8/18/2019 Environment Reporting: 1st place- Conan Businge,
Gerald Tenywa and Saudha Nakandha, New Vision
2/2
MWALIMU 30 NEW VISION, Wednesday, May 27, 2015 NEW VISION,
Wednes
It is midday and a truck full offirewood passes through the
gateheading to the kitchen at Buddo SS,in Mpigi district. The same
truckmakes 12 routes to this school perterm to deliver firewood, to
be usedin the school kitchen.
Lawrence Muwonge, the Buddo SS schoolproprietor with a
population of 2,000students, says he spends about sh4m perterm on
firewood.
His counterpart Coltilda Kikomeko, whoheads the neighbouring
Trinity College,Nabbingo, says she spends sh650,000 oneach of the
seven truckloads of firewood,the school uses per term totalling
sh4.6m.The school student population is 1,300.See graphic for other
schools.
Schools have become a big factor inthe country’s deforestation.
Of the 23,534 primary and secondary schools inthe country, 80%
(18,827 schools), relyon firewood for cooking as per
educationministry statistics. At an average of sixtruckloads per
school per term, all the
schools combined consume up to 338,890truckloads of firewood
annually, theequivalent of 10 Mabira forests razed downper year.
Mabira forest reserve is about30,000 hectares. If universities and
othertertiary institutions are factored in, thenthe situation is
much dire. Educationalinstitutions alone could therefore,
beindirectly contributing for up to a third ofthe 92,000 hectares
of forest cover lost inUganda annually.
In 1990, Uganda’s forest cover wasestimated at 4.9 million
hectares covering24% of the total land area.
WHY CARE?
Forests act as catchment areas for riversand lakes and also
participate in the rainmaking process. This means they are keyto
hydro-power generation, fisheries andalso support the rain-fed
agriculture ina country like Uganda. The forests alsoprovide
habitats for wildlife and tourism.
“The destruction of forests meansdestruction of the economy
andundermining our own survival,” saidNicholas Senyonjo, the
executive directorof Uganda Environment EducationFoundation.
Schools should not be destroying trees forfirewood for cooking.
The use of improvedcooking stoves is one step to reducefuelwood,
but they could also switch tobiogas tapped from the pit
latrines.
“We need to restore the degraded forestsand also plant trees to
meet present andfuture needs,”said Senyonjo.
Schools EATING
Uganda’s forests
GENERAL CRISIS
Firewood and charcoal are still the mostcommonly used sources of
energy for
cooking, even in Ugandan households. According to the
Uganda NationalHousehold Survey Report 2009/2010, up to95% of the
households still used wood fuel.
The State of Environment Report 2008,indicated that by 2005,
forests had reducedto about 3.7 hectares (18%) of the total
landarea of Uganda. This indicates a loss ofabout one quarter of
the country’s forest treecover in less than two decades. Apart
from schools, residents in urban
areas use charcoal more than firewood. At present, because
of the national energycrisis, demand/consumption for firewood
inUganda is estimated to be growing at a rateof 3% per annum.
But the use of charcoal hurts theenvironment much more than
firewood. Thisis because of the wasteful burning of wood tomake
even one bag of charcoal.
Currently, charcoal burning has causeddepletion of stocks of
trees in Nakasongoladistrict. As a result, charcoal burners
haveshifted to Kiboga, Kyakwanzi and northernUganda, which were not
known forproducing charcoal.
HIGH ELECTRICITY COSTS
The high cost of electricity makes it inevitablefor schools to
rely on fuelwood for cooking.
While schools do not readily have how muchthey would have paid
if using electricityfor cooking, their spend on lighting
speaksvolumes, for instance, Kings College Budospends sh8m on
electricity monthly forlighting only. Gayaza high parts with
sh8mmonthly, Jinja SS sh6m and Busoga College
Mwiri sh4m. The cost of power for lightingis just a fraction of
that used for heatingor cooking.
SOLUTIONS
The battle against forest destruction isbeing showcased at St.
Balikuddembeand Kojja secondary schools in Mukonodistrict. The two
schools still use firewood,but use improved cooking technology
aswell, that has cut down fuel usage.
This has not only helped them reduceforest destruction, but they
have also savedmoney, which they have ploughed intoother
interventions at the school.
“The schools have realised that they wereburning money,”says
Nicholas Senyonjo,the executive director of the UgandaEnvironment
Education Foundation(UEEF), an NGO.
“The expenditure on wood has drasticallyreduced at these
schools.”
