Small Industry Commercial Uses of Energy in Uganda

Background

Not only is firewood and charcoal used in homesteads, there is extensive use of these forms in small scale industry operations. These contribute to further depletion of wood stocks and vegetation cover in general, beside degrading the environment and contributing to ill-health and deaths. All in all, firewood and charcoal are the dominant forms in use.

Users 

Categories of users vary widely, including bakers, construction industry, small hotels and other eating places, and, schools along with other institutions.

Bakeries

While there exist modern bakeries in the country, there are many more relatively small bakeries in various towns and urban centers. 

Modern bakeries

The modern ones, largely to be found in Kampala, produce a wide range of products – bread and all categories of cakes. Routinely, each of these modern bakeries will produce a small range of products on a market-demand basis. 

They also attend to special orders for functions such as baptisms, weddings and the like. During festive seasons, they diversify their product range to suit customer tastes for the occasion.

While these largely opt for electricity, a number also employ other forms of energy. The rapidly increasing tariffs for electricity may change this status-quo with time.

Smaller bakeries 

The bulk of these predominantly bake bread in standard sizes, supplemented by largely burns, and to a lesser extent deal in only cake business at a near-cottage level.

Invariably, these use firewood. They usually have in-house search-and-delivery arrangements for the firewood. They many times send out their trucks to but firewood, either pre-arranged through their internal efforts or, buying from bulk vendors in the countryside.

Construction industry

Lime is an important input in the construction industry, as well as other industries, such as paint manufacturers.

The supplying lime kilns are largely to be found close to primary lime sites. These are responsible for depletion of large wood cover, the primary source of firewood that is used in Uganda for lack of coal.

There have been cries as to the depletion of forest cover, dating back to the early 2000 years in the Tororo district in eastern Uganda.

These activities are indeed commercial, with possible dangerous and serious environmental implications, already prevailing, especially in absence of enforcing reforestation programs across the country.

Small hotels and other eating places

Many small hotels and eating businesses depend almost entirely on charcoal and firewood for cooking. Electricity is mostly used for lighting, yet where unavailable on grid or with gasoline generators, lanterns are in use. 

As mentioned hereinafter, charcoal is a popular substitute to firewood use in urban and peri-urban areas of Uganda, especially for these small hotels and restaurants, helping to limit the pollution that could result from the firewood smoke.

Changing economic times have increased pressure on these naturally available resources as substitutes put big demands on limited financial resources, ending up worsening the deforestation trend.

Schools along with other institutions

Most schools across the country cook with firewood. The incidence of improved commercial firewood stoves is still limited, but growing.

Many times, it is likely to be ignorance as to the benefits of improved cooking methods, given their relative startup costs, yet yielding huge savings in consumption, and not easily seen, lesser pollution potential in general.

Production and distribution of charcoal

This group comprises of charcoal burning kilns, wood cutters, bicycle transporters, road-side sellers, truck deliveries, and, numerous private modes of delivery.

Charcoal burning kilns

We have indicated that much of the charcoal is used domestically for cooking, mostly in urban and peri-urban areas.

Charcoal kilns on the whole remain quite rudimentary, with piles of wood covered with mud, and dismantled completely after every burn session. A small fire is started through a small access at base, to be plugged to deter air entry once lit.

Wood cutters

The selling of firewood is a fairly big business in the country, driven by demand from the commercial users. These include bread bakeries, and lime kiln operators. 

This group is perpetuated by the demand, even when the scarcity implies they have to deeper out in search for the wood in order have a product to sell as a means of earning a living. This vicious cycle can be seen to be responsible for the rapid deforestation. 

Bicycle transporters

These have been around for several years, often starting with a number of sacks packed at kiln sites, to towns or wherever the demand may be.

Although motor-bike transport has risen significantly over the past decade, they seem to be used more for transporting people with their limited baggage, although carrying of charcoal is not ruled out.

Road-side sellers

This category is to be found on highways and other roads where traffic to the urban centers is significant.

They place their packed sacks in the open usually or under makeshift shades for passers-by to stop and procure for onward delivery to homes. 

Many of these vehicles are private, others belong to government and other organizations. It is common to see especially double-cabin pickups from upcountry carrying a few sacks of charcoal.

It is not unusual to find a housewife or other family member busy with domestic chores around the home, turn up to sell to an interested passer-by buyer in a vehicle.

Truck deliveries

In this instance, small lorries of say 1 – 5 tons, through to much larger ones go out to procure charcoal in bulk, almost always packed in sacks. This seems to suggest that often, the charcoal is destined to homestead consumers through last-in-line outlet vendors in markets or charcoal kiosks that are on the increase in urban centers.

These can sometimes procure a full kiln or where not sufficient or easily available, pick the roadside sacks. 

This is a big business by small to medium trader standards, given that there is overwhelming dependence on biomass in Uganda.

Private modes of delivery

These can be numerous. Often, a medium income family may own a 100 – 500 kg small pickup truck, used to go out to a farm that may be some 10 – 20 miles away, returning with food provisions from the garden, along with some charcoal. This however is on the decline, given the prohibitive cost of gasoline, or the lower incidence of such practices. This is also attributable to increasing pressure on land or lesser financial means to have and maintain such a farm.

Many small car owners are often seen with sacks of charcoal overhanging in boots on their return from upcountry.

The cost of the bag is understandably lower upcountry, given that all the intermediaries – transporters and vendors – are not included. At the same time, one is probably driving back from a totally different mission, thereby reducing part of the cost for the journey.

Efforts at improving efficiency

Government with the support of the donor community has come up with an effort to improve performance in the sector.

These efforts have been various and have been on-going for several years now.

