Transcript 12Aug2016_GENDER CCSA_Sustainable Energy Solutions for Low

The Biogas Digester as an
alternative technology for
Low Income House Holds
Paper presented at the GDARD Climate Change Forum
12 August - 2016
By Bertha Chiroro (GenderCCSA)
GenderCCSA Work with Women

GenderCCSA – Women for Climate Justice is part of the international
network GenderCC which is a global network of women and gender activists
and experts from all world regions working for gender and climate justice.

GenderCCSA has been working on different projects that focuses on working
with women's groups in rural communities of the North-West, Limpopo, Western
Cape and some peri-urban parts of Gauteng province, and in Mozambique and
Zimbabwe by training and capacitating small scale farmers and rolling out
alternative energy sources in the form of biogas digesters, that uses cow dung
and organic waste, the use of Solar PV and water conservation methods and
sustainable farming methods, and marketing of food and herb processing to
enhance the livelihoods of communities whilst addressing the water energy
and food security crisis for most households living in poverty.
GenderCCSA work with Women and the use of
Alternative Renewable Energy Sources

GenderCCSA as part of its work on Improving Climate Change Resilience has been working
with different donors such as the EU and Oxfam since 2014 and the NCA since 2015 and
women to ensure that women have access to renewable energy access as part of its drive to
ensure that women adapt to climate change.

Biogas Digesters have been installed at different sites at Risenga Primary School in Siyandhani
Village, Giyani, Nwajaheni Primary School, Nwamitwa Village in Tzaneen, The Green Park
informal Settlement and at Founders Educare Centre, Makhaza Khayelitsha in the city of Cape
Town as part of the EU- Oxfam Funded Project on “ The Sustainable Use of Natural
Resources to Improve Resilience In South Africa: A Grassroots women’s Initiative” Which
has led to the installation of a biogas digesters, water tanks and dripline systems, and
established food Gardens to ensure food security for communities living in poverty.

GenderCCSA has also worked with women to install a biogas Digester (Funded By the NCA) at
the Green House Environmental Centre, (Where there regional offices are based) a
demonstration site to showcase green technologies and enterprises development where
everyone is welcome to come in and learn and see the difference that Green Technologies
can do and that the Biogas Digester can indeed change people’s lives and can be used
effectively to provide renewable energy for cooking, and heating by any modern household.
The Sustainable Livelihoods Project

An EU funded project implemented by GenderCC
Southern Africa (GenderCCSA) and Earthlife Africa JHB
(ELA-JHB) in partnership with Oxfam.

The project aims to provide women with skills to manage
and use natural resources to adapt and cope with the
effects of climate change.

Women are key in implementing the project/ finding
solutions to challenges/ playing a leadership role.
Project Main Goals

To reduce the amount of time women spend looking for
water and doing household work. That could allow women
the time for other activities such as income generating
activities

To provide clean energy options by installing, and training
women to maintain, and use biogas digesters and solar
power units (PV systems).

To provide supplementary training on sustainable farming
practices to assist the women with their food gardens.
Organisational Structures
 Community
Working Group (CWG)

Each project site has a Community Working Group (CWG)
made up of beneficiaries, members of community-based
organisations, community leaders and others who are
interested in saving the environment from the effects of
climate change.

Project Champions.
Learning and Engagement

Participatory Community Engagement

Learn and build methodology at the
sites

Food, energy and water security are
inter-dependent

Communities need to be active
participants to create ownership

Rural communities have the capacity
to manage their own resource supply
and consumption if the process is right

Water Tanks for Rain Water Harvesting
What is a biogas digester
•
Biogas is a clean and renewable energy source which is an
airtight container or bag
•
A biogas digester has an inlet and an outlet for the mixture of
cow dung or kitchen waste and water- connected with a gas pipe
which connects the gas to the kitchen
•
Bacteria in cow dung produces methane gas through anaerobic
digestion ( meaning the absence of oxygen)
•
Production and use of biogas contributes to Avoiding global
warming and deforestation; Job‐creation; Improved health; and
Agricultural production.
What is a biogas digester
How the biogas works
Advantages of biogas
•
Best used for cooking, heating, and lighting
•
20kg of organic material and 20 litres of water
•
Very suitable for rural households ( with cattle to collect
cow dung)
•
Bio slurry –consists of the organic material- a good organic
fertiliser for an organic food garden
•
There is no smell or smoke when cooking with biogas
unlike when you use wood or paraffin, no smoke which is
bad for your health, lungs or blood
•
Biogas contributes to avoiding deforestation as it
replaces wood
Advantages of Biogas digester for
women
•
Job creation as biogas construction, and maintenance
enables people to earn an income
•
Provides clean and renewable energy
•
Reduces the time that women spend looking for fire wood
and saves them time to engage in other developmental
activities, such as herb processing, and other sustainable
livelihoods.
•
Improved health because women do not have to inhale
smoke from open fires and reduced diseases
Healthy Food Gardens without chemicals