An eventful Saturday

Today has been a busy and productive day! This morning, Kimario took Natalie, Melea and me to the local office of TaTEDO, the Tanzania Traditional Energy Development Organization. We met with an environmental engineer who had a lot to tell us about their work. He voiced his concern that energy policy in Tanzania is well organized at the national level but not at the district level, something that TaTEDO hopes to help change. We learned about several sustainable development projects run by TaTEDO. They are working to spread the use of fuel efficient stoves that can cut firewood and charcoal needs by as much as 50%. Electricity is very expensive to install and use, so most people stick with traditional fuels. Unfortunately, gathering firewood and producing charcoal leads to deforestation and other environmental problems.

TaTEDO also helps teach people in villages how to produce charcoal more efficiently so that less biomass is required. Another project involves biodiesel and fuel from the jatropha plant, which can be used to generate electricity. They hope to scale up, although it is difficult to find willing entrepreneurs for such technologies. He agreed that biogas technology like ours can save a lot of time and fuel for communities.

After TaTEDO, we went to the AJISO office (Action for Justice in Society) where we spoke with Virginia Calist Silayo, a director there. AJISO provides legal aid to those who could not otherwise afford it. She said that many problems involve land rights. For example, people may plant trees but not have the rights to the produce of the land. There are also many gender inequities that AJISO works to correct. Traditionally, it is common for men to farm coffee and women to farm vegetables. Because coffee is more profitable, this gives the men control of a disproportionate share of family income. This income is often distributed inequitably. AJISO tries to educate people about the laws regarding such circumstances. We also learned about how environmental issues affect women the most (e.g., when girls are responsible for cooking dinner after they get home late from school). We should be able to get more information on environmental policy from AJISO next week.

After a highly satisfying lunch, Kimario took us to his office at TRETA. A solar technician there gave us a demonstration of the solar and LED technology he is working on. They sell a solar PV system that can power four LED panels after a day's charge. For TSh 8,000 (about $7), Natalie and Melea purchased one of the LED lights for their suite at Brown this year... they are very excited.

~Adam