| Main knowledge bank page |
Recent additions |
Recent changes |
What links here |
Categories |
Category cloud How-to guides | Organisation profiles | Project profiles | ||||||||||||
Practical Action News edited by Lucy Stevens
[top] [end]Initial results from a study of energy use patterns in Kisumu Municipality reveal extent of the energy crisisIn the past year, Practical Action has developed a five-year strategic plan for its work in Eastern Africa. One of the four clusters for our work is the Lake Victoria basin, and in particular its rapidly growing urban and peri-urban areas. Our experience in the region, and our long-standing work on stoves and indoor air pollution there, told us that household energy needed to be a key part of that strategy. There are various reasons, including high levels of poverty including energy poverty, and the threatened environmental conditions of the riparian area and the Lake itself. Deforestation in the areas surrounding the town has been linked to both unsustainable agricultural practices, and the cutting of trees for fuel. In turn this causes siltation of the lake with damaging affects on its ecosystem including the fisheries on which many people depend.The City Development Strategy for Kisumu (2005) identified energy access for the poor as one of the city’s key urban management challenges. In the strategy itself, encouraging tree-planting and promoting energy-saving technologies were suggested as interventions to help reduce environmental impact. There was also support for enforcement of laws and regulations governing nature reserves and green spaces.
However, fuel sellers highlighted the difficulties they are now facing in sourcing supplies of wood and charcoal. This is partly due to high awareness of a new environmental act placing heavy restrictions on tree felling and charcoal burning. The recent post-election violence in Kisumu has also had an effect. Low income areas were the epicentres of violent confrontation between youths and the police. Lives and livelihoods were lost and people displaced. Movement of people and goods was affected and fuel scarcity increased again. As a result the cost of fuels has increased, with households spending an average of 32% of their income on fuel. For 40% of people, this has meant moving down the ‘energy ladder’ from gas to charcoal, or charcoal to wood. There was some encouragement, however, in the spread of improved technologies and awareness about the dangers of indoor air pollution. 84% of charcoal users cooked on improved charcoal jiko stoves and 45% of households said that they were worried about smoke and its health effects. The purpose of the study was to try to identify energy opportunities that might relieve the energy crisis for the poor, and not further damage the environment. Charcoal farming could be a viable option, and there is potential to exploit solar energy and pico-hydro (in the Kajulu Hills). At a more industrial scale there is potential for producing ethanol using by-products from the sugar industry. Overall, the study emphasised once again the links between poverty and energy poverty. It also raised questions about the complexity of the linkages between poverty, natural resource management, and energy use; and between urban and rural areas. Tackling energy poverty in this context will not be easy because large-scale changes are needed if any impact is to be felt on both the environment and energy access. However, this is a challenge we hope to start to learn more about and tackle in the coming years. [top] [end]News from the Washington International Renewable Energy ConferencePractical Action’s energy policy adviser, Teodoro Sanchez, attended the WIREC conference from 3-6 March 2008. This was the third ministerial-level conference on renewable energy following those held in Beijing in 2005 and Bonn in 2004. It was well attended, with Ministers from over 80 countries, 246 exhibitors in the trade exhibition and sponsorship from more than 40 companies. On the final day the conference was addressed by the President of the USA, George Bush. It was encouraging to see that renewable energy is gaining an ever-higher status. Our interest in renewable energy is focused on the broader question of how to increase energy access for the poor. One would have thought this topic would be raised in all three of the key themes: agriculture and rural development (a large focus on biofuels); technology research and development; and market adoption and finance. For all of these, particular tools and approaches are needed in relation to energy for the poor. However, the attention of delegates was focused elsewhere: on themes of energy security, and the threats of global warming. Energy access for the poor was almost completely neglected. Only the session on ‘Rural and Economic Development’ hosted with the participation of GVEP Interntional and the World Bank, talked about the problem, and this still at a very general level.Practical Action will continue to lobby and campaign for greater attention to energy access for the poor in the global debate. This conference served to underline how important, but how challenging that task is. [top] [end]Re-launch of e-net – the renewable energy network for South Asiawww.sa-energy.net
Online, once registered, users can post notices, join in with e-discussions, download articles and the magazine, and post requests for, or offers of support with technology. This edition of the magazine includes:
[top] [end]Publication: “Fuel for Free? Waste materials in Brick making” by Kelvin Mason, Practical Action Publishingwww.developmentbookshop.com
[top] [end]Practical AnswersPractical Answers was created to provide a means of accessing the wealth of technical information held by Practical Action. As well as Technical Briefs and other technical documents, it also includes:The Technical Enquiry Service supplying, free of charge, technical and developmental information to development workers, community-based organisations, NGOs and other agenciesusingappropriatetechnologiestoimplementsustainable development. Resource Centres based in the Practical Action offices, are open to the public and hold a distinctive collection of appropriate technology and development literature. Through Practical Action’s international network of enquiry services, we are able to call on the expertise of several hundred professionals in technical, economic, and sociological disciplines to help formulate the answers to enquiries -across our offices we receive and answer approximately 300 enquiries a year. We always try to supply information of direct relevance to the individual enquirer’s circumstances and will take into account the non-technical factors that might have a bearing on the use of the technology. Enquiries can me made online or through any of Practical Action’s international offices, see the website for a full list.
[top] [end]@HEDON
[top] [end]Download the original article Practical Action News (149 KB)[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 55 - Monitoring and Evaluation
Categories: Boiling Point 55| Monitoring and Evaluation | ||||||||||||
Page created:
23 June 2008; Last edited:
16 July 2008; Version: 2 | ||||||||||||
Pagename: BP55:PracticalActionNews @HEDON: NUJA | ||||||||||||
