We are currently developing carbon offset projects focused on improving access to clean water, clean cooking and clean energy for vulnerable communities in Africa while reducing the negative impact of GHG emissions on the environment. Our projects are implemented through the engagement and support of the local communities since the design phase, making sure that the intervention responds to their needs.
Carbon credits projects
GREEN TANZANIA COOKSTOVE PROGRAMME
“PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT, USE CLEAN COOKSTOVES” PROJECT
More than 90% of the population in Tanzania use wood or charcoal as their main source of energy for domestic use. In rural areas, this percentage is even higher with almost all households using open fires as a cooking tool and wood as fuel, sometimes combined with traditional charcoal stoves that have low energy efficiency rate, consuming large quantities of fuel.
The widespread use of inefficient cooking methods among the population is determined by the lack of accessibility to more environmentally friendly alternative cooking methods. The main barriers limiting access to more advanced cooking technologies are consumers lack of knowledge and awareness and the low households purchasing power in rural areas, which cannot afford to buy more efficient cooking technologies.
The widespread use of wood and charcoal for domestic use and inefficient cooking and space heating methods has a multi-dimensional negative impact:
- At the environmental level, there are increasing levels of deforestation due to the cutting of natural forests by rural communities to procure firewood and to produce charcoal to use especially in urban and peri-urban areas where charcoal stoves are more widely used. A study carried out by the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania in 2021 showed that on average each household uses about 6.7 kg of wood and 3.3 kg of charcoal per day for cooking. From 2010 to 2021, Tanzania lost about 11% of its forests (Global Forest Watch) due to deforestation.
- The use of inefficient methods for cooking food results in the release of substances that are harmful to health. The FAO estimates 3 million deaths a year worldwide from respiratory diseases caused by the constant and prolonged inhalation of smoke from combustion generated by inefficient cooking systems. According to data from the Tanzanian Ministry of Health, some 33,000 people die annually from this cause in the country. Women and children are the main victims of this problem, spending a lot of time in the kitchen. In addition, women living in rural areas are at risk of sexual violence on their way to collect wood.
- Due to heavy deforestation, not all households have easy access to forests now also in rural areas so they are forced to buy wood or charcoal from traders. Especially in the rainy season, the household budget allocated to the purchase of wood and charcoal increases because the availability of dry wood to collect decreases, contributing to poverty.
The national penetration of ICS in Tanzania is only 5% and is even lower in rural regions of the country. Lack of agents in rural remote areas, long distances and poor road conditions, lack of finance for the producers who are small scale artisans are among the reasons for the low penetration.
In order to overcome those challenges, OffgridSun has developed the Green Tanzania Cookstove Programme to promote clean cooking in rural Tanzania. The Green Tanzania Cookstove Programme aims at contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions derived by the use of fossil fuel for cooking and deforestation through the promotion of alternative clean cooking among rural households. The traditional stoves mostly used by rural households will be replaced with locally-made, portable, modern firewood cookstoves with high thermal efficiency (approx. 35%) that help to reduce up to 70% the wood consumption.
The first activity within the Programme is the project “Protect the Environment, Use Clean Cookstoves” VPA1 that is going to be implemented in Tanga Region whereby OffgridSun collaborate with the local NGO INUKA Youth Development Organization and will foresee the distribution of 10.000 improved cookstoves and small tree plants to the population in Handeni District.
The cookstoves will be sold at a subsidized affordable price to facilitate the access of the poorest families. Sensitization campaigns on clean cooking and environmental conservation will be also provided to the targeted communities. Local youth will be trained to become local agents to sell the cookstoves within the villages. The programme aims to reach areas where no such activities are implemented previously. In case of interaction with other similar initiatives/programmes, the project stoves can be identified with their design and unique IDs.
STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTATION PROCESS
A stakeholders consultation to collect feedbacks from the stakeholders was done via mail in December 2022 and a stakeholders meeting was organized physically on the 20th January 2023 in Mkata (Tanga Region).
Stakeholders are invited to provide feedbacks on the first activity of the programme “Protect the Environment, use clean cookstoves project” online at this email address: projects@offgridsun.com untill the 05 September 2023.
Here below the programme and projectdocuments as submitted to Gold Standards:
SAFE WATER ACCESS: CHIPANGALI PROJECT IN ZAMBIA
Zambia remains one of the countries in Africa with the least access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. According to the data collected by the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (DSH 2018), only 58 % of rural households has access to basic drinking water services while the rest of the population relies on unimproved water sources such as ponds, shallow wells, surface water such lakes and rivers. Access to safe drinking water for most rural communities in Zambia is still a challenge and despite efforts to improve this situation done by the Government, many rural communities do not have proper access to water.
The causes of the limited access to safe water for rural households are related either to low availability of boreholes which are not sufficient to cover the needs of the fast-growing population, therefore providing a limited quantity of water per each household, or to the low efficiency of the existing boreholes, which often do not function properly because of lack of maintenance or replacement of broken spares. Therefore, the communities either drink the unsafe water exposing themselves to water borne diseases or have to boiling the water to purify it often using firewood and charcoal, in turn polluting the environment, contributing to disforestation and exposing people, mainly women and children, to breath intoxicate air.
