Mbembesi biogas champion encourages community-wide adoption
Image Source: Online
This Story Was Originally Published by Ingqanga Community Radio Station (92.4FM)
Epson Tshabalala, one of Mbembesi’s early biogas adopters, is encouraging fellow community members to embrace this sustainable energy source to enhance their social, economic, and environmental well-being.
Having installed a domestic biogas digester in his rural home in Mantanjeni village (Ward 3), Tshabalala has effectively utilised the sustainable energy source since 2021. The biogas is generated from cow dung or pig waste, replacing fuels such as firewood, and is being used for domestic energy needs such as cooking.
“When I started it, I wanted to see what kind of resources it needs and how it’s done. After I saw that it’s things I can afford, I then did the installations. I was also looking at Mbembesi where there is no firewood or any other source of energy for home use,” he said.
As a business person running multiple projects at a time, Tshabalala warns that one major challenge he has experienced is the lack of manual labour as he comes from a few-member household.
“If you do not feed into the bio digester, the gas also disappears. You need about three wheelbarrows per day. However, when there is labour, it’s something that can be efficient as you would be doing it in your household where you also have cattle readily available for the cow dung needed. If you have pigs, it’s an advantage as well because the consumption of pig waste is lesser than that of cattle.
Where you’re using three cow dung wheel barrows, you will be using two pig waste wheel barrows to feed into the digester. It’s something that you have in your homestead, and it doesn’t expire as well because it recharges itself, and you can even use the same manure in your garden,” he said.
Tshabalala highlighted that there is need for projects that can encourage mass adoption of such projects, as biogas could come in to elevate the livelihoods of community members.
“There is need to have programs that can encourage drive for such sustainable projects among the community, in a way that would ensure continuity and further development of the community and its members,” he said as he noted that there is also a possibility to conduct such projects but for generating income.
Currently, part of Zimbabwe’s vision 2030 is the agenda to promote rural industrialization which favours the integrating and leveraging sustainable energy solutions to power rural industries and improve rural livelihoods. Part of these sustainable energy sources include, solar energy, and biogas, something which speaks to the need to cascade such projects to grassroots communities.
As communities adopt biogas, they are addressing climate issues driven by the overuse of fossil fuels and natural resources, which have fuelled greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, soil degradation, and water pollution. Biogas as a result offers a clean, renewable alternative that reduces these impacts while improving household health, easing the workload for women and children, and lowering dependence on firewood in a way that builds more sustainable, climate-resilient communities.
