Baccalauréat · Série D · Anglais — 2024

Text: Sun instead of diesel

For a long time, the villages of the Sahel had only two options after sunset: darkness, or an expensive diesel generator. Today, a third way is spreading quietly across the region.

In the small community of Toécé, a solar mini-grid was installed three years ago. Thirty households, a health centre and two workshops are now connected. The nurse can keep vaccines cold. The tailor works until nine in the evening. Children no longer study by the light of a kerosene lamp.

The change did not happen by itself. The villagers had to organise. They formed a committee, agreed on a fair tariff, and trained two young people to maintain the panels. « The technology is the easy part », says the committee chairman. « The difficult part is trust. »

Problems remain. The batteries are expensive and must be replaced every few years. During the harmattan, dust reduces production by almost a third. And the grid cannot yet supply the milling machine that the women's association would like to buy.

Still, nobody in Toécé wants to go back. Last year, three neighbouring villages sent delegations to see how it works. Africa receives more sunshine than any other continent. What it needs is not more sun, but more committees like the one in Toécé.

Text written for this examination.