Agency pushes for alternative energy

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS) is pushing for more investment in the production of briquettes and gas supply as alternative sources of energy to reduce use of charcoal.

The TFS chief executive officer, Prof Dos Santos Silayo, told The Citizen that they were currently in talks with the European Union (EU) and the World Bank (WB) to strategise on how to come up with an initiative that will ensure the supply of gas becomes affordable. “Currently, the project is at a vetting stage but if all goes well we will start using briquettes and natural gas next year,” he said.

This comes after the government announced early last year that it was planning to ban the transportation ofcharcoal from districts. It aims at phasing out the use of charcoal by 2025.

The country loses hundreds of thousands of hectares of pristine forest to charcoal traders and loggers at an alarming rate to feed in cities like Dar es Salaam.

Tanzania is one of the highest consumers of charcoal in the world. Two million tonnes of charcoal are consumed in Tanzania annually, with 50 per cent of that used in Dar es Salaam.

However, Prof Silayo said the government was yet to impose any ban so far but it was putting up strict controls aimed at ending the use of charcoal gradually.

“Until when we have substantial alternatives to our populations some levels of ban can be considered,” he stressed.

He said they have been trying to follow up bans in institutions like prisons, schools among others but they have not been successful especially as in such areas where the population is high and the only source of energy that is affordable is charcoal.

He stressed that most of the institutions have no capital to switch to other alternative sources of energy and that was why they were looking for investment to enable them come up with other alternatives.

Experts says wood is still used today in many parts of the world for cooking in many places, either in a stove or an open fire. It is also used as a fuel in many industrial processes, including smoking meat and making maple syrup.

As a sustainable energy source, wood fuel also remains viable for generating electricity in areas with easy access to forest products and by-products.