TONIBUNG- Friends of Village Development: April 2013

TONIBUNG Takes on the Long Semadoh Micro-Hydro Project

Long Semadoh is a village in the far Eastern portion of Sarawak. Although this area has been slated for the Heart of Borneo conservation initiative, the villagers in the region have a long history of conflict with timber companies and, more recently, with the Petronas trans-Borneo gas pipeline project, which is encroaching on ancestral land.

TONIBUNG will manage the project alongside Sarawakian partner organization IPIMAS.

Micro-hydro Feasibility Studies in Perak, Peninsular Malaysia

TONIBUNG and Green Empowerment traveled to Perak State in Northern Peninsular Malaysia to check out the potential of several streams in the region for micro-hydro project development. The villagers of Lubuk Gaharu and Pos Musu in this portion of Perak still lack many basic amenities, including electricity. There are 77 households total between the two villages.

Tech Transfer with HEKSA Hydro Indonesia

HEKSA Hydro, TONIBUNG and Green Empowerment have been partners for over a decade. In February 2013, TONIBUNG and Green Empowerment representatives traveled to HEKSA Hydro's Headquarters in Bandung and sealed the deal on a further partnership that will see HEKSA turbines assembled in Malaysian Borneo. The group also traveled to a micro-hydro site in Cijambe, West Java, where a village community is maintaining a grid-tied system running from their irrigation canal.

SEAREPA 2012

TONIBUNG and Green Empowerment are proud members of the Southeast Asia Renewable Energy Peoples's Assembly (SEAREPA). SEAREPA's inaugural gathering commenced on October 29th 2012. 80 organizations were represented at the event, including a number of indigenous community leaders, clean energy practitioners, academics, entrepreneurs and activists from all over the region. SEAREPA saw the birth of a Borneo village micro-hydro network and a Southeast Asia micro-hydro network, both of which TONIBUNG are active members of.