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ENERGIA News Issue 2.1, February 1998

Coping with a Lack of Electricity in Marginal Urban Areas

Lourdes Palao Yturregui

One of the most satisfactory experiences afforded us by our professional activities has been to witness the work of a group of women known as ‘The Roses of America’. Based in one of the poorest marginalised urban areas of the city of Tacna, these women, largely Andean immigrants, have shown us their will-power, creativity and capacity for innovation while trying to solve their immediate problems.

The absence of electricity in the headquarters of their association (and obviously in their homes as well) underlined all the disadvantages these women face daily. What is important to emphasise here, however, is that, starting with a simple initiative, the women have mobilised themselves in an attempt to overcome the biggest obstacle affecting them both at work in their textile workshop and in their own homes. What is more, with their oil-lamp workshop, they have also been able to prove that good organisation and participation in socially productive activities are powerful means of overcoming day-to-day difficulties.

What we hope to highlight here is the fact that, in spite of all the limitations which they face as a result of the sexual division of labour, women are not completely unused to either technology or innovation and creativity; and, furthermore, that collective strategic interests determine any plan of action to be followed.

How the project was born

In about May 1992, ITDG contacted CEPROM (Centre for the Promotion of Women, Tacna) with a view to taking part in a project to be called ‘Women: invisible technologists’. Its aim was to carry out a series of case studies in order to draw attention to women's technological achievements, since, due to their marginalisation, it was almost impossible to gauge their contribution in this field as users, disseminators or innovators of technology.

CEPROM took a deep interest in this project which it considered both relevant and valuable because of the possibilities it afforded for carrying out an immediate study from the perspective of gender and in a non-traditional area of investigation (that is, power supply): specifically, to study the women of Tacna, who in times of economic crisis, had been working together to solve the problem of the lack of electricity in their homes.

CEPROM was already working towards an alternative to the production workshops run by the Council (dressmaking, community refectories and municipal kitchens), as these had been showing signs of obsolescence on the part of women's organisations, which were facing difficulty selling their dresses and were therefore very demoralised. There was a good number of workshops, but no reasonable alternatives. For this reason, it was considered necessary that CEPROM commit itself to a new work option for women in the field of intermediate technology and ecology. The promotion of this alternative met with unconditional support from the women and the community.

Over the 1980s, Peru has experienced a dramatic deterioration in social conditions. Naturally, this has had an effect on the whole nation and in Tacna it has shown itself in a rise in immigration figures (12.2 per thousand in 1990 - one of the highest in the country) which has generated a disproportionate growth of marginalised urban areas, where basic commodities and facilities are scarce or non-existent. People's expectations have sunk very low. It is the women who fully experience this reality, with their men going out to work as early as 4 a.m. and returning at 11 p.m. Perhaps this is the reason why it is the women who look for strategies to survive this grinding poverty and the deficient conditions under which they live in marginalised urban settlements.

One of the main problems for the women of Tacna was the absence of electricity in their homes, for several reasons: they wanted to make the most of the evening to speed up their textile work; they needed to feel secure in their homes; they needed to facilitate the task of caring for their children; they needed to make the night less dark; they needed to light the streets that they and their families used.

It was in the light of this that CEPROM suggested to a group of women that they get together to participate in this project. Twenty-five women enrolled, calling the company's ‘The Roses of America’ because many of them (or some close relative) were called Rose and because most of them were living in the urban settlement known as Las Américas. The study was started in December 1992 and was completed in March 1993.

Objectives

• To identify and assess the technological contributions of the women, as users, disseminators and innovators, in order to solve the problem of the absence of a power supply in their homes;
• To analyse how these immigrant women changed their perception and use of time and space in relation to their families, their neighbourhood and their organisations;
• To analyse the women's rationality with respect to their gender-related subordination an dependence within their families, at work and in their everyday environments;
• To highlight the importance for women of self-organisation as a mechanism for sharing practical, strategic and technological experiences, and thereby for revealing their contributions

Life in Tacna

Tacna is a province in southern Peru with a population of approximately 200 000. Tacna is situated in the Atacama desert, the most arid area in the country. There is a scarcity of hydro-energy resources, together with an agricultural industry of only 18 per cent. The manufacturing industry is equally small and of little significance. Mining carried out by the American owned Southern Peru Copper Corporation in the Toquepala mines pollutes the beaches and destroys hydro-biological resources, while the company's profits are not returned to the region or used to develop the area.

