The Charcoal Project

One of the startling facts I refer to when discussing the dire biomass situation facing a number of  Sub-Saharan countries is Uganda’s announcement last year that the country is set to run out of woodfuel by the end of the decade.

The report from Uganda’s Ministry of Water and the Environment said: “At the present rate of deforestation, it is predicted that Uganda is likely to be importing fuel wood by 2020.”

The report also notes that Uganda’s woodland cover declined from 16.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent of the total land area between 1990 and 2005. [Water and Environment Sector Performance
Report 2009, report released: October 2009]

The country derives 93% of its energy needs from biomass.

In a bold move, Uganda three years ago adopted a policy on renewable energy aimed at increasing the population’s access to power from 4% to 61% by 2017.

Well, it looks like someone in the German government thinks this is a goal worth supporting.

Today’s edition of Uganda’s New Vision Online reports that the German government is investing “10m euros to promote renewable energy in order to alleviate poverty.”

However, the news item makes several points that are worthy of further scrutiny.

1. “There is compelling need of going for biomass technology to produce combustible gas.” I wonder what this means. Will Uganda convert biomass to combustible gas in some type of largescale operation? Or are they talking about small gasifiers? What’s the plan here? Anyone know?

2. “Biogas technologies can also offer an opportunity to tackle the waste management problem in the country and wood fuel conversion technologies such as wood stoves and brick kilns.” I think the reference to waste management must be about discarded agricultural matter. The rest of the statement is nebulous.

Interesting factoid: “In addition, biomass fuel trade employs close to 200,000 people and saves the country foreign exchange equivalent to $160m per annum in terms of oil products which would otherwise be imported.”

Is there anyone in Uganda who can comment on this story? Thanks!

We realize that not every stove and briquette program is viable until some serious “ground-truthing” has occurred.

But who, or what agency, does one turn to to carry out this work? What multi-lateral or development agency is spearheading the coordination of a global effort to ramp up the adoption of green technology and clean fuels for the Bottom Of the Pyramid? Does one have to go knocking on every agency or NGO door for support?

Every week we get several emails from all over the world asking for help in establishing a stove or briquettes program. From Burkina Faso, to Kenya, to Nicaragua, Malawi, and Laos, and it’s frustrating not to be able to help them with concrete steps or information. 

If the use of improved stoves and briquettes can significantly reduce the impact on public health, the environment, poverty, and climate change from inefficient biomass combustion, why is it then that it’s taking the development community so long to come up with a coordinated solution? Whatever the case, the energy poor need help and it’s not getting to them.

If you read this post and work for an international development agency, non-profit, or government that is active in addressing this problem, please contact us!

Thank you!!!

Kim & Nina

Uganda mudslide

(BBC) More than 300 people are feared dead after heavy rain caused a series of landslides in the mountainous eastern region of Bududa in Uganda. A trading centre in a village was flattened, leaving shops and houses buried under the mud, officials said. Rescuers are digging in the mud with hand-held tools as mechanical diggers cannot reach the affected villages. President Yoweri Museveni visited the affected area, and criticised residents for settling on a floodplain. The president also said the disaster could be partially blamed on local farmers for stripping the land of thick plant life. Some 86 deaths have been confirmed, with local officials saying at least 250 people remain missing. (More…)

Chad

N’DJAMENA, 16 January 2009 (IRIN) – A government ban on charcoal in the Chadian capital N’djamena has created what one observer called “explosive” conditions as families desperately seek the means to cook.

“As we speak women and children are on the outskirts of N’djamena scavenging for dead branches, cow dung or the occasional scrap of charcoal,” Merlin Totinon Nguébétan of the UN Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT) in Chad, told IRIN from the capital. “People cannot cook.”

“Women giving birth cannot even find a bit of charcoal to heat water for washing,” Céline Narmadji, with the Association of Women for Development in Chad, told IRIN.

Unions and other civil society groups say the government failed to prepare the population or make alternative household fuels available when it halted all transport of charcoal and cooking wood into the capital in December in a move, officials said, to protect the environment.

Charcoal is the sole source of household fuel for about 99 percent of Chadians, N’djamena residents told IRIN.

With the government blocking all entry of charcoal into N’djamena, and reportedly confiscating any found in the city, charcoal has become nearly impossible to come by, aid workers and residents said. And when it is found, a bag that used to cost about 6,000 CFA francs (US12) is now sold, clandestinely, at about four times that. (More)

Folks,

Following last week’s disaster, there’s a good chance that the number of people in Haiti depending on wood and charcoal for their every day needs has sky-rocketed from about 70% to close to 100%.

What’s more, the smashed infrastructure, including people’s home gas and electric stoves, will make it difficult to re-establish the electricity and natural gas supply to the few who depended on these higher forms of fuel. Compounding this situation is the reported exodus of people from the capital to the countryside where alternatives to wood and charcoal are probably non-existent. There’s a good chance that all these conditions will exponentially accelerate the clearing of Haiti’s remaining tree cover.

The good news is that our most recent post on Haiti shows there are a number of projects, individuals, and organizations that are ready to help address the dire energy needs of the afflicted Haitian population.

You can help by sharing information about your project or your interest in supporting practical, effective bioenergy solutions in Haiti.

We are especially interested in Haiti-based projects as well as any any other project that might be of relevance to the current situation there.

Please note that The Charcoal Project is not collecting, soliciting, or disbursing funds.

The Charcoal Project thanks you for your support!

Kim Chaix

The Charcoal Project

jkimchaix@charcoalproject.org

(+1) 917.378.8670