Zambia Statistical Agency (ZamStat) highlights that 54.3% households in the country use firewood, 28.7% use charcoal and only 16.8% use electricity for cooking. In terms of rurality usage, 81% of households use firewood for their cooking. This shows the amount of pressure on forests for our energy sustainance. Trees are either cut for firewood or turned into charcoal at a larger scale to meet our energy needs.
Our demand for charcoal results into 250-300, 000 hectares of forest loss yearly. Power outages exacerbate the cutting of trees for charcoal. The charcoal economy revolves around charcoal banners, transporters, charcoal sellers and consumers/users. Each of these clusters contribute to the destruction of our biodiversity, which accelerates climate change.
Inadequate alternative sources of energy push the demand for charcoal higher. Our energy mix requires massive investment and adoption for our forests to be safeguarded. We risk creating massive desserts due to endless large cutting of trees for charcoal burning to meet the demand for the product.
The cost of alternative sources of energy is not helping in adopting alternative sources of energy. Removal of duty and tax on solar products did not helped in making these energy sources more affordable by the majority. Solar energy has thus remained the preserve of the wellup in society.
A simple solar system for lighting costs a fortune for majority citizens. For example, a solar panel for 300w is around K2, 500 whilst the batteries are around K5, 500 each. An inverter around K2, 500. This is a huge budget for most households.
Whatever efforts have been put into making solar energy systems affordable by removing duty/VAT have not helped. More should be done to reduce the cost for most citizens to afford solar energy for their usage. Mindset change activities are also required to increase adoption of sustainable energy solutions. Some households treasure charcoal so much they want to stick to it for cooking beans, offals, animal hooves and boiling dry fish. There are arguments that dry fish/beans tastes better when prepared on charcoal. The ennvironmental implications of getting the charcoal are often not factored into the thinking metrics.
Environmental issues are often distant from many people's minds. Some think climate change is an alien issue coined by others to champion something they do not understand what it is really. Yet we have seen our rainfall pattern reducing from about 6 months to half (3 months) or less. We are falling on each other to plant early maturing seedings for example maize to fit into the new rainfall pattern. We have seen increasing in heatwaves and extremely cold weather patterns depending on where we live, which signify changes in the climate.
However much we distance ourselves from realities of climate change, the loss o trees speaks volumes about depleting natural foods like mopani words, mushrooms, honey and others. When it comes to energy, we need adequate investment into our energy mix to ensure we have adequate clean energy and win off majority citizens from charcoal. Rural electrification should be enhanced and connection fees made affordable as a strategic step to shade off charcoal users. Mitigating climate change calls for collective, deliberate and pragmatic actions to actualize eco-friendly behaviours and lifestyles.
Investment in solar farms, wind energy and additional hydropower stations in the northern region where rains are mor intense would help increase our energy capacity to supply every household and industries. Independent power producers require favourable conditions to attract them into the energy sector.
What happens to those who survive on the charcoal economy? Do we throw them under the bridge? Deliberate strategies are needed to integrate them into the green energy mix. For example, smart energy solutions wisdom recommends creating value chains where charcoal banners, transporters and sellers can be fitted for sustainable weaning them off charcoal.
In areas where cooking pellets are used as an alternative source of energy, charcoal banners can be suppliers of raw materials in pellets making such as groundnut shells, maize stock shells, shrub growing (silviculture) for pellet making or grass supplier to makers of pellets. Transporters and sellers of charcoal can become part of the value chain and earn a living.
Biodigester making can bring into the economy a number of players. These would include dry cow dung suppliers, transporters and sellers to household biodigester users for energy. The alternative energy system can create an entry point for everyone to earn a living without being left behind. We cannot bury our heads in the sand anymore whilst forests are lost to the charcoal economy. One day we will wake up being a desert. Rains will be hard to see as trappers of clouds will be gone as charcoal for our cooking needs.
Our ecosystem is a living being that requires protection for it to sustain our lives. What we give our environment determines what it is able to give us in return. When we distablize our environment, it fails to meet our needs for us to live a good life. It will nolonger supply us with fresh air, natural herbs and foods, underground water, rains and other life supporting requirements. We cannot do without environmental protection. We must act now before it is completely too late.
Our dam (Kariba) is already failing to supply us with enough water to generate power throughout the year due to poor rains recorded some rainy seasons. Climate change has contributed to low rainfall recorded over the years in the country. Loss forests are contributors to poor rainfall. More loss of the forests entails more rainfall challenges ahead.
Human actions largely contribute to climate change in many ways such as loss of water recharge points as we cut or change use of forests, loss of water catchment areas for our sources of water or loss of trees for rains. By simple explanation, when trees transpire, they add moisture to the air, which makes the air saturated faster to bring rains. Without trees, rainfall stability is not assured. Caterpillars and honey will be equally lost without trees. Nature and humans require stable co-existence for our good.
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