ITB Students Built Power Plant in Cihurip, Garut

Oleh UKM Student English Forum

Editor -

GARUT, itb.ac.id - Participants of ITB's Community Development Class has just recently granted a wonderful charity to the people of Cihurip, Garut; a Micro-Hydro Power Plant to provide the village with electricity. Micro-hydro power plants are usually installed to provide power to small or isolated communities using water current as energy source. It is a preferred choice in many places due to its independence to fuel.

Laurentius Radit Nindito, one of the class participants, stated that the installation process started from perfecting the power plant design. It was then followed by constructing the generator housing and power networks in the last weeks of the class. The power networks were made from bamboo sticks, which was abundant in Cihurip. These power networks were then connected into a lighting network to illuminate the previously dark village.

ITB Rector Prof. Akhmaloka even visited the spot to officially give an approval to the installment.

Doni Herlambang, another participant of the class, stated that the installment was a continuation of a project initiated by the Physics Student Union last December. The Union has previously chosen Cihurip as the village appropriate for the installment, and had started building the power plant from scratch in cooperation with local inhabitants and eight professors.

Local citizens expressed their appreciation to the charity. Village Leader Asep Gozali stated that the Community Development Class should be done more often. "We used to walk in the dark when night falls. Not anymore. We are very thankful."

Aside from providing electricity, class participants also provided several other assistances such as assisting the village in managing its farms and livestocks, as well as constructing a bridge to ease mobility, the latter done mostly by the Civil Engineering Student Union.


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