ALTHOUGH climate change has reduced economic growth across Africa and increased income inequality between African countries and those in northern hemisphere climates, Africa’s economies are currently said to be growing at an average rate of four percent per annum.
The IMF anticipates Zimbabwe’s economy to grow by just over two percent this current year.
However, access to reliable energy is a vital pre-requisite of economic and social development.
According to a report from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity the world faces today.
Be it for employment, security, climate change, food production or increasing incomes, access to energy for all is essential.
Sustainable energy is an opportunity too, as it fuels lives, economies and the planet.
For millennia, wood was used as fuel to meet humanity’s basic needs for cooking, lighting and heating.
Today, wood is still used as fuel (firewood and charcoal) and accounts for around 10 percent of the global energy supply.
In many parts of the developing world, particularly in remote communities, wood still dominates energy provision.
For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, over 90 percent of the population relies on wood fuels.
With continual urbanisation, the demand for charcoal in recent years has increased by three percent from 2000 to 2010; over the same period firewood consumption grew by one percent a year.
In 2007, the charcoal industry in sub-Saharan Africa was estimated to be worth over US$8 billion, employing more than seven million people.
By 2030, the market is predicted to exceed US$12 billion, employing 12 million people.
However, unsustainable charcoal production in rural areas is one of the major causes of forest degradation in these areas, leading to biodiversity loss and ultimately economic regression.
The current negative impact of charcoal production is likely to increase with urbanisation and population growth.
In 2010, about 590 million African people, or 57 percent of the continent’s population, still had no access to electricity and 700 million or 68 percent of the population were living without clean cooking facilities. If current energy access trends continue, in 2030, 655 million people in Africa, or 42 percent of the population, will still be without access to power, and 56 percent of the population (866 million people) without clean cooking facilities.
Current research suggests 1,4 billion people, or over 20 percent of the global population, lack access to electricity, and that at least 2,7 billion people – some 40 percent of the global population — rely on the traditional use of biomass for cooking (firewood and charcoal).
The lack of reliable clean sustainable energy has deprived the majority of the African population the opportunity to pursue a healthy and productive life. The expected increase in the demand of charcoal could have significantly negative impact on tree cover in dry forests, with all the associated degradation and climate change impact.
It is thus imperative that other more sustainable fuel sources are found along with moves to support sustainable charcoal production for developing countries, including Zimbabwe, and their rural communities.
According to the International Energy Agency, by 2030, 1,2 billion people will still lack access to electricity – 87 percent in rural areas, including in Zimbabwe where the Government has a rural electrification programme.
The number of people relying on the traditional use of biomass for cooking is anticipated to rise to 2,8 billion in 2030, 82 percent of them in rural areas — with many being long distances from national grids — will face specific sustainable development and energy challenges, including lack of access to electricity as well as reliable clean cooking facilities.
By 2050, Africa is estimated to be home to at least two billion people; 40 percent are estimated to live in rural areas.
Africa’s rapidly growing cities will be hotspots of risks from climate change and climate-induced urbanisation, which could amplify pre-existing stresses related to poverty, informality, social and economic exclusion and access to electricity.
Although Africans are currently estimated to consume only one quarter of the global average energy per capita — using a mix of hydropower, fossil fuels and biomass mostly in traditional uses — providing access to electricity for all would require only an additional 900 terawatt hour (TWh) over 20 years.
This amount corresponds to one year of current additional global power consumption.
Sustaining growth and leveraging Africa’s considerable natural assets and human capital for the benefit of the population will only be possible if fuelled by a greater and better performing energy sector.
In Zimbabwe, hydropower from Kariba has contributed a significant proportion to the country’s electricity generation since the late 1950s.
The first skip of concrete for the main double-curvature dam wall was poured in 1955 by the then Federal Prime Minister Lord Malvern.
Repeated episodes of drought in recent years, coupled with changing rainfall patterns within the country, have led to the decrease in water levels in Zimbabwe’s main lake, Kariba, to below 30 percent.
Hydropower is highly sensitive to droughts and land degradation, as both can affect water level and water flow, even up to a complete dry-up, and thus affect electricity plant productivity.
This has seriously affected power generation in Zimbabwe during recent droughts, as water flows dropped, with both economic and environmental costs.
Hydropower can be complex and can bring a range of economic, social and environmental risks if not carried out correctly.
It can be run on a small or even micro level with subsequently less environmental impact.
Micro hydropower development is a proven, attractive and economically promising resource, especially in remote parts of the world lacking huge investment capacities.
Hydropower works best if the land is healthy.
For instance, while drought as a natural phenomenon cannot be prevented, it can be better managed — preventing land degradation.
If land is healthy, it can store water.
A fully functional hectare of soil can hold 3 750 tonnes of water.
Sustainable land management can restore soil health and offers cost-effective and flexible solutions for hydropower supply by decreasing the sediment yield and hedging against the negative impact of water shortage or run-off.
Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant. She is a published author in her field.
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