Biogas fieldvisit in Nongphouvieng

Nongphouvieng village in Vientiane province is famous for its pigs. It is an ideal site for biogas projects, as the pig dung could be used for biogas production. Twenty per cent of the households in Nongphouvieng has domestic biogas digesters installed either by Chinese pilot project implemented in 2005, or by Netherlands development organisation SNV in 2007.
Finland Futures Research Centre's DREAM project team visited the village in November 2009. Domestic biogas is one of the case studies. In Nongphouvieng we discussed both with the households that have a biogas digester, and those who don’t, as well as with the village head, vice-head, and one of the masons.

Nongphouvieng village is connected to national electricity grid, and thus biogas is mainly used only for cooking. and the slurry as organic fertilizer. The interviewees thought the biogas projects have been successful, mainly because the biogas has reduced the use of charcoal and fuel wood by 50-80 %, which saves both money and time. Charcoal is still used for grilling but otherwise cooking is done with biogas. The gas is considered more convenient cooking fuel than charcoal or wood because it is quicker and cleaner. Interviewees also mentioned that the smell from the pig dung, as well as flies, had reduced in the village.

Before biogas programme the pigs ate mainly rice husk but now they are fed with industrially made food that is imported from Thailand. Probably due to hormones in the food, pigs grow faster.

The respondents told that they had first had doubts about the biogas. They wondered how pig dung could be used for cooking, whether the food would smell, and could the house be blown up if gas was not used. They said that it took about a month to get used to biogas, but now they were very satisfied about it.

When asked what could be improved in biogas projects, some biogas users replied that the stoves had already broken, and some that spare parts are not available. Those who did not have a biogas digester said either that they would like to get one if they were available and they could afford it. There were also those who were not interested in getting a biogas digester.

In brief, the overall impression was that the biogas users were satisfied with the gas. However, the poorest households cannot take part of the biogas projects because they cannot afford the digester, even though it is subsidised. The poor households usually don’t have enough animals for the biogas production, but in some cases they could get dung elsewhere. The interviewed households who didn’t have a biogas digester said that also they had benefitted from the programme, because of the reduced smell and dung in the village area.

The main part of the biogas fieldwork in Laos will be done in in Savannakhet province in January-February 2010.

Nam Mong revisited

The master´s thesis "Impact of micro hydropower (MHP) based rural electrification on rural livelihoods: Case study Nam Mong in Luang Prabang province, Lao PDR" is completed. Many changes having direct effects to villagers´lives were identified after electrification . The obtained changes seen in the villages were grouped according to sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) to asset, activity and access changes. The full version of the study will be available shortly on mekong.fi webpages. The gathered material was provided back to the head villager of Pak Mong/Phonhome Mr. Khamkong Sengmong during a visit in early November and also it was briefly discussed whether the grid connection to national grid had brought any concerns or advantages so far. It was also agreed that further visit to the villages will take place after a year or two in order to gather some comparative views on Nam Mong micro hydropower and grid based electrification.

Vientiane Times refer to upcoming Master´s Programmes in Engineering

In its interview with the National University of Laos (NUOL) Engineering Faculty Dean Prof. Dr Boualinh Soysouvanh, Vientiane Times reports on the plans of having new master programmes in the near future offered at the university. There are currently 14 undergraduate programmes offered on bachelor and higher diploma programmes in civil, mechanical, electrical, electronic, transportation and water resource engineering. One of the planned master programmes is the energy management which has been formulated in collaboration with Finland Futures Research Centre.

First week of ICI trainings in Cambodia and Laos

The ICI capacity building trainings are currently carried out at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC) and at the National University of Laos (NUOL). The trainings are primarily directed at the teaching staff and are carried out in two phases. The first week of training was already held at ITC during the 12th and the 15th of October, and is currently going on at NUOL (19th-22nd October 2009). The second phase training will start in Vientiane on the 16th of November and in Phnom Penh on the 1st of December and will end on the 4th of December.

Topics that were covered include climate change, renewable energy and biomass utilization and management, modeling and economics of energy projects and project management. During the second week the objective is to get acquainted with UNFCCC, climate policy options, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies for developing countries. The trainings include also field trips to a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) site and to other renewable energy project sites both in Laos and Cambodia and include workshops where lessons learned and feedback will be collected. Furthermore teachings of energy planning models and project management will continue during the second week.

