Introduce use of biogas as cheaper energy for cooking

Forests are very important to our lives. They are used as home to millions of a variety of species. They protect the soil from erosion. They produce oxygen which we need to live, and they store carbon dioxide which helps to control the climate.
Forests are also vital as they provide us with food, shelter, and medicines, to mention but a few.

They also purify the air we breathe and contribute to the formation of water in form of rain that we need to survive. It is, therefore, very important that everything possible is done to see how the earth’s surface continues to be covered with forests and trees as much as possible.

In 2001, the Ministry of Water, Land and Environment of Uganda, through the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), reported that the forest cover in Uganda was at about 21 per cent of the country’s total area eforestation: Two Makerere University lecturers in 2001 stated that deforestation was real in Uganda and they predicted that Uganda’s forest cover was going to be wiped out by 2040, if deforestation was not properly dealt with.

In 2004-2005, the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) reported that Uganda’s tropical high forest cover was reduced from 12.5 per cent of the total land area to only 3 per cent, a very drastic loss of forest. We do not know how far the forest cover has been reduced, with all the deforestation we see taking place all over the country.

In 2004, Nema said Forest land was lost as a result of more than 18 ways. It said using firewood as the only source of energy for cooking in the rural areas and charcoal for cooking in most urban and peri-urban areas are among the major causes of deforestation in Uganda.

Electricity is contributing only 1.4 per cent to the natural energy balance because most people in the rural areas find the electricity tariff too high. The same applies to many urban dwellers, who decided to use charcoal for cooking, because they also find electricity too expensive to use for cooking.

Deforestation has ushered in environmental problems that include soil degradation, water shade degradation, and food insecurity due to prolonged drought. There is rapidly changing and increasingly erratic weather patterns where rain do not fall when they are supposed to, and drought leaves many farmers struggling to find enough food to feed their families. Poor rains always result in famine.

Different animal species whose habitat is the forest get threatened and run away. Some start living close to human dwellings and this is what, to a large extent, has contributed to getting epidemics like Ebola, Murberg, Bird flu and Yellow fever.

Unless an easily accessible and affordable source of energy for cooking is introduced, especially to rural dwellers in this country, deforestation will continue until all available forests and trees are cut down to provide firewood and for production of charcoal. Already, there are areas that are witnessing severe shortage of firewood to use for cooking due absence of trees in the area. The climate in this country is also complaining bitterly.

Biogas: Worldwide, biogas technology (also known as capture technology), has been extensively deployed. In Europe, Germany is the biggest biogas producer. As a microbiologist, I strongly support this naturally propelled, reusable, clean and safe technology for producing energy for cooking.

Biogas is a mixture of gases produced by microorganisms (bacteria) when livestock manure like cow dung, pig waste, chicken droppings, and even human excreta and other biological wastes, are allowed to be broken down by the bacteria in absence of oxygen (anaerobically) in a closed container called a Digester.

The major constitution of biogas are methane (CH4) 60 per cent, carbon dioxide (CO2) about 35 per cent, with small amounts of water vapour, Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S); carbon monoxide (CO) and Nitrogen (N). These are the odourless and clean gases that are safely combustible and are used for cooking and lighting. The digested mixture of liquids and solids from the Digester, called bio-siurry and bio-sludge, are also very good for use as organic fertilisers for crops.
Biogas systems works very well in countries where people rear cattle.

In India, there are about three million biogas plants of different sizes supplying about 30 million households.
Government’s consideration: It is important, therefore, that government takes cognisant of these facts and start taking action in the direction of producing alternative cooking energy in rural areas with the help of biogas, a well researched and cheap renewable resource.

This requires sensitising the public about the benefits of using biogas. This technology should be adopted, not only at household level, but also in schools and even upcountry hospitals.
The trend of Private, Public Partnership, especially with countries that are already using biogas, almost routinely like India, China, Australia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Germany and so on, should be explored. This will bring about the shift we want to save the remaining forests and trees in Uganda before they are totally destroyed through firewood and charcoal use for cooking, among other causes.

Prof Kirya is a former vice chancellor Makerere University and former Uganda’s High
Commissioner to the United Kingdom.