हाम्रो प्रविधि: राम्रो नेपाल (Our Technology: Prosperour Nepal)

# Introduction: 

Nepal is a hilly country. The terrain of Nepal varies from mountainous in the north to plain in the south. Most of the villages in mountain and hilly region are situated on the upper part of the hilly terrain. As the water source lies on the lower part of hills, most of the villages lack sufficient water for drinking and irrigation. Only limited sources of water is available on the upper parts like streams, while there is sufficient water on the base of such hills. Most of the rivers in Nepal are originated from the base of hills. So people living on the upper part of such villages have to walk all along the base just to carry water for drinking. The condition of water for irrigation at such places is terrible. People can’t even think of irrigating their fertile land because even for drinking water they have to walk a long distance spending their valuable time.  Although Nepal is rich in water resources, it is far away from providing electricity to all people. So people can’t even use electricity for pumping water to their villages and also normal pumps cannot pump water to large height. Nepal needs such projects which can pump water even without electricity to a sufficient height. Most hills have water resources in middle or down parts provided by a river at the bottom. So we are purposing a project which can pump water to sufficient height even without electricity. The kinetic energy of water at river is used to push the water to the top of such hills. 

 # Components and working:

 The pumping process is carried by the combination of different components. The main components and their working procedures are explained below: 

I.     Water wheel :  Water wheel is a rotational device that rotates due to the strike of high velocity water. A Pelton turbine can be efficient for the purpose. But for the shake of economy, water wheel is used since it can be manufactured locally in low cost. The shaft of the water wheel is connected on the other end to another wheel of appropriate diameter to provide sufficient rpm to the compressor. The wheel is then connected to the compressor by a belt that drives the fan of compressor.

 II.   Air Compressor and pressure tank :  An air compressor is a device that collects air of atmosphere at normal atmospheric pressure and stores in the pressure tank at pressure higher than the normal. The compressor may be driven by electricity, but in our case it is driven by a water wheel. When the fan of compressor is rotated at high speed, the pressure inside the compressor near the fan becomes almost zero. Then the air at atmospheric pressure can flow inside the pressure tank. This results in the compressed air inside the tank. When the pressure inside the tank reaches the maximum value, the check valve cannot withstand the pressure and it opens. Check valve allows only one directional flow which is only out of the tank. When the check valve opens, air leaves the tank at very high velocity. Now, as air is released, the volume and consequently the pressure inside tank decreased to the closing pressure of check valve and the valve is closed. Then again some time is waited for the air to be compressed.

 III.    Water source tank :  This is the main water to be pumped by the system. The water to be pumped is collected in a tank. The tank is arranged in a suitable position that the water column can open the one way valve from the tank so that there can be lower flow of water to the pipes.  The water which is to be lifted up is provided by this tank. The tank can be placed either near to the compressor or at a position where water is available at the highest point. This is an added advantage of this project. Because in real project we can place the compressor part at base of hill and use the same potential to lift water from higher point to the top. 

 IV.   Pipes :  The pipes consist of different sections. Firstly meeting pipes are arranged (as shown in figure above) to feed water from the source tank. These are the steel pipes having slightly higher thickness connecting the compressor tank to the delivery pipe. The one way valves at meeting and delivery pipes are arranged in opposite direction to prevent back flow of water. Initially the pipe below source tank is filled with water and at same level to delivery pipe. When the check valve of compressor is opened, the air provides pressure to water on the pipe so that valve at source tank side is closed while the valve at delivery pipe side is opened. Now this much volume of water is pushed up by the compressed air through the delivery pipe.

 V. Governor :  Governor can be used as the extension of the project to make it an automatic system. For this, the compressor pressure tank can have two outlets. One is used for normal release of air at specified pressure while the other can be used for governing the system. The flow of water to the water wheel can be regulated and stopped if the air pressure inside the compressor reached the maximum limit without opening of check valve.   

# How to implement the project?

The terrain of Nepal is very suitable for the implementation of the project. Most of villages are situated on the upper part of hills and there is scarcity of water. While there can be sources of water on midway to hills and there are rivers at the base. So these sources can be properly utilized by the project. For this, the compressor can be installed at the base so that it can be driven by the available head of river which needs only some civil constructions. Then the pressure at the bottom of the hill can be almost shifted to higher point where water is available at the highest point. The water is not needed to be pumped from the base because normally water sources are available at middle of the hills. So the plant needs to pump water only from half of the hill to the top. This needs the pipes to withstand pressure of specified limit which is proportional to the height to which water is needed to be pumped.  

 # Cost analysis:

The cost of the project is directly related with the materials and equipments used in the project. And the major components as mentioned earlier are: Water wheel, Air Compressor and pressure tank, Water source tank, Pipes and the Governor. The cost obviously also depends upon the size of the plant. Let us now consider a plant to be installed for drinking water purpose to a height of about 500 meters from the uppermost water source available which may contain its compressing system even lower height than that. Then we can tentatively calculate the following cost:

# How does the project increase economy of people?

Water for drinking is the basic need of human being. Irrigating water can be a supplementary to make life of people easier. In Nepal villagers from many villages have to walk a long distance just for fetching drinking water. People can’t even grow vegetables in their fertile land due to lack of water. Since they have very little water, they cannot use it for even washing and cleaning with water. So people are compelled to grow dirty environment around them. This leads to increase of communicable diseases among the people resulting in higher number absent days of people’s productive time. In sort, people have to face many physical and health problems due to lack of water. After the implementation of this project, many problems of the villagers relating to water is solved. The time which people used to spend for carrying water is saved by great amount. They can use this time for other productive works. Drinking water becomes easily available and water to animals can be easily managed. If a larger plant is installed, we can even think of irrigating the land. Then people can irrigate their land and increase the agricultural products like vegetables. People can use water for washing and cleaning. This helps to make the environment clean and healthy and they themselves become healthier. This increases the economy of the people. Then life in villages becomes easier and consequently reduces the rate of migration. This can be ultimately an advantage to the nation.