Legislators visit PV village in Mozambique
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 1 2009
On September 18 Southern African legislators and experts were taken by the e-Parliament to visit Djabula - an isolated village in Maputo province in Mozambique where stand-alone photovoltaic panels linked to batteries provide electricity to a school, health centre, water pump and 45 houses day and night.
The legislators had the opportunity to speak to members of the community and were impressed at how these installations were having a positive effect on the villagers’ lives.
Experts talking to legislators at the PV-powered village of Djabula in Mozambique |
The visit had been arranged by the e-Parliament at the start of a parliamentary hearing on “Energy Access for the Poor” which took place at the Indy Village Hotel in Maputo, Mozambique, on September 19 and 20.
The 19 legislators – from Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as Mozambique – heard presentations at the hearing on different renewable energy technologies and policies to support them. They included:
- Stand-alone solar, wind or hydro installations for remote, widely-dispersed communities
- Mini-grids based on one or more different sources of energy, for remote communities with more concentrated populations
- Solar thermal power stations for large-scale production of electricity in countries with areas of desert such as the Kalahari desert in Namibia.
- High voltage direct current (HVDC) cables which can help nations share their renewable potential and increase stability of supply throughout the region
- Feed-in tariffs would encourage renewable energy production
- Renewable energy manufacturing in the region would result in faster deployment
- Climate change adaptation measures need to be taken alongside mitigation strategies
In addition there was a particular focus on how energy policies had in the past tended to ignore the needs of women. Women are, for example, often responsible for collecting fuel wood, which can be dangerous when they have to walk a long way. They also suffer respiratory disease from cooking over wood stoves.
Sometimes the transition to renewables can have a dramatic effect. In Djabula, for example, an electric water pump powered by solar panels greatly benefitted women, as they no longer have to walk 15km to fetch water.
Many of the legislators were interested in the idea of conducting gender audits, as has been done in Botswana, to uncover the unexpected benefits and pitfalls that energy policies might have on the lives of men and women.
The 19 legislators had been brought together by the e-Parliament as part of a project funded by the European Commission and the Swedish Development Agency (Sida) to encourage legislators to promote energy access for the poor while simultaneously addressing climate change.
This two-day hearing was the fifth in a series of nine that are taking place in Caribbean, African and Pacific Island states between 2008 and 2010. Previous hearings have taken place in Kenya, Ghana, Tobago and Guyana.
ENDS
MORE INFORMATION? For information about the hearing, please contact Jasper Bouverie at mailto:Jasper.Bouverie@e-parl.net or tel: +44-1233-812037.
For more information about the e-Parliament, please consult the e-Parliament website.
Please visit http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/index_en.htm for details of the European Commission’s aid programme.
Please visit www.sida.org for details of the Swedish Development Agency.
  The e-Parliament would like to thank the European Union and the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA) for funding this project.This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union and SIDA. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the e-Parliament and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.
| 
Click to register
