European Union, Helvetas join forces to mitigate effects of climate change, abject poverty
The duo is implementing a project that is billed to save millions of hectares of forests and change lives of millions of rural dwellers.
TUESDAY November 5, 2024
By Patty Magubira
The Tranquility News Reporter, Tanzania
Hundreds of villagers in Morogoro Region are warding off both income poverty and impacts of climate change at the same time.
Thanks to Helvetas-Tanzania for equipping the villagers with skills for killing the two birds with one stone.
The villagers, mostly youth and women, are converting waste at their disposal into briquettes – high heat producing bricks that neither firewood nor charcoal can compete with.
Helvetas is through its community empowerment in sustainable management of forest products and renewable energy project imparting the briquette-making skills in Malinyi, Morogoro Rural, Mvomero and Ulanga districts in the region.
Twenty-five Lubungo villagers at Mikese Ward in Morogoro Rural District, for instance, do not regret teaming up into a rotating savings and credit group immediately after the six-month training the project, known as USEMINI in its Kiswahili acronym, organised.
The group members are now using manual machines USEMINI provided the group for producing about 250,000 briquettes with a combined weight of 195 kilograms a day, approximately fetching them Sh100,000.
“Owing to raw materials and operational costs being low, we are making profit,” said charcoal turned briquette trader Jumanne Mtayomba, 35.
He explained that the raw materials in use ranged from farm wastes to forest remnants including rice husks, sawdust, fibrous coconut husks and shells, corn stalks, bran and pruned tree twigs.
He expressed his gratitude to Helvetas through USEMINI and its partners for the training which, he said, would go a long way in saving millions of hectares of forests and changing lives of millions of people.
USEMINI liaises with Community Development and Relief Trust as well as Community Forest Conservation Network of Tanzania in training its targeted villagers in the project area.
“We currently sell the briquettes to food vendors and other villagers,” said Mtayomba, adding that the group had started receiving orders from as far as Dar es Salaam, Dodoma and Singida regions.
Unveiling his group’s plans, Mtayomba said they were attempting to expand the market by persuading learning institutions and prisons to replace firewood and charcoal with briquettes in a bid to save forests and avoid emissions.
The group also envisages buying electric machines valued at Sh2.5 million each to produce at least two tonnes of briquettes a day to meet demands of its growing market.
“We also intend to design and create packaging materials with a view of protecting and promoting the briquettes,” Mtayomba added.
Sifa Waziri, another group member, said a half kilogram of briquettes bought at Sh250 could cook beans and ugali for a family with an average of five members, while Sh700 worth charcoal was required for cooking the same meal.
Indeed, briquettes do not create smoke, suit or carbon deposits, and neither do they produce fly ash or emit gas or any other toxic chemical.
In fact, experts say briquettes are 40 per cent hotter and last longer than firewood or charcoal, attributing the efficiency to their low moisture and density.
The weight of biomass compacted into briquettes is reduced 10 times, making the bricks easier to store and transport.
Size, shape and density allow briquettes to be loaded, hauled for a long distance and unloaded at lower cost compared to firewood and charcoal.
While the European Union is contributing 90 per cent to USEMINI valued at over Euros 2.2 million, Helvetas is topping up the remaining 10 per cent.
Project Coordinator Daniel Kalimbiya said 10,000 villagers from 2,000 households would be equipped with the briquette making skills in the districts.
Owing to raw materials and operational costs being low, we are making profit,” Jumanne Mtayomba, rotating savings and credit group leader at Mikese on the outskirts of Morogo Municipality.
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” Kalimbiya quipped.
He explained that briquette making was but only one component of the three-year project that would also see five million trees planted upon its completion in 2026.
Why? According to the Global Forest Watch, in 2010, Morogoro Rural District alone had 560 hectares of trees covering over 45 per cent of its land area.
In 2023, the district lost 1.96 hectares of tree cover, equivalent to 699 kilotonnes of carbon emissions, to cultivation, grazing, settlements, and infrastructure development, among other usesΩ
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The Tranquility News Reporter/Sub Editor, Tanzania
Patty Magubira is an experienced environmental and business editor whose career started at the Tanzania's state-owned newspaper - The Daily News. He is a man of perfection. Aided by his extensive training as a community forestry expert before joining Tanzania School of Journalism. Magubira had successfully held various key posts in newsrooms, giving him an unmatched connections in media fraternity. Having worked as a bureau chief in Arusha and Mwanza, he managed to build a team work, boosting sales to the highest level ever. He was then promoted to a sub-editor after completing a training in Nairobi, Kenya. His incredible experience, critical thinking and exposure are critical to the quality of any media outlet.
