Monday 9 May 2016

An interesting morning spent in Area 23, a district in Lilongwe, which has received the gift of briquette making equipment.  The equipment was donated to a small group of women to enable them to provide extra income for their families.  Such small scale projects are often very successful because they target the females who can be relied on to do the work, and make sure all profits are spent on their children’s food, education and care. 

Malawi’s National Energy Policy estimates that 93% of Malawi’s total energy demand is met by biomass energy (wood/charcoal). Charcoal is produced from wood, over 60% of which is made from wood originating from protected Forest Reserves and National Parks. In total, 99% of household energy is supplied by wood/charcoal. This, along with increasing population growth, is placing massive pressure on the country’s forest resources, leading to forest degradation and deforestation at a rate of 2.6% per year. And of course, homelessness and starvation for a large number and variety of vulnerable animals. 

In terms of electricity, less than 7% of the 14 million people are connected to the national grid.  The cost of electricity is very high and rising - tariffs were raised by 84% in 2013 alone.  As a result less than 2.3% of the total national energy demand is met by electricity – which is perhaps just as well because there are continual power cuts anyway.

Hence, the briquettes.  They are made out of a mixture of paper and sawdust.  In Lilongwe we are very fortunate that the local newspaper business are willing to donate their waste paper to the project, so this is collected and shredded before being delivered to Area 23.  Sponsors also purchase sawdust and donate it to the project.  Our goal this morning was to make some briquettes with some of the local ladies, partly so we could see how they were made, and partly to cement positive relations with the community surrounding the Sanctuary.

I’m not sure if I have expressed this very strongly before on this blog, but the community surrounding the Sanctuary are by no means impressed with the work undertaken here.  Many of the animals we care for are thought of as pests and vermin; others, like the owl and chameleon are actively disliked and distrusted because of local beliefs connecting them with witchcraft.  If we want Africa, specifically Malawi in this case, to value their forests/animals/environments, we need to engage the interest and support of Malawians.  Briquette making is a good example of this.  If this system is introduced carefully, locals will realise they have much to win and nothing at all to lose from making and using briquettes.

I have a series of photographs to show the briquette making process, which is very simple and not too physically demanding. 

Stage 1: Soak paper strips in cold water for 5 minutes

Stage 2: place wet paper strip in wooden bucket and pound for 15-30 minutes until soft and mashy.

Stage 3: place mashed paper into bowl and add sawdust.

Stage 4: add water to the bucket until you have a watery porridge like substance

Stage 5: pour 2 cups of the porridge into each of the cylinders

Stage 6: place a metal disc on top of the porridge and press down to drain out water

Repeat stages 5 and 6 two more times.

Stage 7: place black cylinders on the top disc and screw down presser until all water has been expelled

Stage 8: remove presser, cylinders and discs and place individual briquettes in sun for drying.  Today this took about 2 hours, but in summer I guess it would take much less.

I left today with more questions than answers around the whole issue of Briquette making as a social enterprise.  The equipment apparently cost 60,000 Malawi Kwacha, which is about £60.  This is far beyond the resources of the vast majority of Malawi’s, but not in itself an impossible sum. The briquettes can easily be made, dried, and transported to market for sale.   The cost of a briquette is less that the cost of the equivalent amount of firewood.  A major problem, however, is that the vast majority of Malawi’s have never heard of the briquettes so of course they don’t buy them.  As we know, adults are very slow to change any habits they form, even when that behaviour is very detrimental to their own health and wellbeing (e.g. smoking) so marketing is proving difficult. 

The briquettes are a great idea but a number of projects have failed because:

makers are unable to afford to purchase paper/sawdust.

briquettes can be difficult to market

After a very interesting morning cogitating on the above, I spent a happy afternoon with a machete and an enormous, I mean enormous, sack of pumpkins.  I was in the mood for action, and cut up about 150 pumpkins for animal consumption – the baboons, monkeys, antelope, just about anyone who stays here. The Malawi’s huddled together a good 10 meters away and used the kitchen knives to cut up pumpkins while I let loose with the machete and hacked my lot to bits.  Afterwards, we went and threw them into the animal enclosures, ensuring some landed deep in amongst the trees, while some stayed much closer to the wire.  This ensures all animals are able to scavenge and eat, whereas if we placed the food closer together the dominant species would get all of it.

Job done.  Off for a shower and to apply deet before the mossies come out.