ACRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Ghana is making significant gains in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through fuel substitution with improvements in the operational efficiency of the country’s electricity distribution system.
Villages, towns and communities are gradually substituting the use of wood fuel with electricity, according to the Deputy Minister of Energy, William Owuraku Aidoo.
This, he says, is the impact of grid expansion works carried out under the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP) as well as the Productive Uses of Electricity (PUE) activities initiated by the government.
“I am happy to note that the project has also assisted this transition to a low-carbon economy through the development of renewable energy for the expansion of access to electricity, where economically justified,” he said at the launch of the GEDAP in Kumasi.
Wood fuel is a very important energy source for Ghanaian, especially in rural households who depend on it for cooking and for small-scale processing activities.
With an annual consumption of wood fuel estimated at 16million m3, forests and wildlife are under stress of illegal logging, charcoal burning, wildfire and unsustainable farming activities.
These have climate change impacts that lead to the drying up of water bodies, land degradation and other environmental devastation.
Mr. Owuraku Aidoo says the GEDAP has the global environmental objective of supporting Ghana’s transition to a low carbon economy through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
He noted the four project objectives of the project has significantly been met, including electricity access and renewable energy development, sector and institutional development, distribution improvement, and transmission system upgrade.
The Project’s development objective is to improve the operational efficiency of the electricity distribution system and increase the population’s access to electricity.
Implementation of the $210million project funded under the Global Environmental Facility started in 2007 and ends in 2019.
DOUALA, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - An initiative by a group of Cameroon youths to produce eco-friendly charcoal made from biodegradable household waste is not only helping to fight against mangrove deforestation in the coastal town of Douala, the economic capital, but has also reduced deadly floods and high youth unemployment.
According to Kemit Ecology, a non-governmental organization run by young people, the group uses household waste such as maize husks, banana and plantain peelings, fish scales, sugar cane peels and other bio-degradable waste to produce and sell 100% eco-friendly charcoal that replaces the growing demand for wood for cooking or heating.
“Producing charcoal from household waste to save the forest is an enriching experience for us,” Says Muller Tankeu Nandou, coordinator of Kemit Ecology.
The organisation says it has a group of over 100 youths employed to collect household waste from homes, markets and street gutters.
Some households supporting the idea also prefer to deposit their waste directly at the production site of the organisation.
Apart from employing youths, the organisation supplies bio-degradable coal to thousands of women selling coal in different markets in Douala and other towns in the country thus keeping women who otherwise would have been idle active.
“We work most with market women and housholds who are very collaborative,” Muller says.
The material gathered is later sorted, dried, compacted and burned to make charcoal. The organisation says its efforts are already helping to protect the mangrove forest and reduce the rate of floods in some parts of the city.
Environment experts say the coastal mangrove forest that has suffered over-exploitation and reduced by half over the last 20 years now have some respite since the project started some four years ago.
“There have been overuse and often illegal use of the forest by the growing population in Douala. Saving especially the coastal mangrove forest has become crucial,” says Samuel Nguiffo CEO of Centre for Environment and Development, an NGO that defends the rights of forest people in Cameroon.
With sensitization from the Douala city councils working in partnership with Kemit Ecology the fishing community and thousands of households in the over 3 million population in the city that hitherto used wood for drying fish and cooking are increasingly switching over to use eco-friendly coal, officials of Kemit Ecology say.
The team says it has considerably expanded production since they started in 2014. In 2014, they manually produced 12 tonnes of charcoal. Now, they have machinery and a factory, and, by 2016, had increased to 37 tonnes produced and sold per year . They envisage producing over 200 tonnes of charcoal per year by 2020.
A kilogram of eco-friendly charcoal sells at 300 fcfa, far lower than that of wood charcoal selling at 450 fcfa.
“One can save up to 25% and 40% of the money spent on firewood and charcoal respectively and above 50%with gas and electricity,” says Abu Wilson, commercial manager of Kemit Ecology
.
Using eco-friendly charcoal saves the environment in two ways he says.
“First, they are an alternative to firewood and charcoal. Secondly, the technology has increased agricultural waste utilisation, hence a cleaner environment,” says Abu.
Consumers say they prefer the eco-friendly charcoal that produces more heat and less smoke.
“I am at ease with eco-friendly charcoal because it cooks faster and produces less smoke,” says Agnes Ebai who runs a restaurant in Douala.
