2018年经济学人 微电网和发展:偏远地区的福利(2)

 

Vijay Bhaskar of Mlinda says a big mistake in development has been to assume that,

Mlinda公司的Vijay Bhaskar表示发展中的一个大问题是假设

once people are hooked up to electricity, businesses will automatically flourish.

一旦人们通上了电，商业就会自动繁荣兴旺。

People have to be taught how to make the most of power, he says.

需要教会人们如何尽量利用电力，他说。

"Bringing energy is the easy part. The hard part is finding productive ways to make use of it."

“通电是简单的部分。难的地方在于寻找富有成效的方法利用电力。”

This understanding is spreading throughout rural parts of South Asia and Africa,

这种认识在南亚和非洲偏远地区传播开来，

where mini-grids are increasingly seen as one of the most promising¹ ways of connecting the 1.1bn people in the world who still lack access to electricity.

在那些地方，微电网逐渐被认为是最有前景的方式之一，让未通电地区的11亿人与世界相连。

The World Bank says users of mini-grids may need microfinance and vocational training to make best use of it.

世界银行表示微电网用户或许需要小额信贷和职业训练才能最好的利用它们。

According to one British expert, "mini-grid operators are not sellers of kilowatt-hours; they are stimulators of rural development."

一名英国专家表示，“微电网经营者不是千瓦时的售卖者，他们是乡村发展的刺激者。”

Jaideep Mukherjee, the boss of Smart Power India, an NGO supported by the Rockefeller Foundation,

洛克菲勒基金会资助的非政府组织—印度智能电力的负责人Jaideep Mukherjee表示

says their job is to "demonstrate the benefits, train and then propagate".

他们的工作是“展示微电网的优势、培训，然后宣传”。

Talk to Havil Bilung, a farmer in Narotoli, and the potential is clear.

在和Narotoli的一位农民Havil Bilung的谈话中，我们发现其潜力很明显。

He says that with help from Mlinda, increased access to electricity has allowed him to use irrigation pumps

他说有了Mlinda公司的帮助，电力让他能够使用灌溉泵

to grow an extra harvest of pumpkin² and okra in the pre-monsoon months, boosting his income.

获得南瓜和秋葵的额外大丰收，增加了他的收入。

More crops have cut the number of young men seeking itinerant³ employment in the cities during the dry season.

旱季更多农作物的丰收让去城市寻找流动工作的年轻人人数减少。

Women make mustard seed cooking oil, which sells in Kolkata.

女人们用芥菜籽榨油，拿到加尔各答贩卖。

An independent study for Mlinda found that GDP per person in eight villages with mini-grids rose by10.6% on average over the first 13 months,

对Mlinda公司的独立研究发现，没有安装微电网的村庄，人均GDP仅为4.6%，

compared with 4.6% in a group of similar villages without them.

而相比之下，在前13个月内，安装了微电网的八个村庄的人均GDP上涨10.6%。

1 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

2 pumpkin   

n.南瓜

参考例句：

• They ate turkey and pumpkin pie.他们吃了火鸡和南瓜馅饼。
• It looks like there is a person looking out of the pumpkin!看起来就像南瓜里有人在看着你！

3 itinerant   

adj.巡回的；流动的

参考例句：

• He is starting itinerant performance all over the world.他正在世界各地巡回演出。
• There is a general debate nowadays about the problem of itinerant workers.目前，针对流动工人的问题展开了普遍的争论。