MWALIMU

NEW VISION, Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Schools eating
Ugandas forests
PAGES 30 & 31

PARENTING

INNOVATION

EDUCATION

Reading with your child

Seguyas solar power play

Oil sector only for the skilled

The modern childs aversion to reading is a real concern for

many. But what role can parents play in introducing their
children to books and general knowledge? Bob Kisiki has a
few ideas Page 28

After university, Sseguya ventured into agriculture, but the

major challenge was keeping his fruits fresh. His challenge
birthed the idea of cold rooms, powered by solar energy. He
now plans to build storage warehouses. Page 32

The booming oil sector has raised hope for many Ugandans
seeking employment. However, with the white-collar job
mentality, experts warn that there may be no place for the
university graduate in the oil business. Page 33

New Vision

MATTERS IN EDUCATION

30 NEW VISION, Wednesday, May 27, 2015

MWALIMU

NEW VISION, Wednesday, May 27, 2015

31

Schools EATING
Ugandas forests

WHY CARE?
Forests act as catchment areas for rivers
and lakes and also participate in the rain
making process. This means they are key
to hydro-power generation, fisheries and
also support the rain-fed agriculture in
a country like Uganda. The forests also
provide habitats for wildlife and tourism.
The destruction of forests means
destruction of the economy and
undermining our own survival, said
Nicholas Senyonjo, the executive director
of Uganda Environment Education
Foundation.
Schools should not be destroying trees for
firewood for cooking. The use of improved
cooking stoves is one step to reduce
fuelwood, but they could also switch to
biogas tapped from the pit latrines.
We need to restore the degraded forests
and also plant trees to meet present and
future needs, said Senyonjo.

Not long ago, Ugandas forest cover was estimated

at 4.9 million hectares, covering 24% of the total
land area. However, human activities have reduced
this to just 18%, and educational institutions have
not been left out as a major contributor. Some
academic institutions consume as much as 12
truckloads of wood per term, to cook for their
students, further worsening the already vulnerable
situation, write Vision Reporters
GENERAL CRISIS
Firewood and charcoal are still the most
commonly used sources of energy for
cooking, even in Ugandan households.
According to the Uganda National
Household Survey Report 2009/2010, up to
95% of the households still used wood fuel.
The State of Environment Report 2008,
indicated that by 2005, forests had reduced
to about 3.7 hectares (18%) of the total land
area of Uganda. This indicates a loss of
about one quarter of the countrys forest tree
cover in less than two decades.
Apart from schools, residents in urban
areas use charcoal more than firewood.
At present, because of the national energy
crisis, demand/consumption for firewood in
Uganda is estimated to be growing at a rate
of 3% per annum.
But the use of charcoal hurts the
environment much more than firewood. This
is because of the wasteful burning of wood to
make even one bag of charcoal.
Currently, charcoal burning has caused
depletion of stocks of trees in Nakasongola
district. As a result, charcoal burners have
shifted to Kiboga, Kyakwanzi and northern
Uganda, which were not known for
producing charcoal.
HIGH ELECTRICITY COSTS
The high cost of electricity makes it inevitable
for schools to rely on fuelwood for cooking.
While schools do not readily have how much
they would have paid if using electricity
for cooking, their spend on lighting speaks
volumes, for instance, Kings College Budo
spends sh8m on electricity monthly for
lighting only. Gayaza high parts with sh8m
monthly, Jinja SS sh6m and Busoga College

Pupils of St. Jude Primary School Naguru in

Kampala, lining up for food. In the background
is a pile of firewood. Environmentalists want
schools to use alternative energy because
their massive consumption of firewood is
promoting deforestation

Mwiri sh4m. The cost of power for lighting

is just a fraction of that used for heating
or cooking.
SOLUTIONS
The battle against forest destruction is
being showcased at St. Balikuddembe
and Kojja secondary schools in Mukono
district. The two schools still use firewood,
but use improved cooking technology as
well, that has cut down fuel usage.
This has not only helped them reduce
forest destruction, but they have also saved
money, which they have ploughed into
other interventions at the school.
The schools have realised that they were
burning money, says Nicholas Senyonjo,
the executive director of the Uganda
Environment
Education
Foundation
(UEEF), an NGO.
The expenditure on wood has drastically
reduced at these schools.
He also pointed out that the schools have
planted trees meaning that they will not
have to destroy natural forests, which are
rich in biological diversity and are also
protecting catchment areas.
Stephen Ssemakula of UEEF, says
the schools have benefitted from
funding provided by the United Nations
Development Programme, through UEEF.
The investment is about sh3.5m for
construction of institutional stoves for 600
students, and the benefits are immense,
he told Mwalimu.
In the case of Kojja Secondary School,
expenditure on firewood has reduced
from sh720,000 to only sh240,000 every
term. The school has invested part of the
money to plant eucalyptus trees.

