Four feet in length, of aggressive disposition, and deadly poisonous: you don’t want to stand on a Russell’s viper in the dark. Especially if there’s no antivenom for miles around. Yet that’s the daily predicament facing millions of villagers in Myanmar, where snakebites cause about 500 deaths every year.

In Yin Ma Chaung, a rural settlement about nine hours by car from Yangon, villagers can rest easier knowing there are doses of antivenom chilling securely in a new refrigerator in the village’s community centre, powered by solar.

“Antivenom can now be supplied quickly if people in neighbouring villages need it,” says Konosuke Kawahara from Japanese electronics giant Panasonic, which recently installed a 2.82kW photovoltaic (PV) system for the off-grid village.

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