The usual objectives are or should be around the following:

• Achieving better efficiency: improved end-user technologies;
• Preserving wood and vegetation  cover: encouraging tree planting and seeking alternate sources;
• Training of stakeholders: primary producers and end-users;
• Training of trainers: seeking to get the multiplier effect;
• Production of model technologies: funding and logistically locating desirable technologies;
• Dissemination of improved technologies: encouraging users to adopt better practices;
• Dissemination of success stories: Getting other users to know about good achievements secured;
• Introduction of efficiency standards: writing and seeking to get into national law statutes good design and regulatory practices, and, discouraging substandard product entry into market;
• Rollout strategies: aiming to keep the general public interested in keeping on using or changing to improvements for the better, beside others. 

Current Situation 

At the time of writing this article, many things have taken place. These range from government continued plans to advance the sector activities, work achievements partly with a fully by donors, primary energy source dynamics, state of vegetation cover – growth or loss of it, and a host of others.

Many projects have been carried out in the biomass sub-sector, some recent, some older. There are also on-going ones, all with a view to streamline the growth of the sector, and, set it on a sustainable growth path.

The overall picture is in spite of these efforts, forest and vegetation cover is on the decline. The growing population is exerting more pressure on land, firewood is getting increasingly harvested despite its shrinking supplies, people’s purchasing power is falling, thereby leaving no choice but to remain on locally available scanty supplies of wood and charcoal.

Improved technologies are slowly penetrating beneficiary communities, keeping prospect of reducing the carbon footprint of the sub-sector bleak.

All in all, indications are that the challenge to close the gap between aspirations and reality seems to be growing in the short run. This makes the need for urgent reforms absolutely necessary if we are to avert the looming dangerous situation.

Keywords: firewood, charcoal, bakeries, charcoal kilns, lime kilns 

Energy Patterns for Urban Uganda

Background
Like many other countries, there is a noticeable migration to urban areas in Uganda. With the relatively hard economic times, many aspire to opportunities and higher living standards, only to end up in slums, with many shortcomings.

Urban migration

The case of energy therefore for many in the urban setting is really difficult to classify as an improvement on the rural one for the many drifting from there without a good prospect of finding employment.

Rural towns

Save for a number of towns that can be classified as ranking high, next to the City of Kampala, we have many small towns that invariably range from having one to a few streets. These also are often located along what we classify as main roads, some on highways on trunk roads, others on feeder roads, and in some instances on what we term as Community Access Roads (CAR). 

For the most remote and often least developed towns, we usually find a cluster of shops on either side of the road, often gravel and no access to electricity.

This dictates lighting to use of the paraffin lamps at best, although business tends to close early. Often times, the front constitutes the shop while the rear room is the residence.

More often than not, cooking is for largely food and tea, out in the open or inside a small kitchen shade at best, so to speak.

The rural towns will invariably use firewood for all the cooking.

Main towns

These fall between what I have chosen to classify as rural and below the most developed, Kampala, the main seat of government.

These major towns include Jinja to the east, Entebbe by Lake Nalubaale / Victoria lakeside, Mbarara to the mid-west, Mbale to the east, Masaka in the central region, Fort Portal to the west and not too far from Mt Rwenzori, to Gulu in the north, beside a host of others.

Although these major towns have access to the electricity grid, many residents largely use electricity for lighting and limited appliances. On average, many who live in the ‘central business district’ of the town will largely use charcoal for cooking, with natural gas and electricity at the lower extent respectively. The vast majority however, especially on the periphery will tend to use firewood for cooking. 

Capital City of Kampala

Kampala, the only urban centre to be elevated to district status, is for all intents and purposes the location of the highest standards in the country in general, energy matters inclusive.

It is here that you find the highest concentration of modern amenities, also representing a mix of energy sources and applications. One may with a degree of confidence say that highest standards are to be found here, only replicated in some other towns and settings in general.

Many businesses and homes have access to electricity, again largely used for lighting and lighter current  electrical appliances, with even fewer using it for cooking.

There is also a noticeable level of using bottled gas for cooking, which mode seems to be cheapest, compared to charcoal and electricity.

The poorer settings on the fringes of the city do invariably use firewood, although other categories also use it.

It is not uncommon to find a home with a cooker, rarely used, a gas stove more frequently used, and, a charcoal stove. If the home has a compound of its own, it may also have a firewood cooking facility, although not so common starting with middle echelons in society.

Cooking and other energy modes

As mentioned earlier, the vast majority of Ugandans depend on biomass and agricultural residues as the main source of energy. Although this has seriously depleted wood and other vegetation stocks, this dependence will continue to prevail for some foreseeable future, posing great challenges on times women dedicate to it, in addition to sometimes having to collect water from faraway places.

Firewood still used

This firewood question will linger on for a while, considering that populations have been multiplying fast amidst dwindling incomes, with the shilling losing value against other currencies.

The rural versus urban dependence on wood for cooking was 99.4-percent versus 22.9-percent, an average per capita consumption around 680 kilogram/year (kg/yr), based on findings of the 2005/06 Uganda National Household Survey. 

While improved wood-stoves are increasingly being adopted in institutions such as schools, and hospitals, their use still remains limited. These are sometimes custom-built at the institutions, sometimes with adapted pans, utilizing modest quantities of wood for the same task, while at the same time posing lesser pollutant hazards seemingly. These are often placed under a shade, often corrugated iron roofing without side walls, thereby improving on ventilation. These institutional stoves are used for big numbers, sometimes in hundreds if not more.

Prevalence of charcoal stove use

The rural versus urban dependence on charcoal for cooking was 8.2-percent versus 66.1-percent, an average per capita consumption around 21.6 kilogram/year (kg/yr), based on findings of the 2005/06 Uganda National Household Survey. 

These have been around for a number of decades. Largely made from sheet metal, they are cylindrical in design, with diameters of the order of one-foot, two chambers, the upper with a grill bottom to hold the charcoal and the lower solid to contain the ash dropping from the upper level. A small gate is added to facilitate lighting up and regulating air flow to a limited extent. They are also provided with three base supports and two handles on the sides.

