Providing your own power and water sources

You have left work early, having finished your assignments ahead of time, and dash home to catch up with your favourite TV series or to watch every minute of that do-or-die football match. On making it through the traffic jam, potholes and road diversions, you reach home and find that while you were away, those people from Umeme paid you a visit and left a disconnection notice.

As the reality of spending the next few nights in darkness as you sort out the issues of getting the power back on sinks in, those people in blue overalls from National Water add to your misery with another disconnection notice because they want a “zero balance” on your account.

Practical
On the way to work, you are probably wondering if there is a way of not having to pay these utility bills but still have electricity and water in your home. Yes, it is not only possible but also practical and you do not have to do anything illegal. This is what is referred to as “going off the grid”.

Living off the grid refers to not being connected to public utilities or having to rely on them in a way that the house is self-sufficient. Though it varies in the degree to which a home is off these public amenities, a true off-grid house is able to operate totally independent of all utility services.

It is usually a matter of choice not of circumstances like the many houses especially that do not have electricity or piped water because they are not accessible to the facilities. According to the 2012 Statistical Abstract from Uganda Bureau of Statistics, only 23 towns are supplied with metered water by National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC).

In fact many Ugandans have not even had the chance and may not have the chance to get on to the grid. Worldwide, it is estimated that such people who are involuntarily off the grid number up to 1.7 billion. In Sub-Saharan Africa, World Bank research puts the figure at 90 per cent of the rural population and 74 per cent of the total population who lack access to electricity.

Gaining popularity
So, living off the grid even when you can get access to the services would be a matter of choice, for either reasons like saving the environment by reducing your carbon print or as a way to reduce costs and save money that would otherwise be used to pay for power and water. This lifestyle has developed into a niche area in the developed countries like US and Australia where it is gaining popularity for the altruistic reasons than cost-saving reasons.

In US, the number of families living off the grid had been increasing at a rate of 33 per cent over a decade and by 2007, it was assumed that there were 250,000 off-grid households, according to Home Power magazine .
Referring to the possibility in Australia, British architects Brenda and Robert Vale said, “It is quite possible in all parts of Australia to construct a ‘house with no bills’, which would be comfortable without heating and cooling, which would make its own electricity, collect its own water and deal with its own waste...”
So, what would be the options for electricity or water supply and waste management if one went off the grid in any part of Uganda, whether urban or rural?

Most of the electricity supplied to the national grid in Uganda is through hydro-power generation, which is supplemented by thermal generation from diesel and heavy fuels. This accounts for over 90 per cent of the power generated on grid.

Basic options for home power
Solar energy would probably the best alternative to consider in powering a home off the grid. This is because it is well distributed and high throughout the year. Though it is obviously the highest along the Equator, which runs across the western, central and eastern regions, sunshine varies up to a maximum of 20 per cent from place to place away from the Equator.

Figures from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development show the radiation ranges from 5-6 kilowatt hours (kWh) per square metre daily in the flater areas and lesser in areas that tend to have more cloudy weather. It explains why it is higher in north eastern Uganda than in the hilly areas of the southwestern part. This translates that if your home is in Moroto, Kasese, Tororo or Hoima, you consider solar energy as a sole source of power the home than in places like Kabale, Fort Portal or Mbale.

But the figures indicate that with appropriate technology, the availability of solar power in Uganda is sufficient for cooking, heating, refrigeration, lighting and telecommunications. Its increasing use in homes not only has the potential to reduce demand on national grid-based power but also would reduce the negative impacts caused by reliance on biomass resources such as charcoal and firewood.

The solar edge
The advantages as compared to hydro-power include no monthly bills, ready availability so it is not affected by loadshedding or disconnection, greater safety and fewer risks. A study by National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) on the viability of solar energy in Uganda, showed that purchase and installation would cost up to Shs3m with annual servicing of Shs10,000. This was compared with getting on the grid may set you back about Shs600,000 for purchase and installation but with monthly bills continuously raising the costs. So, even if the initial cost of the latter is initially lower, over the longer term of, say, five years, it will be higher than Shs3m that would have been used to install solar power.

Off-the-grid water supply
For water supply for an off-the-grid home, the best option is to look to the skies. Uganda is endowed with abundant rainfall. Most of the country receives an annual rainfall of at least 100cm. The highest is 162 cm in areas like the central and western regions which receive the most, to the northeast, where it is only 69 cm. According to some estimates, a flat roof on a building 100 litres of water with 30 minutes of rain and a Ugandan household can use up to 75 litres for its various needs in a day.

Savings
With a 10,000-litre plastic tank, the average household can use this amount over 133 days, that is slightly more than four months. Such a tank costs Shs950,000, if the household is spending even Shs10,000 per month on water, those are savings of Shs120,000 every year. In eight years, the cost of the tank will have been recouped but there are other benefits that will have accrued over the same period of time like not having to pay water bills. Is that not a relief?

Dealing with waste
One of the functions that NWSC also carries out is management of sewerage. This can also be handled off grid with a little discipline in dealing with human waste from the household. Already many homes in the urban areas have both a flush toilet and a pit latrine as a way to regulate or save water used in the toilet.

In the place of the pit latrine, the option can be an ecosan toilet or compost toilet, which does not have the challenges of the traditional pit latrine. These challenges include filling up or the deep pit collapsing. Also, because the depth of the pit latrine, there is risk of contamination of ground water, which may be tapped to supply the home through a borehole.

Ecosan stands for ecological sanitation, a school of thought and a form of technology which looks at human waste and wastewater as an opportunity. The ecosan toilet comprises one or two chambers, a pit that does not exceed two metres deep which is sealed with concrete to prevent contact between excreta and soil, a separate pipe for urine, and a vent pipe to trap flies and other insects, and lids on the side, front or back to remove the composted matter.

There are several designs but all use composting as a way to break the waste—that is use of bacteria that thrive at high temperatures to oxidise (break down) the waste into its components. The compost can be used for manure if the home has a farm or can be sold to those in need of it. The materials and construction costs can amount up to Shs1m. The advantage here is that it also an avenue to earn income, which shortens the period that the initial cost is recouped.

At a total of Shs5m to install solar power and water-harvesting and water-saving technologies in your home, you can buy your freedom from the national grid. Now, you will be catching that favourite series or that football match on TV without the worry of loadshedding or turning on the tap and finding no water.

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