Benefits of using biogas in households experience from a user in Uganda

A Sendegeya, P J M Ssebuwufu and I P da SilvaMakerere University and Ssebuwufu AssociatesThis paper discusses the socio-economic benefits of using biogas based on the experience of a long term user as a typical example. A floating drum type of digester was installed with a capacity of 6.5 m3 in the year 2000 at a total cost of US$1,830. The gas generated is used exclusively for cooking. For the user, his typical kitchen day consists of three meals for a household of 8 people. Prior to the installation of the biogas plant, the user was using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supplied in 15 kg cylinders at an average cost of US$ 23 per cylinder and used to consume an average of 3 cylinders in 2 months bringing a monthly expenditure on the kitchen fuel of US$35 including transport costs for the cylinder. The user has now totally substituted LPG with biogas which translates into an annual average saving of US$ 420. At this rate of saving, the break-even point for the full recovery of the installation costs is about five years. Since installation the digester has not had any significant breakdown, so no major maintenance has been required. The water used for mixing the cow dung into slurry is harvested rainwater. Thus according to his experience it indicates that the use of biogas offers a substantial cost saving on domestic energy. In addition to the economic benefits, other benefits include increased organic agricultural production when the sludge is used as fertiliser. The use of the slurry as bio-fertiliser on his small vegetable farm (about 0.5 ha), has helped him to save money that would have been used to buy the imported artificial fertilisers. Fermenting the cow dung in a biogas digester instead of composting it in open air provides several other advantages, ranging from a foul odour-free environment to improvements in the general health conditions in the home. Thus, a reduction in the unhealthy smell from the compost dumps where the cow dung used to be deposited, as well as a reduction in free methane gas (one of the green house gases, GHG) which used to be emitted direct into the atmosphere by the decomposing dung.This paper discusses the socio-economic benefits of using biogas based on the experience of a long term user as a typical example. A floating drum type of digester was installed with a capacity of 6.5 m3 in the year 2000 at a total cost of US$1,830. The gas generated is used exclusively for cooking. For the user, his typical kitchen day consists of three meals for a household of 8 people. Prior to the installation of the biogas plant, the user was using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supplied in 15 kg cylinders at an average cost of US$ 23 per cylinder and used to consume an average of 3 cylinders in 2 months bringing a monthly expenditure on the kitchen fuel of US$35 including transport costs for the cylinder. The user has now totally substituted LPG with biogas which translates into an annual average saving of US$ 420. At this rate of saving, the break-even point for the full recovery of the installation costs is about five years. Since installation the digester has not had any significant breakdown, so no major maintenance has been required. The water used for mixing the cow dung into slurry is harvested rainwater. Thus according to his experience it indicates that the use of biogas offers a substantial cost saving on domestic energy. In addition to the economic benefits, other benefits include increased organic agricultural production when the sludge is used as fertiliser. The use of the slurry as bio-fertiliser on his small vegetable farm (about 0.5 ha), has helped him to save money that would have been used to buy the imported artificial fertilisers. Fermenting the cow dung in a biogas digester instead of composting it in open air provides several other advantages, ranging from a foul odour-free environment to improvements in the general health conditions in the home. Thus, a reduction in the unhealthy smell from the compost dumps where the cow dung used to be deposited, as well as a reduction in free methane gas (one of the green house gases, GHG) which used to be emitted direct into the atmosphere by the decomposing dung

Managing and Transforming an African University: Personal Experience at Makerere University, 1973-2004

A friend once lamented that one of Africa’s weaknesses was that Africans did not write much about themselves, that foreigners write most of what he reads about Africa and the major events shaping the future of the continent. Going by the volume of literature I had seen and read about our continent written by Africans, I thought my friend was unfairly criticising Africans. However, as I approached retirement, I began to wonder how many books had been written about the good and the bad at Makerere ever since it became a national university in 1970. Although a quick search indicated that, over the years, scores of scholars had written a lot about Makerere’s glorious past, its fortunes and tribulations, most of this literature was scattered in journals and other academic publications not easily accessible to an ordinary person. With the exception of Professor Margaret McPherson’s They Built for the Future, published by Cambridge University Press in 1964 and Professor Alexander Odonga’s The History of the Medical School, published in the early 2000s, and one or two others, I could hardly find any other book written on the university. Neither had any of my predecessors written a full account of their experiences, perhaps understandably so, given the circumstances under which most of them left office, some never to be seen alive again. For that reason, I counted myself among the lucky former leaders of Makerere. I served a long tenure and was lucky not to be thrown out of office unceremoniously. Having been so privileged, I thought I had no excuse to let my long experience as staff and Vice Chancellor go undocumented. I was not only Makerere’s student, leader and top manager but also one of its longest serving members of staff. I was there at the beginning of its long difficult years. I was also there when the university began to see some semblance of recovery. That was a rich experience