In the river-locked villages of Assam, accessible only by boats, people faced a lack of primary health services for generations. To access basic healthcare, villagers would travel for hours by ferry to reach the nearest hospital, often resulting in delayed care.

While reaching the remote villages by boats was possible, storing medicines and vaccines and electricity for the crew quarters, kitchen, and toilets was a problem. That’s when the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES) hit upon the idea of using solar panels.

The solar panels power the OPD, laboratory, and refrigerator, as well as the living quarters, toilets, and kitchen.

“The remote villages are located on islands on the magnificent Brahmaputra River. To take medicine to those areas, we had to innovate. They don’t have any primary health centers; we are their only healthcare providers,” says Ashok Rao, program manager, C-NES.

C-NES is a not-for-profit organization started by Sanjoy Hazarika, a journalist and filmmaker who noticed a need for a regular healthcare system in these islands. In collaboration with the National Rural Health Mission, he started boat clinics, providing healthcare to the villagers.

“These boats are run on a diesel engine, but all the medical equipment and living quarters are powered by solar energy,”  according to  Riturekha Baruah Phukan, District Programme Officer of Boat Clinic, Majuli.

The capacity of solar power systems on the boat clinics ranges between 3 kW and 5 kW, depending on the boat clinic’s size. The cost of these solar systems is in the ₹200,000 (~$2,308)- ₹250,000 (~$2,885) range.

“Most islands do not have proper electricity for us to power our equipment, such as refrigerators to store vaccines and medicines,” Phukan said.

The clinics were earlier powered using diesel-based generators before switching to solar. The organization collaborated with the SELCO Foundation to solarize the clinics.

Currently, the program has 16 boats, of which six clinics on the boats have been solarized.

The clinics and residential quarters are powered by solar energy due to the lack of grid access in these remote areas. However, the boats need to travel long distances, which solar-electric propulsion cannot currently support. As a result, the boats continue to rely on diesel power.

The clinics provide primary healthcare to approximately 250,000 people in 14 island districts.

“We visit the island 18 days a month in batches of three to four days. We track pregnancies and provide support to mothers and their childcare. We also have basic vaccinations and cater to infections, joint pains, and skin-related diseases,” says Rao.

Starting in 2008, the program successfully provided healthcare to the people on the island.

For many years, the river hindered the patients from traveling to clinics, but C-NES innovated using the sun and water to take medical care to the islanders’ doorstep.

“Roads do not reach the islands, and helicopters would be expensive and unviable. Through these solar-powered clinics on boats, we were able to use the water and the sun to our advantage and reach the remotest areas of the state,” says Rao.

There have been many instances of the use of solar power boats to ferry passengers and tourists across water bodies. In 2022, floating solution provider Acquafront Infrastructure developed ‘i-Ghat,’ a futuristic project to power boats with solar energy instead of diesel at Kada Ghat, Kaushambi, in Uttar Pradesh.

The Kerala government has also been using solar boats to ferry people. The Telangana Tourism Development Corporation floated tenders to procure two units each of 25, 80, and 150-seater solar boats for carrying passengers across lakes, rivers, and reservoirs in the state.