Emmanuel Orach, the Nwoya district chairperson told members of the community on Friday that this is one of the initiatives to see that Nwoya district go green adding that it is a great stride to saving the environment.
Nwoya district has entered into a partnership with the Bukona
Agro Processors Limited to prevent forest destruction in the area due to the
high demand for charcoal and firewood.
Through the initiative, Bukona Agro Processors Limited is
undertaking the manufacture and production of green fuel-powered stoves which
are sold out to the local community at subsidized prices or purchased on
credit.
Nwoya district through the different leadership
structures and stakeholders will be charged with rallying and supporting the local
community to purchase and use the stoves against firewood and charcoal.
The stoves dubbed ''Greenery'' which come in different sizes and designs use green
fuel ethanol which is clean and produced from dried cassava and sorghum which
will be locally produced by farmers in the district.
Nwoya district leaders are also tasked with rallying locals in
the area to plant sorghum and cassava for sustainable production of the green
fuel ethanol.
Pravin Kekhal, the Executive Director of Bukona Agro Processors
Limited told URN that the stoves have been studied, tested and proven that
they require less than a liter of green fuel ethanol in a day since it cooks any
food in less than two hours.
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A liter of green fuel ethanol will be sold at three thousand
eight hundred shillings, a thing Pravin says is economically sustainable and
affordable.
According to Pravin, they project to produce 50,000 stoves
yearly adding that once people embrace the use it will save at least 8,000
acres of forest destroyed yearly.
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Emmanuel Orach, the Nwoya district chairperson told members of
the community on Friday that this is one of the initiatives to see that Nwoya
district embraces this project to go green adding that it is a great stride to saving the environment.
//Cue in: ‘’one of those…
Cue out: …the woods around.’’//
On Friday, the district leaders embarked on a sensitization
meeting urging the local community to grow cassava and sorghum being the raw
materials for the initiative and also embrace using the stove to save the
already depleted environment.
According to the district leaders, every household in the
district uses charcoal and firewood as the only sources of fuel energy,
something they say has greatly led to the destruction of forests.
Celestino Kilama, a cultural leader in Koch Goma Sub County
welcomed the initiative saying that it is promising and would save the
remaining trees as well as give room for those cut to rejuvenate.
In a recent interview last week, Jimmy Ouna, the Manager National Forestry
Authority (NFA) in Acholi and Lango Subregions said that more than 90% of
forest coverage in the areas has been destroyed due to the demand for firewood,
charcoal and timber among other things.
Bukona Agro Processors Limited was established in 2014 and commissioned in 2019 with the initial intention to produce 30,000 liters of distilled waragi from cassava starch. It is located in Lapem Village, Koch Goma Sub County, Nwoya district.
Emmy Daniel Ojara
Freelancer