These tend to lose a lot of heat to the surroundings, and, operating temperatures/conditions are not easily regulated. They can get pretty hot, often rusting away over the period of use.

Some are made of clay entirely, smaller, but handy, baked to red-color prior to use. The presence of a better insulated setting translates into better efficiency to some degree. These may be fragile, but, could easily be made to fill the gap of requiring metal, scrap or otherwise, with capacity to be much more easily made in rural settings.

These still outnumber the improved category below by far, a situation that may change with time.

Case of improved stoves

There have been various efforts to promote these improved stoves. Some of these are through bilateral assistance, and, donor projects, not to mention the growing number of Ugandan artisans who have picked up the trade. 

These are modifications of the stoves cited earlier, with a layer of clay added prior to baking, essentially improving efficiency through reducing heat loss to the environment. They are also more robust, given the outer sheet metal wall, and, often with a coat of paint.

Many designs are on the market, with very minor modifications from the technical standpoint. They are without doubt generally heavier, given both the clay and metal used in their fabrication.

Although their price is not prohibitive, lack of adequate disposable income is seen as a constraint to their acquisition viz-a-viz the unimproved ones, yet they are certainly greater value for money from many perspectives.

The government and many local entrepreneurs are mounting efforts to popularize these, with assistance from donors, bilateral and multilateral, both in the past and continuing.

Paraffin stoves

These have been around, starting with the pressurized ones that were on the market more in the last 30 – 50 years. These are increasingly getting replaced by ones using wicks, largely sourced from China.

The rural versus urban dependence on paraffin for cooking was 0.8-percent versus 3.5-percent, an average per capita consumption around 1.1 kilogram/year (kg/yr), based on findings of the 2005/06 Uganda National Household Survey. 

Paraffin stoves came into use with the arrival of petroleum products, largely to be found in more urban settings where access to paraffin is easier, although it is often carried to remote areas in twenty-liter cans, often of plastic.

The escalation of petroleum product prices has had a mitigating impact on their use, considering that it is largely used by the classes below the affluent yet above the very poor. 

Gas cookers

These have been espoused by many in middle and upper classes. Their wide variability eases acquisition at different levels. There are single burners mountable on small cylinders, while there are also several two-burner gas cookers. On the upper end, you find cookers with a mix of gas burners and electric coils or plates, some with an optional gas/electric oven.

Given the growing scarcity of charcoal that has driven its prices up significantly, cooking on gas seems to be the current most financially attractive option for those that could opt for electric cookers. 

Lately though, the number of users has been on the rise, with frequent price increases, in part due to international trends. This may change the situation, as the supply of charcoal and other competing energy forms may alter the status quo.

Electric cooking

In the earlier times, electricity prices were relatively low, on account of all of being hydro sourced, and, this favored the growth / prevalence of the electric stove / cooker for the upper classes.

In the last decade or so, Uganda has found itself unable to meet its growing demand from hydro, in part due to falling water levels in Lake Victoria, growing local consumer demand, slow increase of hydro generating facilities, and, continuing exports to neighboring countries, Kenya especially. This brought about the introduction of thermal generation, a matter that inevitably pushed up tariffs despite the often disputed subsidies.

Cooking on electricity is now on the decrease, largely on account of much higher cost, and, a host of other parameters.

While top echelon homes would use cookers with extensive facilities, many use twin-hotplates or single hotplates made by local artisans, often void of regulation. 

One of the tragedies has been the incidence of illegal consumption of electricity, facilitating its use for cooking and heating! Respective authorities have taken the bull by its horns, and made frantic efforts to cut on this illegal consumption, resulting in abandoning of some makeshift cooking using electricity.

Welding using electricity

This is an area where many in fabrication have depended excessively on welding over use of other techniques as using bolts and rivets. Much of this work for small artisans has probably been through illegally tapped electricity, a vice that continues to be seen despite efforts to stem it!

Small maize mills

These are variously scattered around the country, using electricity or diesel / gasoline. While many try to stay legal, a number still illegally tap electricity.

Those powered by diesel or less frequently by petrol are also available, only that the cost of power supplies appear prohibitive for the market settings most of them serve.

Lesser frequent technologies

These include biogas, solar, bio-fuels, and wind. I must say that, while some of these are still technologically and financially difficult to espouse, some are more easily adaptable.

Biogas

On its part, biogas has not really caught on yet in the country. Yet, there have been many programs dating back several years when it was introduced to communities, large and small. I recall a project under the energy ministry where such facilities were installed at Makerere University and at a number of key schools. These seem to have come to no visible growth or expansion, given the training effort and the knowledge base that was created.

A number of donor agencies have continued to promote it, but, there is some momentum to be found in order to get people to adopt more of it.

A few homesteads have a zero-grazed cow, with its dung used to provide the cooking and lighting gas. This has to be promoted in some way, considering that even the most sophisticated and advanced countries like Germany have made a big success story out of it.

While the German experience is at a highly mechanized level, there are lots of small-scale examples to copy from similarly positioned countries like India and Philippines.

This technology is not only at our doorstep, it is also simple, relatively cheap and easy to implement, given the necessary commitment.

Solar

While this can target small applications in homes, it can really make a huge impact. Applications are largely in lighting, even bringing electricity to rural settings as grass-thatched huts, as has been applied in a number of countries.

Solar’s main undoing has been cost. Skills have become more abundantly available, and, local engineers and technicians have been in designs for varying functions to the taste of clients, often dictated by ability to pay.

On its part, government with donors have mounted various schemes with incentives to get people to adapt solar use in their settings.

Many companies have introduced schemes to put its acquisition on a soft landing. Packages include a number of lights with cell-phone charging, with optional TV operation, albeit at varying prices, depending on choice. They have also put in place financing schemes to get people started even without the entire sum for the schemes.