Tacna is one of the provinces with the highest rate of rural immigration from the Puno high plateau in Moquegua. The population growth rate was 9.2 per cent in 1981. In 1990 it was 12.2 per cent. Its attractiveness is based on the fact that it is considered a frontier point where smuggling, the main economic activity, enables immediate survival. As a consequence, settlements have grown in number from 26 to 96 in the last 10 years. In 1992 there were, among others, 16 communal organisations including municipal kitchens, neighbourhood committees, mothers’ clubs, production workshops, and dressmaking and textile workshops. Nearly 40,000 women are thought to be earning a minimal income through small scale and informal work - peddling and hawking - because their lack of capital, illiteracy and ignorance of trading do not enable them to do anything else. The women are young, between 20 and 35 years old. They have, on average, five children apiece, with maternity intervals of barely 18 months. Their education is poor: 65 per cent do not complete their primary studies. Bringing up children takes up most of their time. Due to the unsafe nature of their homes, they even have to take their children with them when going out peddling and hawking (selling bread, corn liquor known as chicha, refreshments, sweets or food). They face common diseases like diarrhoea (chronic in the children), respiratory and skin diseases due to the dust and scarcity of water (only septic tanks available). It was within this context that the project investigated in this study was born: in the south-eastern part of the twon, in the marginal settlement called Las Américas.

Who The Roses are

The group of 25 women who decided to take part in this project were all working at the textile workshop and felt, with a greater sense of urgency, the need somehow to solve the problem of the lack of power in their homes. This was particularly important because of their textile work, which they need to do at night, since their daily routine does not leave time for it to be done during the day.

These women organise their day-to-day lives around the care of their younger children, which takes up all their time and attention, leaving them no chance to pursue other interests. They even attend the textile workshop with all their offspring, which makes it more difficult for them to take in everything they are taught. The problem of non-existent family planning policies is self-evident.

Cultural patterns play a fundamental role, in that men want a male heir, not only to continue the family name, but also for reasons of masculine prestige. The situation reaches extremes when men will not allow their wives to use any contraceptives at all. Women dare not disobey their husbands. It is a very severe case of the dominance of men over women who, being economically dependent, cannot do anything but oblige.

This situation faced by The Roses of America is made worse by their limited education. Perhaps many of them went to school at some stage, but a lack of constant practice means they forget how to read and write. This backwardness and ignorance imposes many restrictions on them, making it even more difficult to expose the myth. They believe in obeying their husbands blindly and have learned to live normally with domestic violence. These values and norms of married relationships are transmitted from generation to generation.

I wanted to separate from him, I couldn't stand it anymore, so I went to my parents. My mum made me come back here straight away. She told me: “He's your husband and you will have to get used to it”. (35-year-old mother of three). Women are afraid of being abandoned because they feel too vulnerable to face poverty on their own.

Making this situation ‘visible’ to the women themselves (in the sense that they learned to value the importance of their own responsibilities of maintaining the home, bringing up the children and doing other jobs) required strengthening their self-esteem. Socialising with the group The Roses of America was an option, and four workshops were arranged on subjects such as the importance of the right to family planning; how to minimise domestic violence through an awareness of rights; understanding that leaving the family is preferable to suffering excessive violence; and the awareness that economic dependence on the husband is not always necessary - which is what finally gives them the greatest power.

How group members see their conditions

The new urban experience confronted by immigrant women from rural areas requires a permanent process of change, so that they can ensure their family's survival. Since most of them come from rural environments, their perception of the world is limited to their small home, their orchard and the weekly k'ato. This is their space. The notion changes when migrating, since there is a multiplicity of complex relations operating in the city, a new socially productive environment. In the country, on the other hand, the position and usufruct of their plot of land is their main concern. Their attention is focused on the cycle of sowing, harvesting, consuming, and round to sowing again. This is the core of their lives - determining their organisation of space and the use of their time. Both men and women are involved and the tasks are allocated as necessary. Bringing up children is one more job for the women, but no the focal point of their daily existence.

Coming to live as immigrants in marginalised urban areas forces them to adjust to a limited space and to different guidelines as far as nourishment, utilities, education, health, transport, work and leisure are concerned. This variation puts them in a disadvantaged position in terms of organising their time, since they are permanently forced to change their activities in order to ensure their survival.

In this environment, women are perhaps more aware of poverty and of the sexual division of labour. Even if they take part in commercial pursuits like hawking and peddling, they take more risks, such as the possibility of suffering abuse, and they must demand even more of themselves if they are to fulfil their domestic duties as well. They also have to endure a permanent depreciation of their activities. It is as if they did nothing but ‘execute their pre-assigned tasks’.