GRAPHIC BY TIMOTHY KATURAMU

t is midday and a truck full of

firewood passes through the gate
heading to the kitchen at Buddo SS,
in Mpigi district. The same truck
makes 12 routes to this school per
term to deliver firewood, to be used
in the school kitchen.
Lawrence Muwonge, the Buddo SS school
proprietor with a population of 2,000
students, says he spends about sh4m per
term on firewood.
His counterpart Coltilda Kikomeko, who
heads the neighbouring Trinity College,
Nabbingo, says she spends sh650,000 on
each of the seven truckloads of firewood,
the school uses per term totalling sh4.6m.
The school student population is 1,300.
See graphic for other schools.
Schools have become a big factor in
the countrys deforestation. Of the 23,
534 primary and secondary schools in
the country, 80% (18,827 schools), rely
on firewood for cooking as per education
ministry statistics. At an average of six
truckloads per school per term, all the
schools combined consume up to 338,890
truckloads of firewood annually, the
equivalent of 10 Mabira forests razed down
per year. Mabira forest reserve is about
30,000 hectares. If universities and other
tertiary institutions are factored in, then
the situation is much dire. Educational
institutions alone could therefore, be
indirectly contributing for up to a third of
the 92,000 hectares of forest cover lost in
Uganda annually.
In 1990, Ugandas forest cover was
estimated at 4.9 million hectares covering
24% of the total land area.

ALTERNATIVES TO FIREWOOD
Although the available technologies could greatly
reduce the consumption of charcoal, schools have
shunned them. The initial cost of constructing the
improved cooking stoves is high, says Ssemakula.
He says especially poor rural schools cannot afford
the alternatives.
He also blames bureaucracy in government-aided
schools, where decisions take long to be made and

the responsible people have to engage in endless

consultations.
Unless the responsible person is really
interested, you will never get such an initiative off
the ground, says Ssemakula.
The attitude of the cook also matters. There are
cases where improved cooking technologies have
not been implemented because the school cooks
want to avoid the laborious process of lighting fire
in the improved cooking stoves.

338,890

The cooking stoves are harder to light,

compared to the traditional three-stone
cooking places, explains Ssemakula.
Trinity College Nabbingos Kikomeko says:
It is costly to build a biogas plant to serve
energy for this whole school. That would
have been a great alternative, but costly to
venture into.
Other alternatives, according to Dr. Henry
Busulwa, one of the founders of Namilyango
High School, include harnessing of pitlatrines, which emit a lot of methane also
known as bio-gas.
According to Busulwa, the paramount
interest is to nurture the thinking and skills
of students by demonstrating how ecological
systems work. When the students leave this
school, they will be better policy-makers and
change agents.
Students spend a long time at school and
what they learn can never be forgotten. This
is the reason why we have set up this schoolto engage them in active participation, said
Busulwa.
You can only influence people if you
practice what you preach, says Richard
Kimbowa, the head of Uganda Coalition for
Sustainable Development.
He says teachers should take up such
conservation interventions and that field
days should be encouraged for their students
to influence the wider community.
The schools could also change to solar
lighting systems since electricity is expensive,
according to Kimbowa.
Asked about interventions such as a
government policy to ensure that schools
become responsible in the use of energy,
Patrick Ssempala, a principal education
officer at the education ministry, in charge
of environment, gender and HIV, responded:
We have no details on this issue.
Compiled by Gerald Tenywa, Conan
Businge and Saudah Nakandi

Way Forward

Improved cooking stoves

Data from the Uganda Bureau
workmanship, he adds.
of Statistics show that only 9%
Studies indicate that the stoves
of all households in Uganda use
reduce biomass fuel consumption
improved charcoal or firewood
by up to 50%.
stoves.
According to John Diisi, the coThe improved cooking
ordinator of Geo mapping at the
technologies are constructed
NFA, there should be a policy on
using micah, cement and specially
conservation of energy in schools.
designed bricks. The improved
There should be no school
institutional cook stoves have an
without an improved cooking
insulated combustion chamber with stove. We also have a lot of organic
high thermal efficiency and reduce matter in schools that can produce
cooking time
energy, he says.
considerably,
He also says
besides
schools in rural
minimising risks
areas should
of burns when
plant trees since
cooking.
they usually
The equipment
have a lot of
emits little
land.
smoke through
James
a chimney that
Mwebesa,
directs the
of Kisowera
An in-built alternative cooking
smoke outside
Secondary
stove that uses little wood.
the kitchen,
School, in
Experts hope schools can adapt
thus reducing
Mukono, says:
to using such stoves to protect
exposure to
Most schools
health risks when forests
do not use
in use.
biogas because
The improved cooking stoves
of ignorance. They think it can
should be properly constructed
only be produced using cow dung
so that they produce expected
and overlook the human dung in
results over a long period of time, toilets, he says.
explains Ssemakula.
But we need to address the
They collapse after a short time problem of changing the mindset of
if they are not constructed with
the people. If we are going to save
the right materials or with poor
the environment, he says.