With further fall in international pricing, we should be able to see more in the off-grid areas pick up  

Bio-fuels

These can be largely started by the sugar companies, given the nature of their businesses. It is however becoming more widely spoken about, that there are many potential sources of biofuels. The constraints have largely been in lack of promoters as to seed money for projects to bring this to fruition.

Wind 

Findings through investigations by government and other scholars put the rating of this low, save for a few areas like Karamoja and at elevated points like Kabale, near the Uganda-Rwanda-Congo border.

The islands of Kalangala in the middle of Lake Nalubaale / Victoria have also been seen as promising.

That wind technology has greatly advanced, and, it is not prudent to dismiss this potential vital source of energy.

Petroleum use

Petroleum use in energy mix

In 2011, the country consumed 23,000 bbl/d of petroleum products. Since Uganda is landlocked, it imports petroleum products via neighboring countries.

Source: http://www.tititudorancea.com/z/ies_uganda_total_oil_petroleum_products_consumption.htm 

The discovery or more correctly the resumption of activity after the early finds of the thirties, have now cast the petroleum perspective to a new level. Development and exploitation of the resource will be discussed later separately, although its availability is still a few years away.

As the chart below shows, a small share for petroleum products is in the energy mix, with diesel in the lead at 4.3-percent, followed by gasoline at 1.9-percent largely for transport, all totaling less than 8-percent, with traces of liquefied petroleum gas as of 2008, see chart following:

Major uses

Transport in Uganda heavily depends on diesel for commercial vehicles largely and gasoline for cars and the multiplying motorcycle numbers littering the country. This is after the near-collapse of the railway system.

For much of the last decade, diesel and heavy fuel oil have been used for power generation, owing to the decline in hydro electric generation versus a constantly growing demand. This has lately subsided with the coming on line of the recently commissioned new 250-megawatt hydropower station at Bujagali, downstream of the old Nalubaale power station that has been in operation since the mid-fifties.

Kerosene, as shown above is also used by the lower level population, mostly for lighting, but also for cooking to a limited extent.

As for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), it is slowly gaining popularity in urban and peri-urban areas, especially in the big towns and Kampala City, on account of its being competitive to charcoal. Its consumption in the energy mix is below 1-percent, as shown in the chart above.

Keywords: Firewood, charcoal stove, improved stoves, paraffin stove, gas cookers, electric cookers, welding, maize mills, biogas, solar, wind

Rural Energy Patterns in Uganda

Energy needs may be classified on the basis of people’s occupation. We have looked at the lifestyles of some groups, with the following categories:

• Small scale agrarian practices; 
• Cattle keepers, to be distinguished from nomads;
• Nomads in search of grass and water for grazing their animals; and,
• Hunters, although this group also engages in other activities.

A typical rural homestead with garden in background

Source:  Google - Images for rural Uganda

http://goo.gl/k9EQl0

Cottage farmers

There is a big band across the southern part of the country where many homesteads practice cottage farming. Although this is the mainstay, people can engage in other activities.

Key activities

In much of central region, one finds people indulging in small scale agriculture, growing bananas, sweet potatoes, cassava, yams, maize along with a host of other cereals, vegetables and fruits.

These communities also keep animals, such as goats and chicken, often in small numbers, unlike other categories, whose main occupation is looking after the animals.

Energy needs

Energy requirements are largely for cooking, drying cereals, coffee, cotton, vegetables, heating water for tea / coffee or plain drinking when piped is not available or is of doubtable quality.

Cooking

3-stone stove: Over the centuries, the three-stone stove been in use, and continues to be used, especially in the more remote areas. This invariably uses firewood and agricultural residues.

3-Stone Firewood stove – preparing tea- Typical in Central Uganda

An improved firewood stove – a variant of the 3-stone stove

Source of pictures: http://goo.gl/Qx6upt

Charcoal stoves: In the higher income groups, the use of charcoal is to be found. While the improved charcoal stove is on the increase, it is my perceived view that it is still largely outnumbered by the unimproved one.

Improved Stoves - charcoal and firewood

Source:  http://www.energyprogramme.or.ug/energy-saving-stoves/

Other modes: These include the use of gas, and to an even smaller extent, electric stoves / cookers. In the last 20 – 30 years, the use of hot plates was more dominant than conventional electric cookers. The commonest has been a single heating coil, designed for a conventional electric cooker, but fixed on small frame and directly connected to electricity mains supply via a 13 ampere plug without any heat regulator.

Roasting: Roasting is done for both meat, some preservation, and in some instances immediate consumption, without further need of cooking. In many instances are particularly common for chicken and meat for barbecues and for serving at parties, and largely at bars, in urban settings.

Utensils: Many decades to centuries ago, our forefathers used to cook in clay pots, made by local potters. While these may still be used, their prevalence has dropped significantly.

Open saucepans are much more common, although covered ones are also in use. The use of pressure cookers is also picking up, much more in the more urban settings, largely with the elite.

Utensils

Many decades to centuries ago, our forefathers used to cook in clay pots, made by local potters. While these may still be used, their prevalence has dropped significantly.

Open saucepans are much more common, although covered ones are also in use. The use of pressure cookers is also picking up, much more in the more urban settings, largely with the elite.

Commercial agriculture

For a long time, Uganda has grown coffee, cotton, tea and tobacco mainly for export. These crops fall in different categories in terms of scale, processing, and hence, need for energy. 

The commercial activities will be separately looked at later.

Cattle keepers

Much of the remaining parts of Uganda engage in this activity to different degrees. In the greater proportion, many graze their cattle buy looking for pasture and water. While this is still the predominant mode to the north-eastern region of Karamoja, this changes in pattern to maintenance of animals over more abundantly available pastures around the year in the immediate neighborhood of Teso, to western Uganda in Ankole.

Long-horned Ankole cattle

Source: Google - Images for cattle keeping in Uganda - http://goo.gl/iKUl3k

There are now many more ranches and dairy farms particularly in Ankole, but also variously in Teso and other parts including central, Buganda.

