MANILA, Philippines – Life goes on for survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), but in many areas, living conditions remain tough almost 5 months after the tragedy.

Soon, however, lighting at night will be the least of the worries of families living in Tacloban and Iloilo bunkhouses. 

Illac Diaz, executive director of MyShelter Foundation (MSF), brings the world-renowned initiative Liter of Light a notch higher with the Solar Night Light project. 

“Using recycled PET plastic bottle, a PVC pipe, and a simple circuit board that’s built using soldering skills, we create solutions – lighting solutions – that can help communities in need,” Liter of Light chief operating officer Ami Valderomo said in their video entry to Philips Philippines’ Innovation that Matters to You campaign.

The Solar Night Light project bested 4 other finalists of the campaign, and will be implemented in Tacloban City and Iloilo this year.  

After Yolanda, the Liter of Light brightened hundreds of houses and street lights in Yolanda-hit areas. Now with the Solar Night Light Project, bunkhouses will soon enjoy light at night. 

“Our main challenge really is [that] the bunkhouses that are built by the DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways] do have electronic circuits, they have lights…but the private owners of the power plants do not want to connect to them because there’s this issue of who’s gonna pay for [the electricity],” Diaz said during a press conference Tuesday, March 25.

Scale up 

Because of the immediacy, Diaz said they will set up the solar lights in bunkhouses first, but the goal is to scale it up further to provide lighting to 6 million Filipinos with no electricity – including areas hit by past disasters.

Philips will help MSF on the project’s technical improvements, bringing down the number of needed materials so they can be cheaper and easier to assemble. 

At price point, he said one solar night light is priced at P720, while the price range of a solar-powered street light ranges from P3,000 to P5,000. Without sacrificing light quality, the collaboration with Philips can lower the costs. 

But more than providing light, Diaz wants the Solar Night Light project to be a source of livelihood for Yolanda survivors.

“What you want is they earn from making it and installing it. That little profit – say, P50 – if you scale up, multiply it by millions, it ends up with greater impact on local economy,” he said.

‘Best example’

Each solar light must also be easy to assemble so it can be quickly put up after a disaster, and easy to replicate so it can be adopted by other countries.

About two billion people in the world still light up their homes with kerosene, Philips Philippines country manager Fabia Tetteroo-Bueno said.

“If [the] Philippines can make this right, [it] can be the best [example] worldwide to scale up lighting deployment in communities today that depend on kerosene,” she added. 

Philips and MSF will work on the technological feasibility of the Solar Night Light project for the next 6 months.

Another group, Project EnKindle, also installed solar emergency power systems in badly-hit Leyte for free. (WATCH: Solar panels bring hope to Haiyan-hit Guiuan) – Rappler.com