Getting first results from the Survey project

The overall objective of our Survey project is to gather basic information of the rural natural resources base and sustainability of livelihoods in Cambodia and Laos. The project has reached a stage where first results are available. Ten Focus Group Discussions were organized around Cambodia, eight in rural villages and two in the capital Phnom Penh. The aim of the discussions was to hear people tell about changes that have taken place in their daily environment and livelihoods, and how they are dealing with possible negative impacts. The urban groups discussed about migration of some family members as a coping strategy for many rural families. They also discussed about differences between village and city life.
The overall picture that emerges from the discussions is quite gloomy. According to the respondents, life in the rural villages of Cambodia has become harder due to fast depletion of local natural resources and global economic recession. Forest degradation, unpredictable weathers and dramatically diminishing fish catches are causing pressure to the already poor households, living from hand to mouth. All respondents in the rural villages stated that acquiring firewood for cooking is becoming more and more difficult because forests around their village are getting smaller or are cleared completely for farming land. Weather conditions have become more unpredictable, and droughts as well as rain in the wrong time are making rice cultivation more difficult and increasing the risk of crop failure.
The global food crisis has been clearly seen in Cambodia in the price of rice, which has gone up by approximately 100% in one year. As rice is the most important staple food for Cambodians, decreasing rice production and rising rice prices are a serious concern for the food security situation in the country. In many of the Focus Group Discussion villages families are experiencing hunger during a month of two before rice harvesting. Also the prices of agricultural inputs, such as gasoline, fertilizers and pesticides have gone up significantly, decreasing the profit that farmers get from their products when they sell it at the market.
People have many kinds of coping strategies to overcome difficult times. All the respondents tell they have had to borrow money to cover unexpected costs caused for example by an illness or accident in the family. Families borrow rice during “hungry months” and some have to resort to selling their family assets, such as farming land, animals or even the house, leading to even deeper vicious circle of poverty.
One of the much used coping strategies is to send one family member to work in a city to earn income and support the family living in the village. Migration is often seasonal and people come back to their village to help in their family with farming work during agricultural peak seasons. In some of the villages most young women have moved to work in the garment factories of Phnom Penh. For those women moving to the city has brought a positive change. Although work in the factories is hard and hours long, the women are happy to be able to make their own money, support their family and live a more independent life. However, work in the urban factories is very sensitive to changes in the global economic situation. During the past year many garment factories have closed their doors and the women have returned to their villages.
The Survey project is now at its second phase, where field work teams of our local partner, Indochina Research Ltd., are going around Cambodia and interviewing 1250 households about livelihoods, food security, energy use and coping strategies. The results from the whole data can be expected in the end of the year.

Jenny Turunen

First expert workshop for FREPLA 2020 held in Vientiane, Lao PDR

The First Expert Workshop of Project “Future Resource Economy and Policies in Laos till the year 2020 (FREPLA 2020)” was held on 3rd of June 2009, Vientiane, Lao PDR with the opening speech by Mr. Hatsady Sisoulath, the Deputy Director General from Ministry of Energy and Mines and getting together 32 people from different ministries of Government of Lao PDR and from different organizations for expert discussions. The work shop was the first of a series of 5 workshops held in the future.
The one day event organized by the Department of Electricity (Ministry of Energy and Mines) and Turku School of Economics took place in Lao Plaza hotel kicking off with morning expert presentations and discussions followed by four afternoon working group discussions on Rural Electrification, Potential and Utilization of Renewable Energy in Lao PDR, Cooking Energy: Can We Give Up from Using Wood? and Hydro Power and Water Resources. The working groups presented their findings in the late afternoon for all the participants and the workshop was summarized in concluding marks by FFRC staff.
The workshop was very successful in terms of attendance as well as the discussions held and information shared. It provided also a venue to have different ministries to cooperate and share views and creating future forum for cooperation and information sharing within different ministries.

DREAM-project fieldworks kick off

The first set of fieldworks for DREAM "Why Renewable Energy Projects Fail or Succeed?"- Project has been started and completed in the Nam Bak district. The Nam Mong demonstration project on micro hydropower implemented in cooperation with New Energy Foundation (NEF) of Japan and the Lao Government (former Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts (MIH)) has been providing electricity for seven villages and now will be connected to the national grid. It has been referred by many as one of the most successful donor funded projects in terms of micro hydropower based rural electrification efforts. Altogether 7 village leader interviews and 21 villager interviews were completed together with one focus group discussion on the impact of electricity to rural livelihoods. Meetings with Provincial office of Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) and Eletricité du Laos (EDL) together with visits to all of the impacted villages namely Nam Mong, Vang Hinh, Pak Mong, Vang Kham, Phonhome, Houay Ang and Mok Vek took place during late April and first weeks of May.

