Bagamoyo Youth Pioneer to Influence Transition to Clean Energy Technologies by Fabricating Energy Saving Cooking Stoves.
Youth pioneer fabricating energy saving stoves in Kidomole village, Bagamoyo
Virtually 83% of the energy used for cooking and/or heating in Tanzania is biomass originated, mainly firewood and charcoal. According to the Tanzania Energy Access and Use Situation Survey (2020), 62.3% of Tanzania Mainland households remained national grid unelectrified where 76.6% of electrified households uses for lighting and only 0.8% for cooking purposes. It is estimated that only 5% of Tanzanians have access to clean energy solutions leaving the other 95% depending on non-clean energy solutions for lighting and cooking particularly firewood and charcoal. Thus, there is a need for deliberate initiatives to be undertaken by the government and other key stakeholders to promote the access and utilization of clean energy in the country.
In realization of this challenge, HIVOS, a Netherlands based organization and Climate Action Network Tanzania, a non and not for profit organization based in Tanzania are implementing the project under “Contextualizing the Bottom-up Approach on Influencing the Transition to Clean and Affordable Energy Systems in Tanzania” in Bagamoyo District. The project baseline study revealed 42% of the households in the district study areas of Makurunge and Kidomole villages are completely unaware on the potentials for the use of clean energy and that 91% of households rely on charcoal and firewood as the source of energy for cooking. Inline to such findings, CAN Tanzania together with the youth groups of Makurunge and Kidomole villages in Bagamoyo district organized local innovation training on energy efficiency and budgeted cooking stoves to steer and promote the necessity for a transition to clean and affordable energy technologies in the area.
The occurrence involved the fabrication of more than 20 energy efficiency and budgeted cooking stoves that intend to contribute to the efforts for reduced used firewood by 60% in the area. This training gathered 10 youth with gender ration of 6:4 boys and girls respectively and took place from 13th to 17th July 2020 at Kidomole village in Bagamoyo District.
The youth groups and CAN Tanzania aimed at utilizing the vent as a practical example to steer clean and low carbon-emitting energy solutions while saving the environment and/or forest through reduced firewood demands per household in the Bagamoyo District and likely to neighbourhood Districts and Regions.
Each of the fabricated stove reduced 60% of firewood formerly used by traditional cookstoves. All 10 trained youth already started planning to initiate long term initiative to continue fabricating of more energy-saving stoves for resale and thus earn income. This will contribute greatly to the reduction of firewood demands per household resulting in reduced firewood fetching pressures to natural and man-made forests and allow recovery of already destructed forests. Generally, the initiative shall reduce carbon emissions and thus contributing to Tanzania's NDCs implementation while strengthening binding to Paris agreement.
Government and relevant stakeholders are urged to integrate the initiative into their policy, plans and strategies to support this groups amplifying their initiatives so as to have wider and sustainable impacts particular to rural communities who solely rely on firewood and charcoal as their primary energy source for cooking.
By:
Climate Action Network Tanzania
P. O. Box 32900
Dar Es Salaam
Email: contact@cantz.or.tz
Website: www.cantz.or.tz