Climate Action and conservation Enthusiast has warned that the extended hours of load shedding has increased the demand of charcoal which is most likely going to encourage deforestation in the country.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Climate Action and Conservation Enthusiast Enock Mwangilwa said, the current 21 hours of load shedding will resort to people looking for alternative sources of energy which in this case will be charcoal as it is the one which is highly available and accessible to the majority of Zambians.
“When we talk about the impact of load shedding in Zambia this is not new , as it is something we have seen before except this time around it is much worse because of the terrible intense droughts that we are experiencing in our country which has affected power generation, so with the extended load shedding hours what we will see certainly is an increase in the demand of an alternative source of energy,” he said.
Mwangilwa added that there is high demand for charcoal currently, mostly in Urban areas as compared to the rural areas , making people see charcoal production as a business opportunity.
“Charcoal is on high demand in urban areas, people from rural areas are seeing it as a business and will now continue exploiting the forests by going in there to cut down a lot of trees which will then be put on the market,” he said.
Mwangilwa further stated that the extended hours will now contribute to the increase in illegal production of charcoal as many people are seeing a business opportunity in that.
“With respect to the environment it is causing huge land degradation because a lot of trees are cut down and it is also not going to help us when we talk of carbon sequestration ,which we really need in our fight against climate change meaning that we will remain with fewer trees that can help in carbon sequestration which is not good for us as well as the rain cycle as trees play an important role ,” he said.
Mwangilwa further called on the general Public to explore other alternative of resources like solar also calling on relevant stakeholders to help in the fight against deforestation by subsidizing alternative sources of energy like solar.
