Smart Villages has been awarded this InnovateUK Energy Catalyst round 10 project jointly with our Tanzanian partners OMASI, to take forward research and testing of our technology solutions and business models for solar boreholes for community access to water and energy. In northern Tanzania water access is the single highest community priority. Solarising boreholes is …
Sustainable Access to Energy and Water in Rural Tanzania Read More »
We often hear on the radio and news about how climate change is disproportionately affecting countries in the Global South. Although the effects are slowly reaching us in Europe, they are rarely life-threatening, only mildly inconvenient or unusual. For our partners in Tanzania and Uganda, it is harrowing to hear first-hand how their friends and …
Even though it looks like the main national grid might soon reach some of the villages we’ve been working with, both in Tanzania and Uganda, it is surprising how many of them are still keen for us to continue installing solar power despite the fact that this will be significantly more expensive for them. Having …
We’re excited to reveal this showcase video for Ormoti Business Hub in Northern Tanzania, created by our summer intern, Iona Smith. This pilot project was carried out in partnership with local NGO, OMASI, as part of a wider integrated community energy project. The solar-powered site powers the local borehole for fresh water, fridges for cold …
With the team out in Tanzania for Halloween this year, we decided to try and show our partners what Halloween is like for us back home. Rather than carve pumpkins as they are less common here, we went for Watermelon carving with a twist on the traditional style. I think our partners were rather bemused …
Happy Halloween! – Watermelon Carving and Singing Read More »
Before we installed a microwave relay WiFi booster at Kiruru village, phone signal could only be found by climbing up on top of a termite hill, midway between the powerhouse and the school! When installing equipment, we’d periodically have to pop back to the termite hill to call our team back in the UK for …
On one of our recent community visits to run focus groups in Central Uganda, we were surprised by some of the signs plastered around the primary school building, where the focus groups were held. The first signs outside the building were innocent, with messages like “DO NOT LITTER”, “ALWAYS BRUSH YOUR TEETH”, “WASH YOUR HANDS …
The weather in the Maasai plains of Northern Tanzania is much cooler this time than any other time I’ve been. The landscape is also much greener (apparently I’ve come just at the end of the rainy season), and for once I can see crops and loads and loads of white flowers growing, rather than the …
Kiruru sub-village is a small community in the Simanjiro District of Northern Tanzania, and the second of the chosen sites for our SICENT project. Roughly 10km via (very bad) mud road from Terat, the local centre (where our partner organisation OMASI is based), Kiruru is actually administratively part of Oiborkishu village, 7km to the north, …
The Service Value Test (SVT for short) is a key tool in the Smart Villages approach that we like to use as early as possible in our conversations with communities we are looking to work with. We find it really helpful for the following reasons: A key aspect of the Smart Villages approach is that …
The Service Value Test – what it is and why we use it Read More »
As part of the Education Technology Project we ran in 2021, we worked closely with a local secondary school for running focus groups and user tests. It is eye-opening seeing the conditions the students live in, when you compare it with what we have in England. Most students live too far away to walk in …
Solar panel systems can be expensive and time-consuming to build. They can require specialist knowledge to set up, and be difficult to maintain. In rural communities, it can make a huge difference if a solar panel system can be made simply and at a lower cost. That’s why Smart Villages is always on the lookout …