Key activities

As mentioned, the predominant lifestyle is twofold – cattle keeping, and, farming for what became commercial crops in the names of bananas, locally known as ‘matooke’.

Ankole now produces much of the ‘matooke’ that feeds key urban centres as the capital, Kampala. These bananas are often grown on a commercial scale, although all the work is literally not mechanized.

Cereals, mostly in form of millet and sorghum are ground for subsequent cooking for food or use in preparation of beverages, local beer inclusive.

Energy needs

Energy requirements are limited to modest cooking, as communities are often on the move, drinking fresh milk and in some places blood drawn from the livestock, like in Karamoja. The meat, when eaten locally is cooked or probably more often roasted. 

The millet is the main staple food in much of the western, eastern and northern parts of Uganda. This is grown often on small scale, and, processed manually prior to ultimate consumption as cooked food, full of health and vitality.

Cooking

3-stone stove: This method continues to be used with pots as previously sighted.

Charcoal stoves: These are also to be largely found within the more affluent groups.  

Other modes: These are very similar to those of cottage farmers, but in the higher echelons of society.

Roasting: Also, very similar to those of cottage farmers, but in the higher echelons of society.

Borne fires: These are also used to roast meat and foods, beside providing warmth for evening gatherings as a pass-time activity as sighted earlier.

Utensils:

Both clay pots and other saucepans are used.

Nomads

In the traditionally drier areas with livestock, this practice thrived for many years. As we write, it continues in earnest. Much of Karamoja and sizeable communities within Ankole continue to search for pasture and water.

Karamoja community setting with cattle in background

Source: http://www.uganda1963.org/karamoja_intro.htm

Key activities

Again, life is twofold – cattle keeping, and, farming for domestic consumption largely. 

The people of Karamoja practice small scale farming, largely to meet their domestic needs – maize, vegetables and other crops.

Part of their diet includes fresh blood, drawn from vessels of livestock with an arrow, after which the opening is closed and the animal let loose.

Cereals, are ground for subsequent cooking for food or use in preparation of beverages, local beer inclusive.

Energy needs

Energy requirements are limited to modest cooking, as communities are often on the move, drinking fresh milk and in some places blood drawn from the livestock, like in Karamoja.

The meat may probably be roasted, if not taken raw.

The millet along with a few other items is cooked, using biomass.

Cooking

3-stone stove: This method continues to be used with pots as previously sighted.

Charcoal stoves: This mode is much less frequently used.

Other modes: These are largely not in use.

Roasting: Roasting is done for both meat, some preservation, and in some instances immediate consumption, without further need of cooking. 

Borne fires: These are also used to roast meat and foods, beside providing warmth for evening gatherings as a pass-time activity. 

Utensils

Both clay pots and other saucepans are used to some extent.

Hunters

This is a centuries old practice that to some degree continues to be practiced in Uganda. It would not be correct to say that this practice is restricted to any particular one part of the country. What could be said though is that it becomes another activity or pass-time for many instead, but remains very much alive.

Member of Batwa community in Rwenzori region, with hunting bow and arrow

Source: Google – Images for hunting in Uganda

http://goo.gl/a3Ui9A

Key activities

These would overlap with other engagements for communities within which they are to be found or in the neighborhood.  

Energy needs

Again, these would overlap or coincide with those in the surroundings.

The meat may probably be roasted, if not taken raw. 

Again, millet or other cereal would most likely supplement the game meat, cooked, largely using biomass.

Cooking

3-stone stove: This method continues to be used with pots as previously sighted.

Charcoal stoves: This mode is probably much less frequently used by hunters in general.

Roasting: Roasting is done for both meat, some preservation, and in some instances immediate consumption, without further need of cooking. 

Borne fires: These are also used to roast meat and foods, beside providing warmth for evening gatherings as a pass-time activity. 

Utensils

Both clay pots and other saucepans are used to some extent.

Keywords: cattle-keepers, nomads, hunters, 3-stone stove, charcoal stove, improved charcoal stove, hot plate, roasting 

Energy Need Patterns for Uganda

Historical features
Uganda, with the approximate size of United Kingdom has had a rapidly growing population with one of the biggest reservoirs of fresh water to its south, named Lake Victoria by explorers, but originally known as Nalubaale by the indigenous Ganda ethnic group.

A plateau some 4,000 feet or so above sea level, Uganda was once covered by a dense rain forest around Lake Nalubaale, with frequent rains. Over several years of cultivation, this was to be no more.

The peoples
The Bantu speaking people came to occupy much of sub-Saharan Africa, practicing agriculture, hunting  and keeping a few animals such as goats and chicken, reportedly upgrading to cattle keeping by 400 BC. At the onset of their arrival, they displaced small groups of hunters, who moved to higher less-accessible altitudes, largely to be found around Mountain Rwenzori to the west and Elgon to the East.

In early AD years, they indulged in smelting for medium grade carbon steel, having taken on the trade from Western Tanzania.

The Bantu-speaking agriculturalists took on cultivation of bananas. The Nilotics were largely pastoralists moving about to find pasture for their cattle.

While the Bantu had organized kingdoms, the leadership of the Nilotics was largely kinship oriented, with elders taking the decisions.

Regional groups
History talks of the Bantu and Nilotics originally, diversifying into the pastoral Chwezi around 13th and 15th centuries, with sites at Bigo and Mubende later to become ancestors of modern Hima or Tutsi pastoralists of Rwanda and Burundi.

The Chwezi were later to be displaced by Nilotic-speaking pastorist Bito, moving south into present day Uganda to establish kingdoms in northwestern Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

Emerging lifestyle and implied energy needs
As our interest is in energy, a number of lifestyles that characterize it include:

• Agricultural practices, of a small scale nature;
• Cattle keeping, largely of a pastoral nature;
• Domestic keeping of chicken and animals such as goats and some cattle to a limited extent; and,
• Smelting sponge iron / carbon steels.

