“Biogas
is better because I spend less time cooking compared to the time I used to spend
using wood fuel. I am also no longer having problems associated with irritation
of the eyes and coughing caused by the smoke that wood fuel produces when one is
cooking.”
“I
no longer need to go into the forest to fetch firewood for almost half a day.
All I need to do is to go into the cow pen built very close to my kitchen and
mix cow dung with water. I fill two buckets of cow dung and mix them with water
and deposit the mixture in the biogas digester,” explains Mrs. Ghuhia.
“Despite the fact that the cow pen is almost on our kitchen door step, we do
not experience an offensive smell from cow dung, we only experience it at the
point of mixing.”
Mrs.
Ghuhia is now left with more time to look after her cattle. She also has time to
look for fodder for her cattle. Apart from providing villagers with cow dung to
produce biogas, cattle’s meat and milk also serve as good sources of protein
for the villagers.
Alternative
Energies for Biodiversity Conservation
Mr.
Adolf Mutungwa, Field Project Officer for Monduli District who helped implement
the UNDP GEF project said, “Our project started in 1998. Our goal is to
reduce the rate of loss of forest biodiversity.”
Mr.
Mutungwa said the community was now aware of the need to conserve biodiversity.
“Resource
balance is mainly concerned with educating the community to balance the demand
and supply of resources that are in the forest,” said Mr. Mutungwa. “In
order to do that, we had to look at the alternative energy supplies that
communities could use in order to reduce the rate of removing the resources from
forests. Jatropha and biogas were chosen as appropriate alternative energy uses
to halt further destruction forest in Monduli District.”
Jatropha
is a castor oil plant used in Monduli. The plant is indigenous to Monduli
District, but residents did not know that it could be used as an alternative
source of energy. Residents of Monduli District now extract oil from the
Jatropha seeds and use it as biofuel for lighting or put it in a special stove
and use it for cooking.
Meanwhile,
Mrs. Ghuhia said her community’s use of biogas for cooking is greatly
contributing to forestry conservation and improving water levels in their area.
“Initially,
we used to walk all the way to the forests to fetch water deep down in the
forests,” she said. “But we are now fetching water from nearby water points
due to the significant and increasing rise in the water table. We now understand
that this is linked to our community’s change from using wood fuel, opting for
biogas and Jatropha oil.”
Villagers
Need Financial Support
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The
cattle are also useful for the milk they provide
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Commenting
on rural communities’ use of biogas technology, Mr. Mutungwa said, “This is
a very positive approach because it creates a very good cycle. The cow dung is
produced by the animal, and is then sent to the biogas plant. The bacteria then
digests it and you get methane, a gas used for cooking when burnt. The remainder
of the biogas waste, or slurry, is sent to the crops that produce fodder which
is eaten again by the animals to produce more dung and thus biogas.”
Botswana,
Zimbabwe and Zambia are among the African countries promoting the use of biogas
in order to reduce the rate of deforestation. In all these countries, villagers
using the biogas technology say biogas use has significantly cut down the
distances they normally had to walk to collect firewood.
But
with all its benefits and its appropriateness as a technology that can be easily
used in rural Africa, only a few households have switched over to biogas.
Although they would like to use the biogas stove, most of the villagers still
cannot afford to pay 25% of the US$600 full cost of this technology.
Originally
exclusively dependent on firewood for their energy needs, the African rural
communities’ acceptance to switch over to alternative sources of energy such
as biogas is certainly sweet music to the ears of conservationists. But the
challenge is to urge donors to help these poor communities to purchase biogas
technology, since few of them can afford to buy the technology.
In
Zambia, the Integrated Environment Foundation (INTENDF) recently promoted the
use of biogas in Shiyala Village in Chieftainess Nkomeasha’s area, which falls
under Kafue District. INTENDF made an initial payment of US$2000 to promote the
use of biogas as an appropriate technology in rural areas.
Rural
Communities Hardly the Only Reason
Statistics
show that 80% of Zambia’s household energy demand is met by firewood and
charcoal, all harvested from the forests. This represents a serious threat to
the country’s forests.
However,
as Africa continues to seek alternative sources of energy that reduce the
threats to its forests, it would be foolhardy to focus on rural communities as
the only threat to the forests.
Results
of a recent study commissioned by the Forest Association of Zimbabwe showed that
most of Harare’s wood fuel is brought from rural areas by professional
woodcutters, 55% of which is cut and sold from commercial farms. Reports
presented at a conference on Women and Sustainable Development, held in Harare
recently, also showed that peasant or rural women “do the least damage to
Zimbabwe’s ecology compared to the rest of the woodcutters, including logging
companies.”
