Between April 15 and May 15, 2017, consultant Saiwoe Y. Varpilah, funded by ACDI/VOCA, collaborated with two cooperatives in the Quandu Gboni District in Lofa County towards the construction of 30 solar dryers. GIZ/EnDev had previously trained community members on how to build the table model dryer and provided the imported greenhouse plastic foil for the dryers.
The activities began in Korlelah, at the headquarters of the Gboni Bengoma Farmers Cooperative Society, where an older ACDI/Voca funded house model solar dryer that had been operational in December 2016 had broken down with the plastic destroyed. Cooperative members had already started to cut the wood after an agreement with GIZ/EnDev to start constructing the solar dryers.
Over the next weeks, a total of 30 solar dryers was built in the following communities: Korlelah, Tusu, Jarmulor, Moibadu, Kanela, Paris, Lukamai, Jankadu, Sarkonedu, Bolonguidu, Konadu, Marvekonnidu, Gbegbedu and Nyamakamadu. The last six of the communities were in the area of the Quandu Marsinee cooperative had yet to fulfill their part of their Memorandum of Understanding with GIZ/EnDev.
The construction of these dryers made a total of 32 dryers now built within this District. The communities have agreed to build 54 dryers with plastic provided by GIZ/EnDev Liberia. Most dryers are registered for regular monitoring and have a caretaker who knows about maintenance. Four dryers that had not yet been registered because of some 1.5-hour walking distance, will be registered by the cooperative business manager.
The original Memorandum of Understanding was only 50% fulfilled by the cooperatives, while the remaining 50% was done by the contractor and ACDI/Voca. A carpenter was hired to construct 15 dryers while the cooperatives successfully completed 14 and one had yet to be constructed. This was a result of the community's failure (Marvekonnedu) to transport the cut wood at the construction site on time after several visits. Marvekonnedu is the headquarters town of Quardu Marsinee Cooperative.
Key constraints of the activities were lack of manpower to help the power saw operator during wood cutting/sawing, unavailability of carpenter from the community to build the dryer, failure of the community to transport wood at the construction site on time or not at all. Further projects could consider allocating some cash per dryer to contract a well-trained carpenter for dryer construction, and to include the cooperative management team to visit all activities of the project ensuring wood cutting and construction.