The initiative by Kemit Ecology has won both national and international acclaim. The project in November 2016 was recognized at the COP22 Climate Change conference in Morocco, winning the Young Green Entrepreneur category of the Climate Initiatives award.
According to the ministry of trade, annual consumption of charcoal exceeded 300,000 tonnes in 2016 in Cameroon with supply coming mostly from wood in the forest, thus the need to encourage more production of eco-friendly charcoal to meet demand and protect forest.
Government says the initiative by the team should be encouraged and replicated to other regions where forest is highly threatened.
“Initiatives to protect the environment and fight especially youth unemployment should be encouraged and supported by the government,” says Sale Solomon, chief of service in the programmes department in the ministry of trade.
The head of Kemit Ecology says one of their biggest challenge is to have the appropriate waste material supply on a daily bases.
They are thus working in partnership with the local councils, households, fishermen and fish market women, business owners in market places where they distributing bags for collection of only biodegradable waste.
“We have thus partnered with different stakeholders, shopkeepers in some markets in the city,fruit vendors who are supplying banana plantain peelings and other waste from fruits and food items for Kemit Ecology,” Muller says.
The youths driving the project say they are looking towards the future with optimism
“For us, the urgency is to provide a solution to the vulnerable growing population the mangrove area in Douala and save the forest is capital,” the project leader says.
As floods and pollution wreak havoc on a key industry, prompting visitors to stay away, fishermen and businesses in Limbe fear not only the sea but also the future. PAMACC's Elias Ntungwe Ngalame reports
LIMBE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Sitting in front of his plank house in Batoke Limbe, a coastal village in Cameroon’s South-west region, Ngeme John , 45 arranges his boat and net in readiness for the day’s early morning catch.
But the planned expedition won’t take place on the fishing spot around his village, as it used to. Just 2km away, the formerly coastal fresh air now smells of gasoline and petroleum spills.
The silence of the surrounding mangrove forest is broken by the honking and rumbling of patrol tankers and heavy duty trucks.
He stares vacantly at the rolling sea, struggling to hold back the tears in the eyes in desperation.
"I have lived here for over 25 years, but never experienced this type of polluted environment before ," says John, a fisher man in Batoke some 5 KM away from Mile six a renowned tourist beach in Limbe.
Marine pollution along the coastal town of Limbe stretching through Douala in Cameroon has continued to surge in recent years .
As a result, John now must venture about 30km away from home to fish.
He and the entire fishing community along the coast complain their livelihood have been destroyed by the disaster. Environmentalists are sounding the death knell too.
“This petroleum exploitation project has made life perilous for us,” John said . “The polluted waters have scared all the fish. We are obliged to go fishing far away, where we can find something to eat and earn some income to send our children to school ,”he explained.
The Cameroon government says it is touting oil resource exploitation in the shores of Limbe as part of the country’s ambitious plans towards an emerging economy by 2035.
The country’s lone National Oil Refinery, known by its French Acronym as SONARA, in 2014 invested FCFA 620 billion to facilitate the refining of locally produced crude oil ,according to the ministry of mines and energy. The project now permits the company to refine 100 percent of crude oil produced in Cameroon up from just 10% before 2014.
The government says the project has scaled up production capacity from 2,100,000 tons to 3,500,000 tons.
“The oil refining project has stepped up petroleum production in the country »,said Gaston Eloundou, Minister of water and Energy resources.
Environment expert say the project is key driver to maritime pollution with accidental crude oil leakage from drilling ,oil transporting ships and ruptured pipelines.
According Bio-resource Centre, an NGO on environment in Cameroon – the Limbe coastal city and surrounding villages is slowly swallowed by repeated floods and water pollution exposing the population to multiple environmental hazards. The Mile Six Beach is regularly covered with spilled oil and the black volcanic sand has been decolorised to brown.
« In some parts of flooded area, only the tops of houses and trees are seen emerging from the water , » says Augustine Njamnshi , CEO of Bio-resource centre. He blamed the persistent floods on the claring of mangrove forest along the shores.
« Mangrove forests along the coast are crucial to protecting the shoreline and mitigating damage from storms and high seas, » says Samuel Nguiffo of the Centre for Environment and Development in Cameroon, an NGO that deals with forest and land issues.
