Honde Valley Residents Facing Energy Crises Resort to Poaching Firewood from Forestry
By Philemon Jambaya
ZIMBABWE has an estimated 60 percent of its population residing in the rural areas who due to unavailability of electricity and other
alternatives source of energy have to resort to primitive energy sources such as firewood.
alternatives source of energy have to resort to primitive energy sources such as firewood.
But with the alarming deforestation as reported by the Forestry Commission that 300 000 hectares of wood were lost last year, it has
meant nightmares for the rural population who rely on wood for cooking.
A trip to Honde Valley by this reporter reveals a situation that has threatened the Wattle Company’s Nyanga Pine estates as most of the
areas close to it have resorted to fire wood poaching since their woodlands have depleted.
“We don’t have any option because you can see most of our woodlots have vanished owing to growing human settlement,” said Liberty Mareya of Munyuki village.
A warden of the Nyanga pine estates confessed that they are running ‘battles’ with the villagers from this area that fall under headman
Samanga .
“These villagers have the tendency of coming to the plantations and cutting down the pine trees only a few do collect the dry woods. We
are always apprehending about three people a day but this situation has not eased at all,” said a worried Emmanuel Ndarova.
He said apart from dealing with poaching of firewood, they are also in quandary with villagers who are using the estates for pastures for
their cattle.
“Most of the villagers are now putting their cattle up in our estates and that has meant our woodlots which have young trees have been
susceptible to damage,” added Ndarova.
Very few households use electricity and while some have electricity they still use wood for cost-cutting measures.
This is the case with a teacher at a local school, Mr Lovemore Chikohwa who said he uses electricity for lighting and other
electrical gadgets but when it’s not raining he uses firewood for cooking.
“I have electricity at my home but that because of the astronomical bills and unreliability of it(electricity)I have no option but to use
firewood,” said the Gatsi secondary school teacher.
Most young girls and women in the area said they now bore the brunt of this scarcity of energy resources.
“We spend most of our time looking and collecting firewood travelling some kilometres.
“In some areas some have resorted to use cow-dung and grass to avert the situation,” was the words of 14 year-old Tarisai Muponda of
Samaringa.
An irrigation scheme that could have changed the livelihoods of a lot of villagers of Chipupuri village has to die its infancy owing to
lack of energy to power the pumps.
“We had a Dinda irrigation scheme that had been initiated by our then councillor Lameck Kutsawa but it did not see the light of the day as
we had no money to draw electricity to the place and let alone to use diesel power,” said Tamara Simbiso ,an elderly man probably in her
late 70s.
late 70s.
Zimbabwe established the Rural Electrification Fund (REF) in 2002 . This resulted in the establishment of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) whose main focus is to spearhead rapid and equitable electrification of rural areas in Zimbabwe.
However, REA has over the years been citing economic constraints in its operations that has seen a number of projects being abandoned.
Edwin Sithole who is into selling of solar lanterns in Chipinge said he is making a brisk business as most villagers are resorting to use of solar as the cost of paraffin is high.
Edwin Sithole who is into selling of solar lanterns in Chipinge said he is making a brisk business as most villagers are resorting to use of solar as the cost of paraffin is high.
“Most villagers are placing their orders in purchasing the solar lanterns that I sell as the price of paraffin is not very affordable
to many, ”he said.
A report on the ‘Status of Renewable Energy in Zimbabwe’ in 2010 by the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre ,the
country has an average of 6.5 sunshine hours per day and a solar insolation of 5.7kWh/m2/day but this solar energy is not widely used
despite the fact that it is inexhaustible and the hardware is relatively simple.
It acknowledges that the solar electricity is a proven way to meet the power requirements for water pumping, telecommunications, and community, village or residential electrification.
