5 July 2013
Tanzania has been given $21m by The Netherlands for converting biogas into energy and is expected to build over 12,000 biogas plants between now and 2015.
The helping hand comes under the Africa Biogas Partnership Programme funded by the Dutch government and will enable around 50 new enterprises to be created.
Since the Tanzania Domestic Biogas Program (TDBP) began three years ago, 6,000 biogas plants have been built, benefitting 35,000 households across the country, according to TDBP coordinator Lehand Shilla.
He said the project was expected to benefit low-income earners in six countries – Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Burkina Faso – with a total of around 75,000 plants.
Over 12,000 biogas plants will improve access to energy for Tanzania’s rural population (Credit: Fanny Schertzer/Wikimedia)
"We are aiming at building the capacity to local actors in biogas in order to make it a commercially viable and market oriented biogas sector," said Shilla.
More than 500 masons have been trained in the construction and maintenance of the plants under the programme.
A product of the natural decomposition of organic substances, biogas has proven a good alternative source of energy.
Major sources of biogas are animal excrement, waste landfills and other untreated organic material.
Source: Allafrica.com
