Refugee camps run out of charcoal, firewood

Kampala- The Office of the Prime Minister has warned that refugee camps, particularly those hosting South Sudanese in the West Nile region, may cease having cooking fuel in the next three years if nothing is done to rejuvenate the environment there.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Apollo Kazungu, the commissioner for refugees in the OPM, said the influx of refugees into the Rhino and Bidi Bidi resettlement camps in West Nile, has caused a lot of environmental degradation because of competition for natural resources.

Survey
“A baseline survey conducted by Food and Agriculture Organisation shows that average fuel consumption per individual is 2.5kg and at this rate it means that 952tons of wood is consumed in the camp every day which means 347,000 tons every year,” he said, adding that should this be the case, the camps will not have any more fuel in two to three years.

Mr Kazungu’s comments follow the entry of another 7,000 refugees from DR Congo into Uganda last week who were resettled at Kyaka II Refugee Camp and in Kisoro following an outbreak of war in Eastern DR Congo where the Uganda People’s Defence Forces reportedly bombarded Allied Democratic Forces rebels who are said to have been regrouping there.

According to Mr Kazungu in Bidi Bidi camp where 240,000 refugees are resettled, there is scarcity of wood fuel and they are now encouraging the refugees to use energy efficient stoves and abandon the three stone cooking stoves which consume a lot of firewood.

“It is about mindset change, they should use improved cook stoves which are energy efficient. It is unfortunate that as the situation is changing in South Sudan, we have more refugees coming from DR Congo,” he said.

Asked what they are doing to reverse impacts of deforestation in the country, Mr Paul Mafabi, the director environmental affairs at the Ministry of Water and Environment, said they are continuing with the national reforestation programme.

He, however, warned that it is not something where Ugandans should expect immediate results because to get a forest canopy requires a period of 15 to 20 years.

“The trees are growing but you cannot have that investment immediately but what we can do in the meantime is to encourage people to use energy efficient cook stoves and cooking materials like briquettes,” he said.
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