Nepal Clean Irrigation Initiative

Helping farmers produce more crops and less carbon.

We have partnered with local solar company Gham Power to bring solar-powered water pumps to farmers in Far West Nepal.

The Clean Irrigation Initiative:

• Provides cleaner and more reliable water pumps to farmers,
• Reduces their carbon footprint, and - significantly cuts their operating costs.
  

We currently have 18 pumps operational under this initiative in different communities and have secured financing to roll out 40 more pumps over the coming 24 months.

Project Structure

Local Partners Build Trust

To establish a sense of ownership for the farmers and a commitment to technology, we have partnered with various local microfinance providers. They provide 70% of the financing to purchase a pump as a soft loan to the farmers (repaid over 18-24 months), and Solerìco provides grants for the additional 30% as an initial down-payment to enable the loan. Once the loan has been paid off, the farmer then owns the pump and benefits from free solar power.

Without our initial funding, however, the farmers do not have sufficient capital to access the technology and are priced out.

Ongoing Support and Maintenance

During the loan repayment period, Gham Power assists the farmer with any maintenance issues free of charge. Once the loan has been paid off, the farmers will either pay for maintenance on an ad hoc basis or they can purchase insurance on a yearly basis.

Our Solar Pumps

• Produce no carbon dioxide. Diesel pumps typically produce half a tonne of CO2 per month.
• Allow farmers to access water and grow crops year-round.
• Are not limited by diesel supply or pump availability.

Himalayan Plastics Project

Helping local communities restore nature.

Plastic pollution is a global crisis, from beaches to streets, to the Himalayas.

There are millions of plastic water bottles strewn across the Langtang Valley in Nepal. This project addresses the plastic pollution problem in the Nepalese Himalayas by collecting and recycling plastic waste into usable products.

To fulfil this project, we have partnered with a Nepalese charity, Partnership for Sustainable Development Nepal (PSD Nepal).

The Problem:

The Langtang Valley in the Himalayas is home to over 100 trekking lodges and hosts some 18,000 trekkers per year. Every season, up to 200,000 plastic bottles are brought in and littered in the valley.

THERE ARE AN ESTIMATED 5 MILLION WATER BOTTLES IN THE VALLEY FROM YEARS OF TREKKING.

The Solution: Incentive Scheme

Our partner, PSD Nepal, has incentivised locals to walk the trekking routes and bring out as many bottles as they can through a “1 bottle = 1 Nepalese Rupee” scheme. Currently, these collectors are able to carry, on average, 50 bottles off the mountain per trip.

To speed up this process of removing the plastic from the Himalayas, we are equipping the collectors with handheld bottle crushers so they can carry more bottles off the mountain per trip.

We have sent an initial 37 crushers, which has quadrupled the number of bottles they can fit in their bags.