Zambia needs to explore other forms of energy, says Prof Sinkala
Zambia needs to explore other forms of energy, says Prof SinkalaBy Kabanda Chulu
Thursday January 10, 2008 [03:00]
BIOFUELS Association of Zambia chairman Professor Thomson Sinkala has said the country needs to explore other forms of energy because world oil resources were getting towards extinction.
And Aquagro Limited managing director Viswanath Shankar yesterday said Zambia must seriously embark on biofuel production in order to reduce costs related to the importation of crude oil.
During demonstrations by the Young Energy Specialists, YES- Africa at Arcades in Lusaka on how a Leyland DAF truck engine was running on biofuel, Prof Sinkala said Zambia needed to be self-sufficient and embark on full-time production of biofuel.
“This truck we are seeing is from South Africa and its engine is running on oil extracted from rape vegetable seeds, actually it is this self-sufficiency that Zambia must follow because global oil resources are getting towards zero hence the need to explore other forms of energy on a largescale production,” said Prof Sinkala.
And Shankar said embarking on large-scale production of biofuel would help to mitigate costs related to importation of crude oil.
He said cultivation of non-food crops such as jatropha would also uplift the livelihoods of villagers since they would have other sources of income.
“There is need to embark on fully fledged biofuel production in order to reduce costs related to the importation of crude oil and other factors are that biofuel is renewable and environmentally friendly,” Shankar said. “
And once people in the village embarks on jatropha cultivation, there livelihoods will definitely change since they will have alternative sources of income.”
Shankar said Aquagro has in stock various equipment with engines that could be operated on biofuels.
The YES-Africa initiative was founded in 2000 by Arjan Doeswijk and Mark van den Bosch with the objective of promoting the use of jatropha nuts that could be processed into biofuel.
The YES-Africa team has embarked on a mission from South Africa to Djibouti with intentions of planting one million jatropha trees.
“The objective of YES-Africa is setting up and promoting networks of energy specialists in developing countries and this initiative is helping African people help themselves, not by taking over responsibility, but by working together and sharing vision, success and failure, actually jatropha gives people a strong means of generating income and reducing poverty,” said van den Bosch.
Labels: BIOFUELS ASSOCIATION OF ZAMBIA
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