The Sunday Mail
Sifelani Tsiko
At kumusha, in our round hut thatched kitchens, it’s hard to look around and just breathe without feeling the smoke burning the eyes and throat.
Everyone sitting around is constantly tearing up from firewood smoke. The fumes have been a silent killer for years, but new cook stoves innovations are bringing some glimmer of hope.
For decades, a lot of research has been done to try and develop successful models and pilot projects to bring sustainable energy to rural areas, but limited progress has been made.
In Zimbabwe and most other African countries, researchers, NGOs and state agencies have over the years offered so many models but very few have been translated into effective action.
We have had of programmes on sustainable energy sources like biogas, ‘‘Tsotso Stoves,’’ solar energy and many others that sought to increase access in rural areas and also to double the share of other renewable energy sources in the energy mix.
We have also heard about rural electrification programmes which have been rolled out but with limited success.
There has been so much talk and with little action at major global conferences on sustainable energy development, but the reality is that the potential of renewable energy schemes is yet to be realised by many people in our rural areas.
Lack of clean, affordable and reliable energy is at the heart of a range of problems faced by the majority of the poor in rural areas.
Rural communities still depend heavily on forests for traditional energy sources such as firewood.
According to environmentalists, over 80 per cent of the rural population is still dependent on firewood for their basic energy needs such as cooking and heating, which has led to reduced forest cover, increased carbon emission and health hazards for many, especially the women and children.
Ecologists and foresters estimate that Zimbabwe is losing more than 330 000 hectares of natural forests per year due largely to deforestation.
The sharp demand for firewood for domestic purposes and for tobacco curing is accelerating the rapid loss of the country’s forest cover, amid reports that more than 21 percent of Zimbabwe’s forest cover has been lost over the last two decades.
South America and Africa continue to have the highest net annual loss of forests and between 2000 and 2010, the two continents registered losses of four and 3,4 million hectares respectively, according to the 2010 Global Forest Resources Assessment report.
Forests cover 31 percent of total world land area and play a critical role in mitigating climate change.
Deforestation, degradation and poor forest management reduce carbon stocks.
Lack of reliable energy for heating and cooking in rural areas prevents hospitals and schools from running well, children from studying at night and hampers efforts by farmers to process and store food long enough to deal with food security issues.
There is also growing proof of the impact of the use of open fires to meet the need for cooking, heating and crop processing.
The World Health Organisation estimates 3,8 million premature deaths annually from non-communicable diseases including stroke, ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer due to exposure to household air pollution.
Recent landmark studies have also indicated that black carbon emitted by traditional cook-stoves ranks “as the second most important individual climate-warming agent after carbon dioxide.”
Given this scenario, we welcome innovative research solutions by the BiocharPlus programme, under the ACP–EU Co-operation Programme in Science and Technology II being implemented in partnership with the Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) to address rural energy needs. BUSE scientists are working closely with researchers from the Udine University in Italy to implement strategies and measures aimed at promoting the use of cleaner and more economical cook-stoves to enhance the quality of life for the majority of rural communities facing sustainable energy source challenges.
To promote the understanding and use of bio char, a highly durable form of charcoal, now gaining popularity as a wedge strategy to combat climate change, researchers from the two institutions are working closely with local communities in Madziwa, Mashonaland Central.
Recently, a training workshop was held at BUSE and at the Harare Polytechnic on the benefits of the Elsa cook stoves – micro-gasification devices that burn clean and use a wide range of waste biomass as fuel.
More than 50 rural people received training on the construction of Elsa stoves which use bio char technology.
Bio char technology simply refers to a type of charcoal produced when biomass burns in an oxygen-free environment.
This can boost water and nutrients in dry, depleted soil while serving as a vehicle for burying the carbon that contributes to global warming.
The biochar stoves burn renewable agricultural waste cleanly in the absence of oxygen (pyrolysis) turning it into biochar. Ms Chipo Shonhiwa, a lead co-coordinator of the biochar programme at BUSE says Elsa stoves can be made from locally available materials making it more accessible to rural communities.
“Here at the Bindura University of Science Education we have been working on a biochar research project and we have developed a stove prototype that can utilize the unused crop residues to produce biochar,” she says.
“This stove can also utilise sticks from agricultural waste which the rural population use. This technology is energy efficient and can relieve the smoke problems in rural homes that have severe impact on health and the environment.”
University of Udine biochar technology expert Prof Alessandro Peressotti says tests on biochar model stove use show a significant reduction in exposure to harmful smoke.
“In laboratory testing, these stoves reduced particulate matter emissions and the carbon monoxide emissions significantly as compared to an open cooking fire,” he says.
“These two are the big drivers of respiratory diseases worldwide. The biochar technology can help local farmers to reduce deforestation and improve soil conditions on their plots.”
Prof Peressoti says the technology can reduce smoke in households and help decrease irritation of eyes and running noses, coughing, chest discomfort, and difficulties in breathing, along with cost savings due to fewer hospital visits.
Farmers from Madziwa have expressed interest in the new stove because it is smoke-free. However, the real hook though, is the biochar which can improve the quality of their soil and crop yields.
Prof Peressoti says in addition to helping boost crop production, biochar can be a powerful tool to fight global warming.
The International Biochar Initiative, a nonprofit organization that promotes biochar applications, estimates that biochar could help store 2,2 gigatons of carbon annually by 2050 helping to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.
BiocharPlus programme outcomes need to be strengthened and supported by national commitments to support our rural communities who lack access to electricity and who still rely on unsustainable solid biomass as fuel for cooking and heating.
Promoting rural home energy technologies and fuels that are sustainable and healthy remains critical for Zimbabwe and most other African countries.
Development of inexpensive, high quality energy equipment solutions and training systems to increase uptake of biochar technology, as well as university collaborations linking universities in the North with those in the South to find lasting energy solutions need to be supported and encouraged.
Rural communities need clean cook stoves and renewable energy systems, which are practical, reliable and durable, are both widely available and affordable. They also need renewable energy solutions that can enhance their income generating activities and improve their livelihoods.
Greater rural community involvement is key and can help remove barriers to new technology uptake.
By involving them in the design of biochar stoves to suit their own needs, involving volunteer groups in the dissemination of improved household energy technologies and giving them the chance to introduce their practical experience about the benefits of these improved technologies over the traditional ones, rural communities can be motivated to adopt the technologies.
Any developing nation cannot become developed without the development of its rural base.
New and appropriate technologies need to touch the lives of our rural people. We have to ensure that rural beneficiaries are not just introduced to new technologies but also see the benefits and are entrusted with their use.
