The Minister of Infrastructure, Ernest Nsabimana, has acknowledged that the effective implementation of the National Domestic Biogas Programme has been hindered by factors including lack of maintenance, but observed that biogas is still a relevant cooking energy that is environment friendly.
He said that the Government is committed to invest in resources and ensure that the biogas programme becomes a success and delivers the intended results.
The Minister was on Wednesday, March 9, appearing before the Plenary Sitting of the Chamber of Deputies – held virtually – to provide responses to issues identified in the biogas programme.
"The fact that some biogas plants are working offer hope that if we scale up efforts and ensure effective monitoring, it can be fully successful, hence helping reduce firewood-based fuel in line with environmental protection,” he said.
His comments came in the wake of uncertainty about the fate of the biogas programme as a large number of them were not functioning, a situation that MPs said has discouraged residents from adopting biogas as cooking fuel.
MP Valens Muhakwa, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said a large number of biogas plants were non-functional as a result of lack of technical support.
He said that an audit report on EDCL’s performance for the financial year 20219/2020 indicated that of the 9,647 biogas plants that were installed countrywide, 5,014, or 52 per cent, were not operational and there was no plan to utilise them.
MP Muhakwa asked why there was no follow-up on the state of biogas digesters in order to fix the problems affecting their operations in a timely manner.
"Who will be held accountable for the loss caused to residents from the non-functional biogas plants,” MP Muhakwa asked.
The Minister said that they will work with competent organs in charge of the recovery of public assets so that those who were involved in the failure of biogas plants get punished for that.
MP Elizabeth Mukamana said it was realised that the requirements to have an effectively functioning biogas system were not easily affordable by some households.
"For an 8m3 biogas plant to operate well, there was a need to feed into it over 40 kilogrammes of cow dung complimented with over 40 litres of water daily,” she stated.
She suggested that there is a need for a way to reduce the feedstock and water requirement but at the same time, ensure the effectiveness of the biogas system, which can facilitate residents.
Study underway to help solve the problem
Minister Nsabimana said that since the management of biogas plants was handed over to districts, they have been struggling with lack of skilled technicians, which negatively affected the biogas digester maintenance services.
He said that some of the households who had biogas plants sold some of their cows, which led to low dung production and poor functioning of those plants.
Also, he said, there was an issue of weak biogas digesters which got damaged shortly after they started working.
Meanwhile, he said that there is a study being carried out countrywide to find out specific issues affecting each biogas plant in the country, as well as to address them.
He told MPs that the results of this study, which started in December 2021, are expected to be ready within two months.
"We hope that the study will help come up with the effective strategies to address the issues in question and make this project yield the intended outcome,” he said.
The Lower House requested the Minister to provide the report on the survey findings about the issues in the biogas programme and strategies meant to solve them so that MPs establish whether the initiative is attaining its goal.
The main objectives of the biogas program put in place in 2007, is to substitute the use of firewood for cooking energy by biogas, hence protect the environment, people’s health, improve sanitation in the kitchen, reduce the burden to women and children who collect firewood for cooking in their families.
According to the report of the Auditor General of state finances for the year ended 30 June 2019, the government provided a subsidy of Rwf300,000 per household willing and eligible to have a biogas plant.
As per the Rwanda Household Survey 2019/2020 report produced by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), 77.7 percent of Rwandan households used firewood as cooking fuel, 17.5 per cent used charcoal, while 4.2 per cent used gas or biogas.
Rwanda targets to reduce the rate of households using firewood for cooking to 42 per cent by 2024 as the country seeks to adopt clean cooking energy solutions and reduce household air pollution emissions.
Biogas was identified as one of the clean cooking energy solutions that were expected to help achieve that target