Early uses of energy

With the discovery of lighting fires, people moved on to enjoy the benefit of cooking, roasting meat, keeping warm especially during cold nights to lighting.

Evidence of use of energy for heating is probably best found in the smelting of iron as cited above in the region.

Local communities are known to have made clay pots that were used to cook on three-stone firewood setups.

Main energy sources

Uganda continues to heavily depend on biomass, with 97 percent of the entire population using firewood, charcoal and crop residues, of the estimated 11 million tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE)  as late as 2010. This constitutes 90 percent of total energy consumption.

Electricity on the other hand accounts for only 1.1 percent at an estimated 121,000 TOE.

Lastly, petroleum products are mostly used for transport and thermal energy generation, a recent development, accounting for some 8.9 percent.

The distribution of primary energy sources points to very low levels of industrialization, given that where it is vibrant, human consumption in terms of firewood, charcoal and crop residues would not add up to a colossal 90-percent of total national consumption.

That the population largely rural in a relatively poor country state uses biomass to that extent is another telling indicator as to the lack of access to m=relatively modern domestic energy forms.

All this points to a situation that has not advanced adequately with the times, considering that Uganda was competing with countries in the Far East in the early colonial times, when we exported agricultural produce, yielding good returns, permitting imports with ease, and, maintaining an attractive positive balance of payments. 

Firewood and crop residues

The use of these biomass forms have not been taken to sufficiently well-developed exploitation techniques since the times of our grandfathers. It is probably reasonably evident that such practices continue to render methods in use by and large ancient, to say the least.

Charcoal

This is mostly consumed by the urban middle and upper classes, the group of the elite by and large. Tragically, many continue to use basic non-efficient stoves, although clay-lined more efficient ones are gaining popularity, thanks to the efforts of government, support of bilateral partners and donors in general and probably above all, the growing number of artisans in making them and distributing them to users.

Electricity

We will later demonstrate that, Uganda had its first hydro-power station constructed way back in the fifties. This targeted exports to Kenya to power its bigger industrial demands, in addition to local demand, maintaining a surplus for several years.

Through the seventies, Idi Amin was in charge, bringing to near-none performance or better still decline of industrial production. The electricity sector, all then under the then Uganda Electricity Board (UEB) suffered neglect, with poor maintenance, hardly any growth in infrastructure, but with growing demand.

Demand continued to grow, with more users having power made available to them, while at the same time demands for exports kept growing as well, adding sections of Rwanda, although at some point we export to Rwanda in Kisoro and import instead in the Katuna area for purposes of which country had a grid supply in the neighborhood. 

In the not so distant past, Uganda started running into a situation where electricity alone was unable to sustain its grid demand, small though it is as we will later show. This brought about the introduction of thermal generation, something unheard of in preceding decades since the construction of the Owen Falls Power Station (OFPS) at the Source of River Nile in Jinja.

With the coming on stream of more hydropower generation, the need for thermal top-up varies, to the extent that at times, load-shedding is suspended, a feature likely to keep recurring, depending on total generation versus total demand.

Petroleum products

While these were mainly a feature of transport, they have of late come to provide fuel for thermal generation, with varying degrees of diesel and heavy fuel in content.

The transport sector however continues to depend heavily on trucking and relatively smaller passenger volume modes, given that much of the rail network is in dire need of revamping and re-activation.

Not only are we using higher fuel per passenger or tonne of cargo, we have an increasing number of older hence less-fuel-efficient vehicles in use. This phenomenon is likely to persist for a while, although governments are levying higher taxes for older vehicles, and, contemplate banning of import of vehicles older than some four years or so.

The bus networks are predominantly in private hands, with smaller fleets, although there have been and continue to be efforts to get formal bus systems in place, in particular in some urban areas like the capital city of Kampala.  

Tags: Uganda, Kampala, Bantu, Nilotics, Bigo, Chwezi, Hima, Hutu, biomass, firewood, charcoal, electricity, petroleum products, 

Energy - A Growing Facet in Uganda

The world over, the position of matters relating to energy has gained prominence. The growth of industry is not only heavily dependent on the availability of energy, but now lays great emphasis on primary source, quality of generation, extent of emissions and their impact on the environment, and, cost of access, beside a host of other considerations.

Uganda / Eastern Africa in Focus
From a global perspective, one needs to come down to individual countries. Many writers have taken interest in different states across the world, and I believe, our challenge or my personal feeling is that, Uganda and possibly the East African region in the long run have not yet received the attention they deserve

Motivations
Consideration of Some of the cardinal motivations and considerations may be summed up as:

• Energy is an important parameter in everyday life 
• Global warming is a concern that requires urgent redress
• Africa has not kept pace with many energy development issues
• Africa continues to use heavy energy polluting forms 
• Deforestation is increasing across the African continent with little redress
• Afforestation programs need to be adopted / strengthened
• Populations continue to grow at fast rates, putting more pressure on energy resources in use
• Women are increasingly spending more time in search of firewood and water
• Land productivity is continually undermined by poor energy practices
• Need to adopt better energy practices
• Awareness of energy issues remains low in region
• Dissemination of energy knowledge and good practices lacking
• Modern information channels limited in region
• Create a forum for discussion in region and globally
• Sensitize stakeholders on important issues 
• Some information on what others in the world are doing is likely to spur action
• Advocacy for energy sector development

Approach

We will aim to take the following approach:

• Provide a background to the East African region, with Uganda in focus;
• Get a close look at the energy needs of the communities;
• Segregate rural where the bulk of the population lives, urban patterns, government, commercial, and industrial, and, examine practices over the centuries;
• Look at special groups / categories where appropriate;
• Highlight some aspects of Government policy framework and actions to promote the sector;
• Look at potential roles of private sector (PS) players;
• Propose interface between Governments and PS stakeholders;
• Survey markets of energy equipments and other products;
• Evaluate performance of technologies on market;
• Prepare critiques of product profiles ;
• Disseminate information on service providers in marketplace;
• Disseminate information of potential products sponsored by local stakeholders and manufacturers locally and from beyond our borders; and,
• Create a forum for stakeholder and general public discussion and dialogue.

