VIDEO: 91pc of Dar residents use charcoal as source of energy; report

Kilosa. Even as Dar es Salaam is the main consumer of the country’s electricity, yet 91 per cent of its residents continue to use charcoal as the main source of energy for cooking purposes.

Given the ever growing population of Dar es Salaam, the amount of charcoal consumed is so large that it is now threatening to wipe out forests in neighbouring regions, a climate issues advocacy organisation said at the weekend.

Known as the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG), it is implementing a project called Transforming Tanzania's Charcoal Sector Project (TTCSP) aimed at bringing sustainable development and benefits to rural communities through enhanced environment providing efficient production technologies and biomass energy.

Speaking in Kilosa District, Morogoro Region, on Friday, February 23, during a workshop to increase journalists’ understanding on key issues in participatory forest management (PFM) and the way sustainable charcoal production could be integrated into the community based forest management, (CBFM), TTCSP project manager Charles Leonard called upon for the government to act.

“Since charcoal is a major source of energy for most urban dwellers, the government should design a friendly way of harvesting the forests to replace the existing one,” he said.

“At least 96 per cent of Tanzanian households use charcoal and firewood for cooking and heating purposes. Besides, the country lacks a charcoal policy, even as the sector contributes a huge amount of money in terms of levies,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr Leonard said the government was losing at least Sh220 billion annuallydue to lack of charcoal policy.

He noted that charcoal banning did not provide answers to the threat of deforestation, instead other sustainable means should be found.

According to him, 2.3 tonnes of charcoal are used in the country annually, which come from natural forests and that 400,000 hectares of forests are depleted over deforestation which is equivalent to three times an area of Dar es Salaam.