace Corps volunteers, in the village of Los Ranchos for use primarily as a battery-charging system. A community cooperative has been developed to assist in maintenance of the batteries and the turbine and to provide financial support.
Groundwork was laid, Katz said, for the electrification of the entire village of El Limon. That project will involve using a low-power electrical system because the village doesn't have enough water for a conventional hydroelectric system, he said.
Katz has gathered a new group of Cornell students who already have been meeting on that project, and he said he hopes to involve graduate students and faculty members in the design work.