During the interviews with various people of these villages many good stories and laughs were shared and genuine sense of unity inside the communities was observed throughout the visits. Equally importantly many of the villagers expressed their views and opinions on their lives, livelihoods and electricity. The children were happy and curious as they are supposed to be, running around and playing between the bamboo houses, swimming in the Nam Mong river, while mothers were washing clothes. Most of the people were already anxiously waiting for the rains to arrive, preparing and finishing the last dry season activities under the strong sun, some dried tobacco, many were preparing rice for storage, some were fishing while others were sawing and preparing wood for house building.
A mere thank you is not simply enough to express the gratitude for having us in the villages and sharing your time with us but at this point a “khob chai lai” or as the Khamu´s say “Khoprenjee Maak Maak”( forgive me the spelling)is needed. The information of the study will be later on also disseminated on the web pages for everyone to see so be alerted.

Meetings, meetings...

Here are some pictures from the meetings with our partners and collaborators in Phnom Penh.

Tough times for tuk-tuk drivers

Global financial crisis affects Cambodia. Tuk-tuk drivers feel the impact of the crises due to the decrease of tourism. In Phnom Penh the downturn in business has come as a shock to tuk-tuk drivers whose livelihood partly depends on tourists. Tuk-tuk drivers in Phnom Penh used to get between 7-10 dollars a day before the decline but now they earn 1.5 to 5 dollars a day.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, the number of visitors to the country has grown from 1 million in 2004 to 2 million in 2007, but in the second half of 2008 the number of visitors stated

decline and the trend is expected to continue till the end of next year. Cambodia tries to defend itself against the current dip in visitors from Europe and the US by advertising heavily in Asia. The idea is to appeal to the people who live in neighboring countries. Now more than half of the tourists are from Asia. (Cambodia Daily, March 26, 2009)

Golf course under construction, leave your homes please!

Last time I was in Vientiane, Laos, was about a year ago. Not much has changed since then, few new coffee shops have opened, some others have closed. The city still has the charming slow-life atmosphere and friendliness that you usually come across only in provincial towns - if you are lucky.

Some changes are expected to happen by the end of the year when Laos will host 25th Southeast Asian Games in December 2009. The SEA Games have a relatively long history, as the first Games were held already in 1959. This year Laos will be the host for the first time, and Vientiane will be main area for the games. The hosting of the Games is an important showcase for Laos, and all forces have been united for the preparations.

Despite of all the efforts, Laos has to reduce the number of sports contested in the Games. The news that Laos has dropped a considerable number of sports and run the risk of not being able to hold the event due to financial constraints, led other countries to come for assistance. It is estimated a total US$85 million worth of aid has been handed by various Asian nations.

Some of this funding goes to construction of a new golf course near Vientiane. Construction should be ready by the end of May. However, according to the article published in Vientiane Times on 13th March, 2009, the Lao Golf Federation is having difficulty clearing land around the golf course because some people have not yet left their homes to make way for construction. The article did not tell where they are supposed to move.

The three nine-hole courses will be extended by additional 60 hectares after the ending of the Games, to make it a total of 210 hectares and 45 holes.

FFRC-team in Laos

Prof Khamphone (NUOL) ja Mr. Khamso (MEM) are having talks with FFRC-team Venla Kinnunen, Jyrki Luukkanen ja Jari Kaivo-oja about FREPLA project.

Welcome to our Blog!

Finland Futures Research Centre is conducting energy and climate research and designing and implementing capacity-building in the Mekong region in Southeast Asia. The Mekong region gets its name from the Mekong River which vends its way through Yunnan province in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Cambodia.

The Mekong region has high biological and cultural diversity, and the areas vary in terms of economic development and political systems. What is common to the Mekong countries is that the energy demand is rapidly increasing due for example to industrialisation, urbanisation and rural electrification programmes.

Energy choices made in the developing countries today have long-ranging consequences, both in terms of investment and impact on the global climate. Energy is in numerous ways linked to the efforts in reducing poverty, improving human welfare and raising living standards but the energy solutions have long term impacts on environment, economy and society. The urgent question, therefore, is what type of energy supply and transmission infrastructure should be promoted. Therefore, securing access to safe, clean and sustainable energy is one of the greatest challenges of the near future.

The aim of Finland Futures Research Centre is to promote the transition to sustainable energy in the Mekong region through collaboration and networking, research and capacity-building. Sustainable energy refers to renewable energy that is also socially and economically viable in the long run.