Solar power energizes Zambo community

KALAWIT, Zamboanga del Norte — In this part of the country, the heavens used to dictate if there would be classes or not.

Children checked out the clouds for signs of rain before deciding whether to head for school or stay home. When dark clouds obscured the sun in the Marcelo agrarian reform community (ARC), classes were automatically suspended because schools did not have electricity.

This all changed when the Solar Power Technology Support (SPOTS) project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) was launched two years ago, bringing light not only to schools but also to the homes of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

Funded by the Spanish government, DAR is implementing the P1.7-billion SPOTS with the Department of Energy.

"It used to be really difficult for the students. Even if they wanted to go to school, they simply could not hold classes because the classrooms were dark because it was cloudy," recalled Mansueto Guanco, general manager of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries of Marcelo Multi-purpose Cooperative (ARBEMMCO).

A total of 830 students currently go to the community’s two elementary schools, one secondary school and two day-care centers.

The Marcelo Elementary School and Marcelo Day Care Center are powered by three solar panels and one solar panel, respectively.

These solar panels sufficiently energize the schools, ensuring that classes are not disrupted — rain or shine, Guanco said.

Although electrical power in Barangay Tugop, which is part of the ARC, is serviced by the Zamboanga del Sur Electric Cooperative (ZAMSURECO), Guanco said the line installation remains insufficient.

In Barangay Marcelo, on the other hand, priority sites are still to be energized by the Zamboanga Norte Electric Cooperative this year.

Around 280 households in this rural site are without power. They have to make do with kerosene lamps and candles, which have to be purchased at the Kalawit proper, or nine kilometers from the Marcelo ARC. The poblacion (town center) can only be reached by taking a single motorcycle for hire called habal-habal via dirt road. Fares range from P100 to P120 round trip.

"It was why the community availed itself of the SPOTS project," Guanco pointed out. Households in the Marcelo ARC said they have since then been able to do more activities for livelihood and for their homes.

And in schools, the learning environment has improved. "Students have more time to do their homework and eye problems due to reading with minimum lighting can now be avoided," Guanco said.

There are at least 200 solar panels currently installed in the Marcelo ARC. Solar panels, which are usually installed in front of each house, can energize fluorescent light and electric fans among other home appliances of low energy demand.

The ARBEMMCO office makes use of energy produced by its 10-megawatt 60 solar panels day and night, Guanco said.

The "slightly rolling and hilly" Marcelo ARC is located in the interior part of Kalawit, or 187 kilometers southwest of Dipolog City, the commercial center of Zamboanga del Norte.

It envelops a total land area of 1,167.7662 hectares, with 1,023.7672 hectares titled and fully planted with rubber under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of the government.

The average household income of the residents and the 333 farmer-beneficiaries in the Marcelo ARC is estimated at P55,258.48 per year, which was more or less 50 percent below the poverty level of the province, according to DAR data.

From year 2000, rubber production by the Marcelo ARC has been decreasing due to the ongoing rubber re-planting as most of the rubber trees were already senile.

Farmer-beneficiaries are currently conducting their rubber re-planting under the Credit Assistance Program-Program Beneficiaries Development to boost rubber production in the coming years.

In the whole of Zamboanga del Norte, a total of 931 solar home lighting system, 14 barangay halls, 11 barangay health centers, 16 schools, and 23 communal lights were covered by solar electrification under SPOTS.

The SPOTS project targets to provide solar electricity to about 40 ARCs in Mindanao that is expected to improve farm productivity, household income and the general lives of some 400,000 people.

SPOTS comprises three components: solar electrification, agriculture/rural enterprise development, and institutional development.