Geographic boundaries

Uganda Flag

Uganda Population: 27,269,482 Age structure: 0-14 years 50.1%, 15-64 years 47.6%, 65 years and above 2.2%. Median age:  14.97 years,14.87 male and15.08 years female Population growth rate: 3.31% Birth rate: 47.39 births/1,000 population Death rate: 12.8 deaths/1,00 population Fertility rate:  6.74 children born/woman Source: http://www.mapsofworld.com/uganda/geography/population.html

Uganda is a landlocked country within East Africa, largely bordered by Kenya to the East, Tanzania to the South, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the West and Republic of Southern Sudan to the North. To its South-West, it has a small boundary with the Republic of Rwanda.

Map of Uganda

Source:  Google Maps - http://goo.gl/jrcz0

Member of the East African Community (EAC)

In the recent past, the composition of EAC membership expanded to include Rwanda and Burundi to what was part of the defunct EAC in the seventies, of then Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Map of East Africa

Source: Google Maps – East Africa Map with Capitals - http://goo.gl/Gc8F1

The five members have a lot in common - the people, largely Bantu and Nilotic, the weather, vegetation, close cultures and lifestyles, to mention but a few.

Topography

Ascending from ocean to plateau

With Kenya and Tanzania having large coastlines to their East on the Indian Ocean, topography rises toward Uganda where a plateau at some 4,000 feet above sea-level exists, with a mix of the rift valley through most of the EAC states, mountains like Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Rwenzori mostly in Uganda but also partly in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Lakes

Waters of Lake Victoria, also originally named as Nalubaale by the indigenous Ganda ethnic group, are shared between the original EAC states of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with the source of the River Nile at Jinja in Uganda. There are also a number of other lakes, like Kyoga, in the middle of Uganda.

Rivers

River Nile winds through Uganda prior to exit to Southern Sudan. Later on, it is joined by waters from the mountainous regions of Ethiopia, both merging in Sudan prior to flowing through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.

Land areas

Huge disparities in size exist, with Kenya and Tanzania much bigger by far than Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

Weather

In tropics

With the equator crossing through Kenya and Uganda, these countries are to be found in the tropics, largely providing for very friendly weather in most of the areas. 

This is not to say that extremes do not exist however. The disparities reach extremes, as we briefly mention below.

By Indian Ocean

Along the coastal areas, it can be quite discomforting with both high temperatures and humidity. Dar-es-Salaam, in Tanzania and Mombasa in Kenya are cases in point of the exhausting weather, especially during hot seasons.

Mountainous areas

On the tops of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Rwenzori, there are snowcaps. I recall one frequent experience on flights by the Kilimanjaro area where the snowcapped top stands above the clouds and can be seen for sometime on such flights as from Dar es Salaam to Entebbe in Uganda! It is such an outstanding view so close to the Equator! 

Seasons

In much of East Africa, we largely talk of wet and dry seasons, not winter through summer. This largely explains the prevalence of tropical architecture tendencies, with ample provision for natural ventilation and little consideration for heating.

Patterns of lifestyle

Farming

The EAC region has a mix of agriculture, pastoral and nomadic practices by the vast majority of the populations of the countries in question. Levels of industrial activity are small, with Kenya enjoying the highest manufacturing sector and commercial agriculture.

Animal grazing

In much of Kenya and Tanzania, many ethnic groups graze cattle as their main lifetime engagement. Good examples are to be found in the Masaai in Kenya and Tanzania, and the likes of the people of Ankole in Western Uganda.

Energy characteristics in EAC 

It would not be far-fetched to say that the peoples in the region have very similar patterns in cooking and lighting, two areas where much of the populations need energy.

Transport

Transport industry is little developed, depending largely on trucking, given the low levels of operation of railway network, the decline of which was precipitated by the dissolution of the first EAC in the seventies.

Rail

The existing rail network was largely powered by diesel locomotives, with traces of steam engines that seemed to be more in use for shunting around stations.

Buses

Buses have by and large assumed the dominant mode for long distance travel, both intra-state and across nations. This service is probably more organized in both Kenya and Tanzania, while private sector companies dominate the business in Uganda, each with modest fleet numbers.

Home heating

The relatively friendly weather has meant that the burden of home-heating is near-non-existent, save for some houses mostly in high altitude areas, largely with fireplaces.

Nature of industries

Industries are largely to be found in agricultural processing for traditional crops such as tea, coffee, sugar and grain milling. Many in industries like tea processing continue to use biomass and oil largely. Others like coffee processing largely use electricity from the grid, while grain milling is increasingly powered from the grid since the escalation of fuel prices that used to be for generators. 

WHY PROMOTE AN ENERGY BLOG IN EAST AFRICA – GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Energy is a priority item on the global agenda

Energy has become an increasingly important subject in the global perspective today. A number of considerations come into play, some of which are, increasing levels of pollution in the atmosphere, rising ambient temperatures across the world as a result of carbon dioxide and other emissions, growing manufacturing that is responsible for the pollution, the search for better methods of raising useful energy outputs per unit of primary energy, desire to cut down on use of traditional sources of energy that cause high levels of pollution, increasing use of renewable energies that are more environment friendly, and reverting to more energy efficient lifestyles beside a host of other considerations.

Source: http://preview.tinyurl.com/n9857gc

Old though this chart/graph is, it is instructive in showing the ‘explosion in consumption’ from the 1940s or thereabout.

As to the fuels used, the 2004 chart by British Petroleum of 2004 is instructive:

We can see that Africa in particular had, and, seems to continue to be a very small consumer of the primary sources in question – oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear energy and hydropower.