In Chipangali district, located in the Eastern part of the country, where the project is implemented, the water access situation is critical. From a survey performed in 2021 by the local NGO Pamodzi Ndi Ana in collaboration with the Chipangali District Water and Sanitation Office on the current situation of safe water access in the rural areas, it emerged that a number of villages have no boreholes at all, others have one borehole but is not functioning and the rest of the villages have only one borehole which is functioning but need more water supply to serve all the population.
Therefore, about 20.000 people currently do not have access to safe water in the area, but have to fetch water from open sources such rivers, dams & open pans, which are prone to contamination from human activities.
- The objective of the project is to improve the livelihoods of people living in Chipangali Distict, where there is no or poor access to safe water by providing sufficient, affordable, and clean drinking water to the communities within reasonable proximity, by doing the following activities:
- Rehabilitation of already existing but broken boreholes
- Creation of new boreholes in villages without access to safe water at all
- Creation of new additional boreholes in villages where the boreholes already existing but not sufficient to cover the needs of the population
- Training the local population on WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) topics
STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTATION PROCESS
One stakeholders consultation meeting was held in presence on the 8th of February 2022 at Saint Margaret Secondary School in Chipangali District, where stakeholders have been presented the project and have been invited to provide their feedbacks.
Stakeholders can also provide feedbacks on the project by sending a mail at the following email address: projects@offgridsun.com
Here below the projects main documents as submitted to Gold Standards:
CLEAN COOKING TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE IN TANZANIA PROJECT
More than 90% of rural households in Tanzania rely on traditional cooking methods and use firewood as main fuel for cooking, with negative effects on the environment on one side because of deforestation and human health on the other side because of the negative effects of polluted air on the local population.
Deforestation and climate change is a pressing concern for Tanzania: from 2001 to 2020 the country lost 2.70Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a 10% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and produced 910Mt of CO₂e emissions related to cooking practices (https://www.globalforestwatch.org/).
The mortality rate attributed to indoor air pollution (IAP) is 139 every 100,000 deaths every year (World Bank, 2016). Since cooking is predominantly a women’s business, women and girls are the ones affected the most by this condition. In average, women spend between 3 to 7 hours per day in collecting firewood and cooking related activities and are exposed 3 to 5 times more than men to polluted air from firewood combustion.
Clean Cooking to combat climate change in Tanzania is a project that aims at contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions derived by the use of fossil fuel for cooking and deforestation through the promotion of alternative clean cooking among rural households. The traditional stoves mostly used by rural households will be replaced with locally-made, portable, modern firewood cookstoves with high thermal efficiency (approx. 35%) that help to reduce up to 70% the wood consumption.
This project will be implemented in Central Tanzania in Morogoro region, within Ifakara Province, Kilombero District and Malinyi District targeting 6 villages for a total number of about 2.500 households which will included in project activities.
OffgridSun will partner with the Tanzanian NGO TAREA (Tanzania Renewable Energy Association) and the Tanzanian solar energy company MUTINA Group to implement the acctivities.
The project foresees the training of groups of women to become clean cooking facilitators and cookstoves agents who will in turn sensitize other women living in the targeted communities on clean cooking and environment conservation and will sell the cookstoves at a subsidized prize in order to make them more affordable for the rural households. The project will contribute to create job opportunities for local women who will receive a commission for each cookstove sold.
The project is expected to save approximately 15.000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTATION PROCESS
Two stakeholders consultation meetings were held February 2022. Repsectively on the 15th of February in Man’gula and on the 17th of February 2022 in Malinyi.
Stakeholders can also provide feedbacks on the project online at this email address: projects@offgridsun.com
Here below the projects main documents as submitted to Gold Standards:
SAFE WATER ACCESS: MAJI SAFI MAISHA BORA PROJECT IN KENYA
The project “Maji Safi, Maisha Bora” aims at improving the livelihoods of about 50.000 people in Kenya living in Siaya County, on the Lake Victoria, by providing sufficient, affordable and clean drinking water to targeted communities in East and West Yimbo Wards.
The people living within in this area currently drink unsafe water from the lake because they don’t have any working infrastructure that provides them safe water. These communities either drink the unsafe water of the lake, exposing themselves to water borne diseases or have to boil the water, often using firewood collected from the surrounding forests as fuel, causing deforestation problems in the area and emission of GHG produced by the combustion.
The project will rehabilitate an old water pipeline which is currently not functioning by connecting it to a solar system, replacing not functioning parts and extending the pipeline to unserved areas. The system will bring safe water to the population by installing smart drinking water kiosks in the area close to people’s houses. The project will foresee awareness campaigns for the population on WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) and environment conservation to sensitize the population on best practices on water consumption and hygiene and environment protection.
STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTATION PROCESS
A stakeholders consultation meeting has been held on the 24th of January 2022 in Usenge (Kenya).
Stakeholders can also provide feedbacks on the project online at this email address: projects@offgridsun.com
Here below the projects main documents as submitted to Gold Standards:
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