Infrastructure 2013: Electricity The social impact of electrification: Glimpses from Africa and India Tanja Winther, PhD Social anthropology/MSc Power engineering, Center for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo The world´s population is moving to the cities. Cities in developing countries are growing especially fast. About one billion of the world´s 3,5 billion urban inhabitants are living in informal settlements, or slums. This number is expected to increase. What kind of access to the cities’ infrastructure do these people have? Do they have access to electricity, drinking water, sewage systems and transportation? Habitat Norway wishes to address these and other issues in the seminar series «Infrastructure 2013». The third seminar will look at the access to electricity in informal settlements and growing cities. How is the daily life, the outlook of a more prosperous life and security affected by the lack of or insufficient and sporadic access to electricity? And are informal settlements taken into account when calculating and planning improvements on the electric grids? What alternative solutions could be utilized? For more information see: http://habitat-norge.org/

1. The social impact of electrification:
Glimpses from Africa and India
HABITAT series: Infrastructure 2013. Electricity.
Wednesday 12 June, Kulturhuset, Oslo
Tanja Winther, PhD Social anthropology/MSc Power engineering

2. ‘It is like a town here now’
Young man, Uroa village, Zanzibar, 2001

3. Overall message: Electricity matters
1. May positively affect development
(e.g. education, water, health, communication,
comfort and convenience)
2. Does not immediately/alone create economic
growth
3. Tend to benefit privileged groups most
4. Process, outcomes and social impact: conditioned
by gender relations and women’s degree of
involvement

4. Solar PV, Mini-grids, West Bengal
Project: Solar Transitions
Solar PV, Energy Centre, Ikisaya, Kenya
Project: Solar Transitions
Central grid, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Project: Independent PhD
Three different
systems for providing
people with access to
electricity’s services

5. Services provided
Case Zanzibar, Tanzania West Bengal Ikisaya, Kenya
Production Imported from Tanz Solar PV Solar PV
Distribution Centralised grid Local mini-
grids
Energy centre
Initial cost 200-300 USD 12-15 USD 2 USD
Service
available
No limits in theory 6-11 p.m. Opening
schedule
El used for
public services
Yes No Partly (education)
Private
consumption
Light, radio, phone,
TV, fan, iron, fridge,
freezer (el stove) etc.
Light, phone,
fan, TV (b/wh)
Lanterns, phones,
photo copying,
PC, TV and video

6. Development:
Public services,
Zanzibar

7. 99%
19%
88%
44%
33%
20%
19%
4%
2%
1%
2%
Bulb
Fluorescent
Radio
Fan
TV
Iron
Freezer
Fridge
Blender
Video
Cooker
Appliances kept in people’s homes, Uroa, Zanzibar, 2001
(n=131)

8. Development:
Private consumption, Zanzibar

9. Have and have-nots, Zanzibar
Electricity: not for all

10. Income vs. connection fee
the Sunderbans, West Bengal
Monthly
income
(INR)
Monthly
income
(USD)
Connection fee:
share of income
Teacher 20 000 430 5%
Day labourer 3 000 64 33%
Cleaning worker 1 600 34 62%
Electricity: not for all

11. Electricity in Zanzibar: male

12. Uroa village, Zanzibar

13. Claim in the literature: ‘Electric light makes
women save time on cooking’

14. Bathroom
Sunderban homes:
Where is the light installed? (n=106)
38%
1%
54%
58%
63%
Veranda / outdoors
Living room / dining room
Bedroom/ store room /shrine
Kitchen
Cow shed
54 %
58 %
63 %
38 %

15. Conclusion
• Development? Yes, through improved public
services, mobile phones, modified consumption
practices and productive activities at home
• Income generation remains a challenge
• Context and gender sensitive approaches increase
the likeliness of positive social impacts
• Generally: enhance broad access
Winni, IT clerk, Ikisaya Energy Centre

16. ‘When I know how the President looks, I will also feel
as beeing part of Kenya’ (Elderly man, Ikisaya, 2011
before the opening of the Energy Centre )

17. The end

19. Winther, T. The impact of electricity. Development, desires and dilemmas. Berghahn
Books, 2008.
Winther, T. The introduction of electricity in the Sunderban Islands: Conserving or transforming
gender relations? In K.B. Nielsen and A.K.Waldorp (eds), Transforming Gender in India.
Anthem Press (in progress).
Winther, T. Space, time and socio-material relationships: Moral aspects of the arrival of
electricity in rural Zanzibar. In S. Strauss, S. Rupp and T.Love (eds), Cultures of energy.
Power, practices, technologies. California: Left Coast Press, 2013.
Winther, T. Negotiating energy and gender: Ethnographic illustrations from Zanzibar and
Sweden. In K. Bjørkdahl and K. B. Nielsen (eds), Development and Environment.
Practices, theories, policies. Oslo: Akademika Publishing. 2012.
T. Winther. Electricity theft as a relational issue: A comparative look at Zanzibar, Tanzania, and
the Sunderban Islands, India. Energy for Sustainable Development, 2012, 16(1).
K. Ulsrud, T. Winther, D.Palit, H.Roracher and J.Sandgren. The Solar Transitions research on
solar mini-grids in India: Learning from local cases of innovative socio-technical systems”.
Energy for Sustainable Development, 2011, 15.