A more recent picture up to 2010 from the Wikipedia encyclopedia shows a continued growth pattern, especially in Asia and Oceania, with big consumers including China and India, see graphs below:

Source: Wikipedia - World primary energy consumption in quadrillion Btu by region.svg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_primary_energy_consumption_in_quadrillion_Btu_by_region.svg

World outlook

Starting with the seventies, oil prices started to rise sharply. Being a major resource for energy in the world then, many users felt the need for finding redress in order to remain competitive and make products that could keep a meaningful share in the marketplace.

The quest for energy efficiency became more relevant, resulting in more opportunities for manufacturing concerns to seek services of providers. Many companies sought improvements with relatively short ‘payback periods’. This led to the adoption of internal personnel dedicated to seeking energy savings before resorting to experts for more detailed reviews. Financial institutions were brought on board, funding improvements to the benefit of all parties.

Alongside the above developments, efforts at exploiting renewable sources of energy were beefed up. Coal and oil have been dominant resources, but, with higher pollution to the environment. As such, the ever-abundant sunshine and wind for instance caught the sight of researchers in the quest for enhancing their share in the energy mix.

In parallel, new technologies are constantly sought where greater energy efficiency is achieved or more environment friendly resources are used.

Saving the environment

Worldwide, greenhouse gas emissions have increased significantly, with a 70 percent increase between 1970 and 2004. The picture for fossil fuels alone is represented by the following line-graph:

Global Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) emissions from fossil-fuels 1990-2008

Source: Boden, T.A., G. Marland, and R.J. Andres (2010). Global, Regional, and National Fossil-Fuel CO₂ Emissions. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.A. doi 10.3334/CDIAC/00001_V2010.

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html 

Realizing the growing rate at which the environment is threatened, the world community is busy devising strategies to cut on pollution so that the world can be habitable for future generations.

Such international forums as the United Nations have put in place entities to work toward the realization of these noble objectives.

Efforts in developed countries

Many advanced countries have dedicated many efforts toward these causes. These have been across the entire spectrum. To mention a few, many such countries have been at the forefront of developing exploitation of renewable energies, improving efficiency across the board, evolving technological innovations and the like.

Creating a conducive framework

In facilitating the growth of efforts toward a safer environment, a number of schemes have been applied. These incentives include tax waivers, subsidies and like drives.

A very interesting one is one where a private generator for renewable energy is allowed to sell to the electricity grid at a tariff that ensures that they do not make a loss, even when such a tariff is above the normally set rate. That way, entrepreneurs are encouraged to continue to spearhead their efforts at tapping renewable energies to higher levels.

Consequences to date

The overall effect is very pleasing in several aspects. One, the once down-played renewable energies are now assuming center-stage in energy contribution.

Wind and solar resources have moved from small-time resources with negligible contribution to significant shares in the energy mix.

Many countries have set ambitious targets for the share of renewable in the energy mix. Germany has been quite ambitious and resolute, with a significant impact. United States of America (US) has seen big reductions in growth of carbon dioxide emissions, thanks to the government and private sector efforts.

Despite China remaining a significant generator of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, it is also amongst the leading countries in exploiting wind and solar.

As a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, it has one of the most significant incentive programs for solar adoption that are changing its ranking dramatically, starting with Tokyo.

Situation of less developed countries

It ought to be said that, the situation prevailing in that group of countries is a largely mixed one. In general, there has been less development versus increased consumption in general. We will briefly talk about a few of the pertinent issues.

Economies tend to be growing at much lower rates if at all, especially in these financially troubled times. Many of their industries are vested with old technologies, often rendering them uncompetitive. Much of the industry adds little value, with several exports as unprocessed or semi-processed agricultural products.

Many primary energy sources are the conventional forms of petroleum products and/or coal, even for processes for which the more developed countries are using more efficient technologies or other resources. On the other hand, several poor countries continue to predominantly use biomass, mostly for cooking. This is by the majority of the populations, to be found in rural areas, and, Uganda is not an exception.

While many developed countries have renewable energies contributing handsomely to grid electricity, a number of poorer countries continue to generate electricity using petroleum products.

These countries have on average higher population growth rates, putting more pressure on the resources available.

Despite the existence of several business development obstacles, incentives to the energy sector are limited or hard to get at times.

Need to address needs of energy sector

Judging from the above, there is indeed to seek ways and means of getting the poorer countries to strive to emulate the rest of the world on this important subject.

One way to start is through addressing an urgent need to start raising the consciousness of the communities in the less developed world about the need for energy matters.

There ought also to be some comparative analysis on the different activities, and, proposing strategies that can move us to higher levels of modern energy practices.

It is against such a background that this blog is initiated.

Check out our other forum

Apart from this effort on home ground, we are also blogging at http://empowernetwork.com/paulsagala/ and we invite you to see some of our efforts there.

Welcome Once Again

Dear visitors to our blog, we welcome you warmly once again! To those in the ‘Old Girl / Boy’ category, it is indeed time to reminisce on those times! To others who have some knowledge of King’s College Budo, we hope the pictures bring you close to the character of the school we take much pleasure in! To those who have been distant to Uganda in various considerations, we hope that you have had an opportunity to view a setting that has contributed to grooming many Ugandans over the decades.

I wish to extend our esteem in those who attended the school in its formative years, many of whom have variously contributed to regional and wider global development! Congratulations! You have set the pace for many of us who in many ways consider our task as yet incomplete!

The educational scene has witnessed many changes, the latest in the area of free universal education, starting with primary and now into secondary. A great development is further emphasis on vocational education. Many great countries attribute their developments to that vocational route.

Uganda is set for greater times, with the prospect of increased incomes, giving us hope in greater value addition through industrialisation and increasing export activity.

We do hope to widen our pictorial presentations to other areas in the near future.

Once again, we welcome you to the blog and hope to see more of your visits, and stimulation of your interest in a greater Uganda in the international village!