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ADOPTING new technologies which will enable food security in rural areas is important, a Cabinet minister has said. Commissioning an 80 kilowatt micro-hydropower scheme in Himalaya in Mutare South on Wednesday, the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Dr Samuel Undenge, said renewable energy projects were essential to support the grid energy deficit in the country.
The $120 000 Himalaya Micro-hydropower Scheme which was funded by the European Union through its developmental partners, Oxfam and Practical Action, is expected to benefit over 110 households in villages seven and eight.
“With the current effects of climate change that all of us are witnessing we need to adopt technologies that will enable food security despite the environmental challenges.
“The need for energy to improve productivity in rural areas cannot be over-emphasized especially when the current grid power generation is not sufficient to support the energy demand in the country,” he said.
Dr Undenge said only 37 percent of the total households in Zimbabwe have access to grid electricity with 83 percent in the urban areas while 13 percent is in the rural areas.
He said it was therefore imperative to push for clean and renewable energy projects such as micro-hydro, solar PV, biomass, bagasse and biogas to supplement grid electricity deficit, especially in the rural areas. He added that through recent collaborative partnerships with non-governmental organisations, Government is confident it will meet its 2018 Zim-Asset target to increase the use of renewable energy resources by 300 megawatts. He thanked all NGOs involved in developmental projects on sustainable renewable energy in the country and said Government was committed to achieving the 2013 United Nations Sustainable Energy for All initiative with the objective of achieving ‘‘energy access for all’’.
EU economic corporation and food security Zimbabwe attaché Mr Severin Mellac said EU would continue to support sustainable projects in Zimbabwe.
He said sustainable projects were imperative to empower communities.
“The European Union believes in sustainable projects to empower communities. By giving communities the responsibility to sustain a project after it is complete is giving life to a community.
“We are proud to assist Zimbabwe in developmental projects and happy to hear the projects are changing lives,” said Mr Mellac.
Oxfam deputy country director Mr Kevin Ndemera said communities should embrace sustainable projects as key enablers for development.
He said the onus was on them to destroy or make the most of the growth prospective such projects had for their livelihood. Practical Action regional director Mr Kudzai Marovanidze echoed the same sentiments and urged Government to take a leaf from the Himalaya model. Mr Marovanidze said the project showed what communities could achieve by working together.
The EU also donated a grinding mill and a sawing mill to Simbengadzibve Corporation in Village Seven and they are already operational at their business centre. In Village Eight they constructed an energy kiosk for Tasimuka Co-operative which will house a carpentry shop, dressmaking shop, computer lab and other entrepreneurship projects that require electricity.
Online Reporter