He also pointed out that the schools haveplanted trees meaning
that they will nothave to destroy natural forests, which arerich in
biological diversity and are alsoprotecting catchment areas.
Stephen Ssemakula of UEEF, saysthe schools have benefitted
fromfunding provided by the United NationsDevelopment Programme,
through UEEF.
“The investment is about sh3.5m forconstruction of institutional
stoves for 600
students, and the benefits are immense,”he told
Mwalimu .In the case of Kojja Secondary School,
expenditure on firewood has reducedfrom sh720,000 to only
sh240,000 everyterm. The school has invested part of themoney to
plant eucalyptus trees.
“The cooking stoves are harder to light,compared to the
traditional three-stonecooking places,”explains Ssemakula.
Trinity College Nabbingo’s Kikomeko says:“It is costly to build
a biogas plant to serveenergy for this whole school. That wouldhave
been a great alternative, but costly toventure into.”
Other alternatives, according to Dr. Henry
Busulwa, one of the founders of NamilyangoHigh School, include
harnessing of pit-latrines, which emit a lot of methane alsoknown
as bio-gas. According to Busulwa, the paramount
interest is to nurture the thinking and skillsof students by
demonstrating how ecologicalsystems work. When the students leave
thisschool, they will be better policy-makers andchange agents.
“Students spend a long time at school andwhat they learn can
never be forgotten. Thisis the reason why we have set up this
school-to engage them in active participation,” saidBusulwa.
“You can only influence people if youpractice what you preach,”
says RichardKimbowa, the head of Uganda Coalition forSustainable
Development.
He says teachers should take up suchconservation interventions
and that fielddays should be encouraged for their studentsto
influence the wider community.
The schools could also change to solarlighting systems since
electricity is expensive,according to Kimbowa. Asked about
interventions such as a
government policy to ensure that schoolsbecome responsible in
the use of energy,Patrick Ssempala, a principal educationofficer at
the education ministry, in chargeof environment, gender and HIV,
responded:“We have no details on this issue.”
Compiled by Gerald Tenywa, ConanBusinge and Saudah Nakandi
Data from the Uganda Bureau
of Statistics show that only 9%of all households in Uganda
useimproved charcoal or rewoodstoves.
The improved cookingtechnologies are constructedusing micah,
cement and speciallydesigned bricks. The improvedinstitutional cook
stoves have aninsulated combustion chamber withhigh thermal
efciency and reducecooking timeconsiderably,besidesminimising
risksof burns whencooking.
The equipmentemits littlesmoke througha chimney thatdirects
thesmoke outsidethe kitchen,thus reducingexposure tohealth risks
whenin use.
“The improved cooking stovesshould be properly constructedso
that they produce expectedresults over a long period of
time,”explains Ssemakula.
“They collapse after a short timeif they are not constructed
withthe right materials or with poor
workmanship,” h
Studies indicatreduce biomass by up to 50%.
According to Jordinator of GeoNFA, there shouconservation of
“There should without an imprstove. We also hmatter in
school
of ignorance. Thonly be produceand overlook thetoilets,” he
says
“But we need tproblem of chanthe people. If wethe
environment
ALTERNATIVES TO FIREWOOD
Although the available technologies could greatlyreduce
the consumption of charcoal, schools haveshunned them. “The initial
cost of constructing theimproved cooking stoves is high,” says
Ssemakula.He says especially poor rural schools cannot affordthe
alternatives.
He also blames bureaucracy in government-aidedschools, where
decisions take long to be made and
the responsible people have to engage in
endlessconsultations.
“Unless the responsible person is reallyinterested, you will
never get such an initiative offthe ground,”says Ssemakula.
The attitude of the cook also matters. There arecases where
improved cooking technologies havenot been implemented because the
school cookswant to avoid the laborious process of lighting firein
the improved cooking stoves.
Way Forward
Improved cooking stov
Not long ago, Uganda’s forest cover was estimatedat 4.9 million
hectares, covering 24% of the total
land area. However, human activities have reducedthis to just
18%, and educational institutions have
not been left out as a major contributor. Someacademic
institutions consume as much as 12truckloads of wood per term, to
cook for their
students, further worsening the already vulnerablesituation,
write Vision Reporters
Pupils of St. Jude PrimarKampala, lining up for foois a pile of
rewood. Envirschools to use alternativetheir massive
consumptiopromoting deforestation
An in-built alternative cookingstove that uses little
wood.Experts hope schools can adaptto using such stoves to
protectforests
G R A P H I C B Y T I M O T H Y K A T U R A M U
338,890