Women are in most cases heads of household; the ones who make the survival of the family possible, and it is they who are overburdened with more and more responsibilities always. For it is through them that the effects of the food crisis (brought about by the government's social and economic adjustments) must be alleviated. Because of their poverty, they are forced to organise mothers’ clubs, ‘Glass of Milk’ committees, and, in addition, they must submit to the rules of the ‘institutional game’ and accept certain conditions in order to receive help, which means they are even more tied to their domestic and maternal roles.

But what do they think? What is the rationality of the Roses of America in relation to this situation? One resident sums this up.
Life here is very hard. Everything has to be bought and paid for. Even the air you breathe has to be paid for. You have to do all kinds of things in order to have something to throw in the pot (says a women who migrated four years ago).

The women are aware of the remarkable differences between town and country and recognize the need to take new courses of action. There is a practical rationality at work here; they accept reality and try to overcome the difficulties that the new environment imposes.

If we don't take care of the water, the power, the draining, who is going to do it? It's us who live here. We are more and more concerned every day, that's why we agreed to learn how to make the lamps. We train each other. Someone knows something, someone else brings a new idea. Ät least we can learn what others already know. It's better together (a women who migrated six years ago).

The best thing about the city, even in this hole, is that I have realised there are so many innovations. There are even devices that help you avoid having so many children. Kids start school from a very early age. I like television very much. I see other worlds on it. One day I'll manage to have all the tings I see in the soaps (a woman who migrated three years ago).

In the analysis of these and the rest of the testimonies, we can see that the rational answers of The Roses of America derive from their practical needs: trying to fulfil their domestic roles and their part in the survival strategies.

The oil-lamp workshop and The Roses

The absence of electric power in the homes of The Roses of America has been solved slowly through a variety of means which were improved as their usefulness was confirmed. A useful question to ask is: Where does the use of oil lamps originate?

In the case of this study, immigrant women from the high plateau use several devices for lighting which they have learned from their ancestors. There, the use of the ‘mecha chua’ is very common. This is a handmade candle crafted from local materials: sebum of alpaca, ilama or sheep mixed with hot kerosene and strongly compacted and put on a small clay plate, with a twisted cayto in the middle. Smelly and smoky, it gives a good light for a couple of hours at least.

Due to the limitations of the mecha chua, they have gradually varied this type of lamp for another one which is based on the use of empty milk cans into which they put strips of braided rag or a twisted wick after fastening the can at both ends. Domestic kerosene is used as fuel. They normally put these lamps in the centre of their patios to surround the houses with a lit area when expecting a member of the family, usually the adult man. This lamp does not smoke or blacken too badly.

The lamps have undergone a number of variations by its users, who are always seeking to maximise its usefulness and trying to avoid the danger of starting a fire. Among the women at the oil lamp workshop, only one of them had a different kind of lamp, made by her father, a tinsmith, who made what they called ‘the gas lamp’. This was the one which stimulated the greatest interest. As they worked out its drawbacks, they added a few other elements to it, until they perfected a satisfactory model. During this process, they had to make up for the lack of some necessary tools, such as pliers, or an electric soldering iron, and consequently have devised a few very imaginative instruments with which to make the process easier.

User … disseminator … innovator

One of the first technical relationships that the women had to acquire as the problem of power supply in Tacna and the lack of water necessary to generate electricity. they had not understood this relationship and it was necessary to learn about the different types of power, such as wind-generated energy and other types of intermediate technology.

They discussed whether a proposal by Gran Hidroeléctrica de San Gabán (located in Puno) was a real alternative for solving the problem of electricity supply in the region. They saw it as very uncertain and instead, applying their practical priorities, searched for more concrete and viable alternatives.

Their lack of financial resources made them study closely the expenses which they incurred in order to have electricity in their homes. They compared costs and expenses. At 0.50 centimos, a new candle every two days amounted to 15 soles per month which they could not afford. A second-hand car battery costs on average five soles, each charge lasts for five days if used sensibly for two hours each night and costs two or approximately 12 soles per month. There is also the additional expense of taking the batteries to the garage for recharging, so only television owners tend to use them.

Using a glass lamp is no good either; their homes are in such a precarious state that it is hard to keep the lamps intact. Glass lamps are fragile and do not give much light, illuminating a radius of 0.5 metre or less.

