Only 10 percent of Rwanda's population of over 10 million is connected to the national electricity grid
GASABO, Rwanda (AlertNet) - Mix three buckets of cow dung with an equal amount of water - that's the recipe Francine Musanabera follows on a daily basis to produce the energy she needs to run her home.
"It gives me two hours of gaslight and six hours of cooking gas every day," says the schoolteacher. She was one of the first people in Rwanda to equip her property with a biogas installation, which converts methane from decomposing animal waste into power.
Over 90 percent of Rwandans still cook using wood, charcoal or kerosene. These fuels pollute the environment and deplete the country's forests.
The government had hoped to help 15,000 households set up biogas installations by 2012, but has put back that ambitious target to 2015. Today, almost 1,000 homes have one.
"It requires a big investment for the average family," explains Erik van Waveren of the Dutch development organisation SNV, which has an advising role in the government biogas project.
Each installation costs nearly $1,300, with the government providing a subsidy of a little over $500. Households can do it more cheaply by supplying the sand and stones for building the underground receptacle, and helping construct it themselves. They can also take out a special low-interest bank loan.
Only 10 percent of Rwanda's population of over 10 million is connected to the national electricity grid.
At Francine Musanabera's modest house in Gasabo, 30 km south of the capital Kigali, the power cables run straight over her little garden where the biogas installation abuts a small cow shed containing two animals.
In this village, no one is connected to the grid. "Too expensive," says Musanabera.
'LIFE-CHANGING' INVESTMENT
Village households that own cattle, as well as families living on the outskirts of cities, are required by the government to practice "zero grazing" - where animals are fed cut grass and other crops rather than grazing on land directly.
The policy is an attempt to control soil erosion in the mountainous country. The loss of fertile soil washed away by rains has been identified as one of the major threats to Rwanda's food security.
The government enforces zero grazing strictly, slapping a fine of $50 on owners of any animal found wandering free in villages.
"Zero grazing also prevents conflicts with the neighbours. Cattle often nibble at the crops of other villagers and it always causes problems," explains Musanabera. Her ducks and chicken stay behind a closed gate, and her goat is tethered to a little shed that offers some shade.
The teacher had to think twice about investing in a biogas installation on her small plot. "It involved a lot of money. But now three years later I am so glad I did it. It changed our lives," she says.
"My children can study at night and do not have to inhale the bad fumes of kerosene lamps. I save money because I hardly need to buy kerosene and charcoal for cooking. And biogas makes cooking so much faster."
Another benefit is the liquid fertiliser obtained at the end of the biogas generation process. Musanabera uses it on her small vegetable garden where she grows beans, bananas and tomatoes.
"The yield of my garden has almost doubled since I've been using the fertiliser," she says. "So I also save because I have to buy less food in the market."
PUTTING METHANE TO GOOD USE
The government has launched an advertising campaign to raise awareness about the possibilities of biogas. Though Rwanda is a small country, most people in remote areas have no idea about this green source of energy, nor the financial help the government is offering them to start producing it.
The easy part is having the livestock required to produce the biogas. Cows are at the centre of Rwanda's social life. They are considered superior presents, and used as dowry gifts.
Traditionally, wealth was measured by the number of cows a person owned, and that is still the case in some parts of the country.
Under a government scheme, each poor family receives one cow, of which the first calf must be donated to another poor neighbour. The aim has been to put people back on the path to prosperity after the destruction of the 1994 genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. A further objective is to heal damaged social relations among the traumatised population.
But after researchers established that livestock herds are a major producer of the greenhouse gas methane through their digestive processes, the government has been trying to limit the country's cow population.
One solution is to channel the planet-warming methane they emit into the new biogas installations to produce much-needed energy.
Rwanda's biogas project not only supplies power but is also creating jobs. SNV has trained nearly 500 people who can now build and maintain the installations. Most of them work for one of the 60 small companies that have specialised in biogas in recent years.
And the Rwandan government isn't limiting itself to small-scale production involving cow dung. Human waste is also being used in several big biogas installations in prisons.
These generate enough gas to cook for the inmates, as well as fertiliser for the vegetable gardens that supply a major proportion of their food. Besides cutting the cost of running the prisons, the biogas installations dispose of the sewage from large, concentrated groups of residents, which could otherwise pose a health hazard.
Ilona Eveleens is a freelance writer based in Nairobi.
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