The protection of marine ecosystems and the maritime environment is important not only for aquatic life but also the health of residents in coastal communities, health officials say.
« Air and water pollution bring respiratory, heart, eyesight, skin diseases, leading to death, » says Dr Joyce Ebenson of the Buea district hospital.
But the company has dismissed claims of sea water pollution, saying it soil drilling are in compliance with the law and environmental norms
“These allegations are simply perpetrated by some of our detractors,” said Blascius Ngome, the public relations director of the company.
The company however admitted pollution from gas emissions in the oil refining process but noted this is sufficiently carried to acceptable higher levels in the atmosphere.
In an earlier press statement , the general manager of the company, Ibrahim Talba Mallah, said the company’s expansion efforts is also geared at addressing a “dire humanitarian need in the immediate environment”, easing local unemployment and also supporting the local council’s fight against climate disasters.
Home to some 6 million people, Limbe and Douala, two Cameroon’s biggest coastal cities have in recent years suffered from deadly floods and related water borne epidemics.
"We are having persistent floods in these coastal areas making business really difficult, »said the government delegate to the Limbe city council Andrew Motanga.
« Last year the floods were so heavy that many families, mostly children and mothers who found refuge on rooftops, were rescued from the deluge by the army’s fire fighting brigade,” he explained.
Officials of the Cameroon National Red Cross say natural disasters in the Southwest region and Limbe in particular has increased in the past 10years.
« Climate change is already wrecking havoc and oil spills only come to aggravate matters, » said Sophia Namondo of the Cameroon Red Cross, Limbe chapter.
Business and tourism down
Local Council authorities say the exquisite sandy beach flanked by greeneries of mangrove forest has gradually disappeared.
« The ecological attraction and volcanic sand believed to possess magic powers from Mount Fako is increasingly disappearing. Our visitors for picnicking, sunbath and and consumers of fresh fish are no longer coming,’ » said Andrew.
« The fishes, the fishermen and tourists are going away, » he said, shaking his head in apparent frustration.
Statistics from Limbe’s city council show that tourist visits to the region in 2017dropped by more than 60% compared with three years before.
For Keneth Doh a bar restaurant owner in Ngeme village and other vendors, tourist guides, the shrinking and stinking coast is a complete disaster to their livelihoods.
"The decline in the number of customers in our restaurants is affecting our business , » said Keneth.
Mary Dione, owner of a roasted fish and seafood restaurant, estimates her business is down by 50 percent due to the disappearance of customers at the beach.
"When customers come and feel very uncomfortable with the gasoline stench, they go somewhere else," Mary said.
« I have been doing this business here for over 25 years. My life and that of my family is here, where do I go from here, »she wonders.
SOLUTION
Local Council authorities say they are carrying out weekly cleaning and have resumed tree planting along the coast. The council is looking to raise funds to do more beach cleaning work in hopes of making the area attractive again, Andrew Mutanga said.
The first step to protecting the shore line from extreme weather could be through major reforestation efforts, experts say.
“A tree-planting project by the local council with support from the government is necessary along the entire coastline,” Samuel Nguiffo says.
« When local councils are empowered they can better combat the effects of climate change and pollution, »he adds.
GULU, Uganda (PAMACC News) - Massive animal translocation is taking place in Northern Uganda as hundreds of nomadic pastoralists comply with a presidential decree evicting them from the region.
On October 20th last year, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni directed the ministry of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries to evict the nomads from northern Uganda for among others interfering with food security of the people of northern Uganda. The President also wrote that the nomads threaten the peace of the north and the economy by practicing obsolete farming method. He tasked the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal industry and fisheries to introduce the nomads to sedentary forms of agriculture, paddocking and coffee growing.
The presidential decree followed repeated calls for eviction by host communities who accused the nomads of grazing their livestock in their subsistence farms after failing to fence off their hired pieces of land. Other accusations include sexual harassment of women, engaging in illegal charcoal business, theft of animals and illegal possession of firearms as well as land grabbing amongst others.
At least twenty trucks laden with cows belonging to the Balaalo leave the region for Central and South Western Uganda where the pastoralists initially lived with their animals since the ministry of agriculture started implementing the decree on March 22nd. The decree affects more than 40,000 herds of cattle in the hands of more than 30 groups of nomads estimated to number some 15,000 people.
