Embrace renewable energy

H-METRO

THE Environmental Management Agency (EMA), the Forestry Commission and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) are doing great work to curb deforestation by arresting those found on the wrong side of the law.

The three entities once launched “Operation Huni Dzapera”, a two-week joint blitz targeting urban areas where firewood selling businesses were rampant and continue working well together.

We need to stop cutting down trees in urban areas and in Zimbabwe as a whole.

Most people have switched to firewood as a source of energy since electricity is expensive. In rural areas, it’s the same. There are no other options to save trees.

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) once proclaimed that it would build 50 biogas digesters per year at rural institutions countrywide to reduce electricity costs and dependence on firewood.

That is the template we should be sticking to as a country.

It is no use arresting people for using firewood without providing them with alternatives.

People living in rural areas are fast running out of firewood and practical solutions to address the challenge are needed now.

Pilot projects have already been successfully carried out at different centres in the country and it is high time biogas is spread as an option.

Biogas and other renewable energy programmes might be the way to go.

With the abundance of livestock in rural areas, biogas would be easier to implement as it can be produced through any waste such as cow dung and human excreta.

Rural dwellers can now find ways to utilise the livestock waste they see lying around mostly pastures while also solving the deforestation problem that is fast turning into a menace in the country.

Instead of chopping down trees for firewood — which has led to overgrazing in most areas as the grass is left exposed after deforestation — people will worry less about energy as biogas can be used as fuel for lighting, cooking and heating.

These are the basic functions that rural dwellers use energy for and the fact that biogas can also be used for electricity generation, obviously depending on the availability of enough waste, is an added bonus.

While most people in rural areas have been using cow dung and other livestock waste as manure, they will be glad to know that they can still use the sludge that remains after the production of gas off the waste as organic fertiliser because it is rich in nitrogen.

Government needs to support such initiatives and promoting its use in schools, hospitals, farms as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels and fuel wood.