Towards biomass conservation

Through the Southern African Development Community Programme for Biomass Energy Conservation (SADC-ProBEC), the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) is supporting training of a cadre of metal fabricators and engineers in the region, to construct energy efficient and saving stoves. The programme targets lower income population groups in the protection of millions of hectares of the region’s forest resource, while ensuring social equity.

The ProBEC project is active in eight SADC countries; Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Recently, the ProBEC North-Zambia Project trained 13 regional entrepreneurs in production of improved “Rocket Cook Stove” in Zambia’s capital-Lusaka.

The principles behind the Rocket Stove was developed 20 years ago by Aprovecho Research Center in the United States with funding from Shell Foundation.The brazier is one of the most economical as it produces minimal carbon dioxide, making it safer for indoor cooking.

ProBEC North-Zambia Co-ordinator Ngula Mubonda says the five days training was the first of its kind in Zambia, although some countries in the region have been implementing the Project since 1998. For Zambia alone, the Project would gobble about Euro 135,000.

Biomass Energy is fuel derived from any living organism; traditionally it comprises wood, charcoal, dung and agricultural residues. Throughout the region, biofuels are burned in simple fires for food processing (cooking, baking, smoking) and for heating. Mubonda said there was need for households to adopt the use of energy efficient stoves in order to combat desertification.

“We all know that most households use firewood fuel for cooking and heating. “There is need to use this source of energy to ensure sustainability”, She said. Mubonda noted that although the technology was good for the environment, governments in the region should look into ways of empowering local people to access the facility, as it was too costly for the ordinary poor households. “We fear, for instance, in Zambia that the ordinary people might not afford the stoves. We need the new Energy Policy to provide for incentives in terms of tax relief or subsidies”, She said.

Statistics indicate that biomass fuels provide 80 per and more of the total energy consumption in many Southern African countries and they are likely to remain the primary source of energy in the foreseeable future. While biomass fuels have provided energy to humans since fire was first discovered, the use of biofuels can lead to negative environmental impacts when demand
outstrips supply.

Mubonda says the next series of training workshops would target women groups from all the nine Provinces of Zambia, in order to build capacity for them to produce clay stoves. “We know that women are good in the use of soils. So we hope a lot of groups will benefit”, She said.
Over-harvesting and inefficient burning contribute to deforestation, desertification, increased soil erosion and air pollution. Fuel shortages also put tremendous pressures on people's livelihoods as increasing time is spent searching for fuel.

Andi michel, of ProBEC-Malawi admits the efficiency of the Rocket Stove. “It spreads no ashes around your cooking area”, says Michel, a German Volunteer, working for GTZ-ProBEC in
Malawi.

Michel says experience in Malawi has shown that a half drum of cooking local pulp (Nshima) can use up to 170 kilogrammes of firewood on open fire during funerals or other community festivities, while the same quantity of “Nshima” can only use 14 kilogrammes when prepared on a Rocket Stove, accounting for 60 per cent energy efficiency.

On the training of stove producers by GTZ-ProBEC, Michel said : “We want to have a motivated Rocket Stove producers who will design and build the stoves for sustainable energy use”. Exposure to smoke from cooking fires is associated with Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) and other health impacts. Globally, indoor air pollution from biomass fires is estimated to cause 36 per cent of all lower respiratory infections and 22 per cent of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, accounting for 1.6 million premature deaths each year, according the World Health Organization (WHO).

The ProBEC project has benefited rural and urban households in the region, as well as small business and institutions that are now using g biomass energy for thermal processes.
One of the trainees, Arthur Chilewe of Mulenje in Malawi, said he was one of the first beneficiaries of the GTZ-ProBEC training in his country. Chilewe is now Proprietor of Ken Steel Engineering Company, which manufactures stove and geyser rockets, water tanks, bush bicycles, among other steel products.

Chilewe boasts that so far, he was the first Malawian to manufacture the Rocket Stove.
“I was trained with other Malawians, by a Canadian national Peter Scott, through the GTZ-ProBEC Project. “But so far, I’m the only one that has embraced the technology”, he said.
He notes that results from use of Rocket Stove show that such devices could lead to sustainable ‘kitchen management’ by poor families. Married with two children, Chilewe says he is now able
to support his household needs and has so far sold 310 pieces of stoves to various institutions, including the Maura Prison, which is host to more than 1,700 inmates.

Analysts say, given that in the foreseeable future biomass will remain the primary source of basic energy consumption for families and small businesses in most Southern African countries, it is of paramount importance that the available energy is being used in an environmentally sound and socially responsible way.

Blessing Kasiyandima, a 27-year-old Zimbabwean and one of the beneficiaries of the ProBEC training in Lusaka, says the entire SADC region is under threat of deforestation if authorities do not taken urgent action. Referring to SADC countries meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Kasiyandima called for the region to design strategies aimed at protecting the vast forest resources from depletion. “The problem of forest depletion is not only for Zimbabwe, but for the whole region”.

The Zambian government recognises the importance biomass energy conservation, as biomass contributes 80 per cent of the total energy consumption, according to the country’s Energy policy.
Acting Assistant Director for the Energy Department Geoffrey Musonda says there is need to use this source of energy efficiently to ensure sustainability in a country where about 350,000 hectares of forests are lost per year. “One of the ways of doing this is through the use of improved devises like the rocket stove. “Government realises that the task of promoting the use of improved stoves is gigantic, which will require the use of all resources and strategies at our proposal”, he said.