They tried mixing water and kerosene, but that did not change the combustion mechanism because these are unmixable substances. Since water is heavier, it only serves to keep the kerosene afloat and reach a higher level. Once the wick reaches the water, the flame extinguishes itself. Combustion changes with the different substances used. It is simply not the same to mix alcohol with petroleum or with kerosene, since each substance performs differently. Temperature is of the utmost importance. If good heat conductors are used, the energy produced is greater and different levels of combustion take place.

As far as new skills are concerned, the women have manufactured their own tools to make the job of folding tin easier. Using a mechanism known as the ‘metal window’, they have developed a manual instrument made from metal scraps. In order to press the wick and to weld parts with a manual soldering iron, they have resorted to a variety of instruments, according to their needs: knitting needles and crochet needles to draw the patterns on the tin; pieces of iron with which to wrap circular parts; and also choosing tins which open more easily.

Making oil lamps: a craft process

Manufacturing an oil lamp requires the following tools and materials:

First step: using the heat of a stove, the cans are opened - one left with its base, the other with both ends removed. The can open at both ends is then cut along its seam, so that a sheet of tin is obtained from which to cut the patterned parts. The tin must be well cleaned and flattened to facilitate the task.

Second step: the parts previously patterned are cut from the sheet of tin which is large enough to cut the 11 parts needed.

Third step: the small parts are assembled by folding them along their creases and shaping them according to the patterns. Each of the parts requires careful precision to ensure successful burning. The main part is the gas tube and its heaters, which are mounted like this: holes are pierced around the tube by pressing with a knitting needle heated on a stove. The other parts are mounted using a soldering iron and tin. The wick, which has three guides, is mounted after securing the gas tube. The rest of the parts are complementary accessories to the main mechanism.

Fourth step: the lamp is then lit to check that it is working well. For this, the vessel is filled half with water and half with kerosene (the wick is already wet with kerosene). The heaters are then lit and within three seconds kerosene gas is released, which escapes through the gas tube holes. It smokes a little at the beginning and then produces a steady flame.

Evaluating the results of the oil-lamp workshop

The Roses of America found that lamps manufactured this way from disposable materials, and with tools invariably found in the home, are very cheap. Fuel consumption is minimal. The lamp can be lit all night and lasts approximately two nights, a total of about eight hours. With a little practice, making them is simple. They are easy to maintain, requiring only a cleaning after use, especially the gas tube. It gives as much light as two candles and hardly smokes at all. It extinguishes itself when the fuel (kerosene) is finished. To keep it out of the reach of children, it can be hung on the wall by its handles.

One of the main drawbacks is the slight smell of kerosene that lingers in the house when the lamp is burning for a long time. It is more useful in closed environments with no air currents, since these extinguish the flame.

The women consider the lamp to be a marketable product, particularly when the areas of Tacna that do have electricity endure six-month periods of power restrictions between June and November every year. Its use may be extended to other marginal settlements of the city, and they are considering making it more presentable by painting it in attractive colours. They work on a kind of production line because some of them are more skilful at preparing the materials, others at cutting, others at assembling and others at finishing off.

It is obvious that the experience has opened new options for the women. They felt the need to train themselves in other areas. Further reflection led them to plan new processes such a fumigation, the cost of which is high. It is a service provided only by the municipality and which might just as easily provide the women with work since it is both necessary and urgent. They now consider it is important to have solutions at hand, understanding that high technology is hard to get in our country and that intermediate technology is a more feasible route.

How did The Roses of America feel throughout this process?

Here are a selection of statements made by some of the members.

When I come to the workshop I forget all my problems. It keeps me busy and time flies. I like it very much.

Weaving is very tiring, all the ladies in the workshops weave, we want to earn something, but selling is very difficult, there is a lot of competition.

I like it very much. I learned lots of things, and we got to know each other. Now at least we look at each other when we meet in the street, we say hello and ask each other which stage of the work we're at. Before we didn't speak to each other, even though we lived so close.

We could study something different. We are skilful with our hands, we can understand things. We want to get better. My husband didn't like my coming to the workshop at the beginning, but I managed to convince them. I'll keep coming here to learn.

Traditional techniques have undergone modifications to accommodate new conditions of living and changes in the women themselves. This has been a conscious process. In the case of the oil lamps it has meant an adaptation of combustion principles, changing from the gas used in stoves to kerosene gas. The knack for modifications might be particular to Puno, where the inhabitants are considered to be creative and clever. The women have rediscovered this ingenuity when perfecting their lamp, adding mechanisms for faster lighting; making the kerosene fumes safer; making better wicks; making it more stable on the wall; saving fuel by using water; preventing accidents from happening when the lamp is on; and even making it more artistic and attractive by means of colourful decoration.