Kalika Khetu is a remote village located in the Jumla district of western Nepal. Its health center serves as a medical clinic and birthing center to approximately 4,500 people from the village of Kalika Khetu and surrounding communities. Due in large part to its remoteness and the difficult mountainous terrain, the national electric grid does not reach any part of the Jumla district. Jumla District Headquarters and some other towns and villages in Jumla receive electricity from small hydropower plants, but there is no centralized source of electricity in the district.
In July, 2021 GRID and partner Gham Power installed a 4.875 kW photovoltaic system on the roof of the Kalika Khetu Primary Health Center to support the full staff and a host of electric medical devices and diagnostic equipment. Before solar, the center had no electricity so women coming to the health center with their young babies or to give birth had to bring firewood with them to heat the facility in the winter.
The Kalika Khetu Primary Health Center can now power lighting, medical and diagnostic equipment, vaccine refrigeration, warming beds for newborn babies, and provide emergency services and quality care 24 hours per day. Solar will also enable the center to run a refrigerator to store medical supplies and vaccines, like the COVID-19 vaccine. The center recently finished the construction of a 10-bed temporary hospital structure for COVID 19 positive patients.
Project Dates: July, 2021
Location: Kalika Khetu, Jumla, Nepal
Thank you to Sol Homes and the Townshend Lamarre Foundation and to all of the individuals who supported this project.
