By Brian Okoth
Rwanda is piloting the use of cooking gas in schools as an alternative to wood fuel and charcoal.
The Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) rolled out the programme in 20 schools in the southern part of the country.
The schools, where the piloting is taking place, are in Kamonyi, Nyanza, Ruhango, and Gisagara districts
A total of 323.9 million Rwandan Franc ($287,000) has been set aside for the piloting, the Ministry of Environment said.
Under the clean energy project, liquefied petroleum gas is used for bulk cooking instead of wood fuel or charcoal, which have been the primary sources of energy for many years.
REMA said one school has the potential of using between 150 and 200 cubic metres of firewood per term. The high volume of wood fuel indicates the high level of deforestation that occurs in order to enable cooking in schools, REMA said.
Rwanda has more than 3.8 million learners in nursery, primary and secondary schools, with nearly 3.5 million of this population attending government schools.
The total student population is enrolled to at least 9,640 schools countrywide, according to the country’s Ministry of Education.
The government says it plans to phase out the use of firewood and charcoal in schools to reduce environmental pollution, deforestation and degradation of agricultural land.
A successful implementation of the gas-in-schools programme will lead to saving approximately 263,000 hectares of degraded forests, the Environment ministry said.
REMA plans to collaborate with the Education ministry to extend the project to the entire country.
The Minister for Environment, Jeanne Mujamariya, says the government is committed to reducing the use of wood fuel in Rwanda from 80 per cent currently to 42 per cent in the nearby future.
