Yet the geography and climate make it ideal for renewable energy systems that can provide marginalised people from rural communities with the hand up they need to fight their way out of poverty.
International development charity Practical Action, which operates its Southern Africa programme out of Harare, works with such communities across the country providing people with the tools, opportunity and support they need to change their lives for the better.
The Eastern Highlands, close to the border with Mozambique, provide the perfect terrain for small-scale micro-hydro systems, harnessing the power of water to generate electricity for entire communities.
The country’s climate makes solar power a very viable energy option. Through the use of photovoltaic panels, water pumps can be constructed in drought-stricken areas to draw water from a 100 metre deep well, providing clean safe water for communities and reducing the likelihood of water-borne diseases.
Wind power
Wind power can also transform lives. The implementation of small-scale wind turbines to provide electricity for homes and schools has huge impacts on the education of children in rural areas and can also provide energy to enable people to earn a living through agro-processing and powering mechanical or carpentry workshops.
Practical Action works to implement schemes such as these throughout Zimbabwe, helping people access energy through appropriate, decentralised solutions that they can operate and sustain long after the charity has left.
Practical Action’s approach is unique in that it works to empower communities, not just provide them with handouts. Typically, the organisation will provide tools, training and materials for communities that will then undertake the labour and construction of schemes themselves, making the operation cheaper for them and giving them a sense of ownership and responsibility for their own destinies.
Once such schemes have been constructed, management is handed over to the community and members will become responsible for running and maintaining the project, ensuring its sustainability and safeguarding the security of future generations.
Practical Action is an international development charity with a difference, working together with some of the world’s poorest women, men and children, helping to alleviate poverty in the developing world through the innovative use of technology. – Mupunga is regional director, Practical Action Southern Africa. For more information visit www.practicalaction.org.
Energy for All by 2030 is achievable
2012 has been declared the UN Year of Sustainable Energy for All. This is an opportunity to remove the climate blinkers from the energy debate and build support for energy access to reduce poverty. Right now, Practical Action needs people to call on the EC Development Commissioner, the man in charge of the biggest development budget in the world, to commit to the goal of Energy for All by 2030.
You can sign up to the campaign here; www.practicalaction.org/makethecall.
The target of universal energy access by 2030 is attainable. We have the technology. We have the opportunity. We need champions to drive the energy access to the top of the international development agenda.
Over the coming weeks I will look at each of the energy solutions mentioned above in more detail, highlighting the impacts of these schemes on the people of Zimbabwe and demonstrating how energy access for all is eminently achievable.
Post published in: Environment