Edward Kamgaene, a pastoralist herding 200 cows in a rented area of Amuru district says government is not being fair to them by asking them to leave the north of the country within just few days.
“Government has been shifting the goal post all along. Initially we were told to fence our grazing land and stay. But today, we are being told to process movement permits, vaccinate our animals and leave. This is totally a different thing we were told to do earlier. How can this possible within a short time we have been given?” Kamagaene said with anger in his face.
Kamgaene says his livelihoods depend on pastoralism in which he fattens animals before selling them to abattoirs in Capital Kampala. He is worried that he will not be able to fend for his family without practicing pastoralism.
Kamagaene is one of the thousands of nomads who fled acute shortage of pastures and water in 2016 from South Western Uganda migrating up north to fatten his livestock in vast open savannah grassland inhabited by the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups. He says he is stuck with his livestock after learning that his home district is under quarantine due to Foot and Mouth disease.
“I have 100 cows in Nwoya district which I should move to Kyankwanzi district via the districts of Nakasongola and Nakaseke and yet these districts are under quarantine for Foot and Mouth disease. How can I go to these districts to pick movement permits without infecting my animals? How can I take my animals where there is a running quarantine?” Festus Shaka Mutabazi, a pastoralist from Nwoya district stated furiously.
Fred Munyeragwe borrowed a loan of 70 Million shillings for establishing his livestock project. He fattens his animal before selling them for money. He is so worried that he will lose his business alongside the land in Kiboga district he used as security to secure a bank loan if evicted from Northern Uganda.
“The government wants to make us poor. You tell us to work and feed our families. Again you come to disrupt our livelihoods. The pasture back in my home district is still dry and we need an average of two months if we are to relocate back. We don’t need to be pushed as if we are at war with the local community. We are not. Tell those government leaders to give us two more months to prepare ourselves and we move to where we are coming from” he pleaded with government.
Majority of the pastoralists, locally known as the Balaalo, come from the Ankole Cattle Keepers of South Western Uganda. According to President Museveni, some of them were expelled from Tanzania and Rwanda for practicing nomadism.
They started migrating with their animals on trucks in the dead of night without proper animal movement permits from their districts in 2009 to fatten their livestock on leased pieces of land in the north where vast uncultivated land, abundant fresh water streams and adequate green nutritious pasture exist. By 2016, their numbers had increased to more than 25,000 pastoralists with more than 40,000 herds of cattle.
Speaking with the nomads in Gulu (the Northern Uganda region’s biggest business hub) one week ahead of the eviction deadline, Vincent Ssempijja, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries said government would like to end nomadism in Uganda due to increase in human population. He warned that government will not hesitate to use force against the pastoralists who would not comply with the presidential directive to leave the region.
Ssempijja says “there is looming insecurity between the pastoralists and other people who do not want peace. We have decided here that we abide by the directive of the president to get the nomads out of this area. So we are giving it up to March 22 and everybody should have moved the cows from the northern part of this country”.
The eviction delayed three consecutive times to allow the pastoralists vaccinate their livestock against Foot and Mouth disease. The agriculture minister says the vaccination exercise suffered multiple delays due to shortage of vaccine.
“Initially, we could not vaccinate all the livestock we projected after we received only half of the consignment of vaccines we ordered for. Fortunately, the other half has reached the country and we are hopeful that it will be adequate to vaccinate all the remaining animals within the shortest possible time. In every fairness, everybody must accept to stop nomadism. It has caused a lot of problems in South Western Uganda. Animal diseases are so rampant” he stated one week to the commencement of the evictio.
In Gulu district, some 1,000 out of estimated 5,000 cows were vaccinated while in Amuru district, only 5,000 out of estimated 14,000 animals got vaccinated.
Patrick Okello Oryema, the Nwoya district chairperson where the nomads first settled says on average, seven large Lorries laden with cattle belonging to the pastoralists continue to leave his district daily for central and South Western Uganda.
Dr. Charles Obalim, Gulu district veterinary officer says many of the Balaalo shunned the vaccination programme saying government wants to harm their livestock.
“We initially targeted cattle belonging to the Balaalo pastoralists without those of their host communities. This was not well received by the pastoralists but we are telling them that cattle belonging to host communities were just recently vaccinated against foot and mouth disease. And I would like to reiterate that the vaccines are completely safe”
