VSO rolls out biogas project in LL schools
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in Malawi has rolled out a Community Led Action for Sustainable Energy in Schools (Classec) project that will be producing biogas from human waste and animal dung to create methane in five primary schools in Lilongwe.
The three-year-project, which is being funded by Scottish Government’s Climate Justice Innovation Fund, is being implemented in partnership with Foundation for Irrigation and Sustainable Development (Fisd) with technical support from Mzuzu University (Mzuni).
Speaking during a tour at Mnkhupa Primary School in Traditional Authority (T/A) Chimutu on Wednesday, VSO renewable energy project manager Mtisunge Mngoli said her organisation wants communities to embrace biogas as an alternative source of energy to firewood.
“A typical school uses between half and one ton of firewood per day and this exerts pressure on already depleted forest resources, thereby exposing poor and marginalised people to the effects of climate change,” Mngoli explained.
Mkumpha Mother Support Group vice-chairperson Chrissy Kalulu expressed happiness with the biogas project, saying it will ease the burden of fetching firewood.
Mnkhupa Primary School head teacher Sebastian Munyata said since the introduction of the school feeding programme by Fisd in 2015, school enrolment increased to 761 from around 500.
VSO and Mzuni experts will train 25 artisans within the communities in biogas chamber construction in order to replicate the biogas project in other schools and homes. n
