Gravity ropeways in Nepal

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Life is difficult for families living in the remote mountainous areas of Nepal. One in every three people live on just £1 a day. They survive by growing food to eat and selling what is left over to provide the most basic necessities.

But getting crops to market can be exhausting and dangerous – it is generally mules, women and children who carry these heavy loads on their backs, down treacherous, winding dirt tracks. When it rains, or there’s a landslide, it’s completely impossible.

Janagaon is one of six communities who together with Practical Action have found an answer that’s transforming their lives. And it’s surprisingly simple.

It used to take two people over three hours to carry a 120kg load of apples 1.3 km down a steep mountain path – and that was just the first part of the gruelling journey to market. Now, with a gravity ropeway, the apples take less than five minutes to cover the same distance! You can read below how it’s completely changed the life of Dharma, a vegetable grower from Janagaon.

A goods-transportation ropeway like this, spanning 1,400 metres, costs around £7,000. So, for instance, if two hundred fifty people each gave £28 it could cover the costs of a similar ropeway.

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Newton's law - applied to fight poverty Depending solely on gravitational force – and using no external power – makes gravitational ropeways simple and inexpensive to operate as well as environmentally friendly. Two linked trolleys, on pulleys, run on separate 10mm diameter steel wires which are suspended from towers: as the full trolley comes down, pulled by the weight of its load, it pulls the empty one up, ready for the next load. The trolleys’ progress is controlled by another, 8mm wire, looped over a flywheel. A wooden drum brake, with bearing and bracket, governs their speed. Read more about how the gravity ropeway works (PDF, 550k)

 

Help us to spread this simple solution

Dharma’s Success Story

Dharma is 55 years old, with a wife and three children. He grows vegetables on a small plot of land in Janagaon village. He says, “It takes two hours to get down the mountain trail to the main road, and during the monsoon, accidents are frequent. Now we have the gravity ropeway, the time saved means I can earn three times as much from selling my vegetables. With that extra money I can afford to farm animals, too. But I’m not just glad for me – the whole village is prospering thanks to the ropeway.”

It’s such a simple solution to the isolation endured by so many poor Nepalese families. The main components of the ropeway are sourced locally and our project staff train local manufacturers to build the parts. We show the village group taking responsibility for the ropeway how to maintain it. A small charge to each user ensures enough money to keep the ropeway in good repair while also paying for two operators to manage the top and bottom stations safely.

Before the installation of the ropeway in Janagaon, families often went without food or medicine during the winter months. They could not afford the initial cost of establishing the ropeway, buying the steel cabling or getting the technical know-how to advise on its installation. Those are the elements Practical Action can help with, thanks to the generosity of our supporters.

The length of the ropeways will vary, and budgets differ considerably. But the basic cost of the 10mm cabling used to support the trolleys is 83p a metre. Your gift could help make a life-changing difference to hungry and hard working families in Nepal

The ropeway means people can get more produce to market from their mountain villages. And because it gets there quicker, it’s fresher and earns them more. They have more time to tend their crops, more money to buy fuel for cooking and heating, and can even pay for education and healthcare. Technology really is making a remarkable difference to their lives.

Each ropeway takes about three months to install. Every gift to Practical Action helps people somewhere in the developing world to work themselves out of poverty.

If you would like to make a donation to Practical Action, you can donate online by credit or debit card via secure server. or, you can call direct on Freephone 0800 389 16 24 or write to Practical Action, FREEPOST CV1753, Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby, Warwickshire CV23 9BR