Solar Electric Light Fund Wins World Bank Development Marketplace Competition for Benin Solar Micro-Irrigation Project

Washington DC—May 17, 2006. Competing with 2,525 proposals from 154 countries, SELF’s solar irrigation project in Benin emerged as a winner in the 2006 Global Development Marketplace competition, sponsored by the World Bank.

This competition is held annually at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. and awards grants ranging from $40,000 to $200,000 for small-scale projects in developing countries. This year’s competition offered $5 million in awards for 30 local projects with innovative solutions for water supply, sanitation, and energy services in developing countries.

SELF will receive $100,000 in seed funding from the World Bank for a pilot program to install low-cost drip irrigation systems and solar water pumps in two villages in Northern Benin. SELF will team with a local NGO in Benin, L’Association pour le Développement Economique, Social et Culturel de Kalalé, to create a reliable and economical means of drip irrigation in the arid Kalalé District, enabling families in these villages to grow crops during the six-month dry season.

In Kalalé District—an area of 44 unelectrified villages—95 percent of the inhabitants rely on subsistence farming as their primary means of survival. Because they lack access to water for irrigation, they can only farm during the rainy season. During the dry season, the people suffer from poor diets, little income, and the need to buy expensive food from the tropical areas of the country. For half the year, a lack of farm work causes community dislocation as many families migrate to squalid, overcrowded urban areas in search of employment.

In granting the award, the judges of the competition validated SELF’s approach of using solar photovoltaic power as a dependable, economical, non-polluting way to meet the vital need for a clean and reliable source of water in the region. SELF’s solar irrigation project will provide the means for farmers in Kalalé to more than double their harvest of fresh fruits and vegetables during the dry season, reducing malnutrition and increasing incomes. The pilot project will bring solar irrigation to one hectare (2.47 acres) in each village. Each hectare will be divided into plots for ten families.

In addition, approximately 4,500 people living in the two communities will benefit from an additional 6000-8000 gallons per day of fresh drinking water that will be generated by the solar pumps during the rainy season. An important component of the project will be training and capacity-building so that the systems can be locally maintained and expanded.

This pilot project will serve as a model for the solar electrification of all 44 villages in Kalalé District. In addition to providing power for drip irrigation, SELF will also bring solar electricity to schools, clinics, and micro-enterprise centers throughout the district.

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