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Rural Electrification To End Deforestation 

by Bustop TV News

By Lerato Ndlovu

The fight to lessen widespread environmental degradation and deforestation issues affecting Zimbabwe is achievable if government intensifies its rural electrification drive. 

Recently the African Commission at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow warned that up to 118 million extremely poor people in the African continent will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat by 2030 with the rate at which deforestation is taking place and no measures are taken.

Deforestation through veld fires and chopping down trees results in the emission of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming and eventually climate change.

An estimated 15% of global greenhouse gasses around the world still come from deforestation and land degradation,  Africa is said to be responsible for 3% of the emissions and remains vulnerable to global warming.

Ellen Chipango in her research paper says, “ the crux of the problem is that the policy makers believe that deforestation is a threat to the economy, while on the other hand the ordinary citizens believe that environmental degradation is an outcome of the ongoing political and economic situation.

 “Policy makers therefore believe that deforestation can be addressed by increased electrification. A political ecological framework is needed to address rural energy needs and deforestation, only when underlying factors are addressed will interventions such as rural electrification and renewable energy technologies have an impact.”

For Zimbabwe the electrical grid is sparse and a facade especially in the rural setups, hence leading to a number of households relying on firewood due to high costs of gas, coal, solar and electricity, for some it is because of agricultural purposes such as the treatment of tobacco.

The rate of deforestation witnessed in communities has resulted in environment, agriculture and health experts calling for campaigns on afforestation and rural electrification .

In Tobacco producing districts, thousands of indigenous trees have been cut, as they are the accessible alternative source of energy.

Speaking at a tree planting ceremony recently in Nyabira under Zvimba East Constituency, area legislator, Tawanda Tungamirai pleaded for the power utility Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to consider advancing the electrification drive so as to conserve the environment. 

“There is extensive tree cutting in and around the area with most being used as a source of energy and curing tobacco. Farmers in this area have been offered coal as an alternative for tobacco curing, but they have remained skeptical of the results it will produce,” he said. “We plead with REA to also consider electrifying all rural areas so as to save trees, mostly the indigenous ones”. 

Mashonaland West Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Mary Mliswa-Chikoka said her province has a lot of farmers and rural communities that need to adopt other sources of energy including liquid petroleum, biogas and solar for cooking in order to protect the climate and environment. 

“Mashonaland West is an agro-based province, with a number of tobacco farmers who cut down trees for curing their crop but do not consider planting new ones to replace the ones they would have harvested.

“There is also need for the rural communities to consider using new sources of energy and making follow ups on when their areas will be electrified so that they desist from cutting trees for energy and cooking purposes, recently we had mudslides in Kariba with rocks and mud being loosened from the empty mountains due to abnormal rains and unavailability of trees due to deforestation,” she said. 

She added: “Last month President Mnangagwa was in Glasgow where he joined the rest of the world’s leaders in coming up with ideas to address climate change which is emanating from how we treat the environment. Tobacco farmers should invest in solar and electric powered tobacco barns that are eco-friendly.’

Forestry commission Mashonaland West provincial head, Pardon Mukudo said the province joined the rest of the nation in commemorating tree-planting-day with this year’s tree, Muchekecha / ihabahaba or Monkey-bread being promoted for its nutritional value for people and animals. 

“The tree has some important ecological and economic value, its bark is used to make dye, the tree has deep root systems which help prevent soil erosion and improves soil fertility and the fruit has a high nutritious value,” he said. “ We urge communities to also plant trees, and replace those they would have cut down so as to protect our environment and our indigenous trees from extinction.”

REA has the Rural Electrification Fund (REF) which has electrified 9760 institutions (health facilities, schools, business centers, villages) countrywide.

REF board chair, Willard Chiwewe said the fund has made contributions in providing electricity in rural communities as per their target.

“REF has made significant contributions in providing electricity to rural communities as per our target to achieve our vision of universal access to modern energy services by all rural communities by 2030.

“REF will speed up the process of electrifying rural areas by using both grid and solar technologies so as to contribute towards the attainment of the national vision.”

‘This article was produced with the financial support of WAN-IFRA Media Freedom. Its contents are the sole responsibility of <Lerato Ndlovu/BustopTV> and do not necessarily reflect the views of the WAN-IFRA Media Freedom,WAN-IFRA FR, or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.’

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