Posted on December, 08 2015

Some 57Km away from Same town in one of seven districts of the Kilimanjaro Region in Tanzania you will find Mabilioni ward where Mabilioni village lies. World Wide Fund for Nature -WWF in Tanzania through its Energy programme together with the Same district and Mwanga Environmental Conservation Advisory Organization (SMECAO) fund has initiated a model energy village which is established and pioneered to make it the energy mix champion village in Northern Tanzania.

Environmental destruction i.e. overuse of wood and kerosene products in Same ward drove WWF-Tanzania and SMECAO to create an awareness campaign on the need of adopting to green energies so as to give a way to producing various sustainable energy sources with the applications of the energy mix in the Mabilioni Village.

“Mabilioni village has at least 692 households, 45 among them have already installed the solar power to help villagers have access to the renewable lighting where family members like students are joyful enjoying the solar lighting to facilitate them at night studies sessions” says Mr. Ezekiel John Massawe, SMECAO Director, during a field visit to the Mabilioni village, recently.

Unlike fossil fuel based technologies, solar power does not lead to any harmful emissions during operation but the production of the panels lead to some amount of pollution which is somehow a concern to the environment, he added.

Dr.Teresia Olemako, WWF Tanzania's Energy program Coordinator, noted “We have managed to install solar power systems in 45 households and fade away the darkness in the village, but also solar lights can help students to abandon the use of kerosene that leads to serious problems on health especially for respiratory systems.

Mabilioni security conditions during night have been assured by the presence of the solar lights which are there all the time so long as there is sun to provide electricity, also we believe solar power systems can provide another platform for youth to get business opportunities of selling solar PV systems spare parts or the whole system for those who want more power like shops and bars to add more for example we have provided education to the Trainers of Trainees (TOTs) who use the same techniques to build fuel-efficient or improved stoves that several people have been taught to build and now they earn around 5000 shillings for income as building costs.

WWF Tanzania is considering it a great success as way of supporting the villagers in raising their economical incomes and increasing business opportunities beyond solar power installation.”

Ms Zakati Lugindi, Village Executive Officer (VEO) in Mabilioni village, said “We are thankful to WWF for giving a hand to our development initiatives, we have been struggling with the climate change in our village since 2013 where we marked the drought day National wide in our village, since then we are trying with all our efforts to eradicate poverty and provide another greening energy sources to help our communities survive and combat the climate change at Mabilioni.

Thanks to WWF Tanzania and SMECAO for putting a strategy to make our village a model energy one which we hope it will be a starting point of witnessing another side of the coin in our daily lives here at Mabilioni e.g. eliminate poverty by stapling budget on buying kerosene but instead that could be invested in the families developments projects e.g. put into Village Community Banks (VICOBA), the village leadership in corporations with WWF together with SMECAO will support this project until it ends on 2017. We are confident we will achieve a great progress and make a lot of changes in social developments especially for the poor communities around the village but then we are asking for more help so that we can manage to be a leading model energy village in Tanzania and East Africa in general” she said.

Rabia Said a 12 years old standard six student from Mabilioni Primary School, said 'In the past, we used to read by using kerosene funnels which produced a lot of smoke that disturbed my eyes and sometimes losing sight during day time plus headaches but now we use electric lights by the sun (Solar power). I am since enjoying studying even at night and thanks to WWF and SMECAO for bringing solar system to our village which help us to read all the time tirelessly and as a result now I have managed to upgrade my position from number 11 to be among the top 10 students in our class as my level is number 2, am' very happy' she said.

To sum up Mabilioni village has 11 sub villages, in which there are 3 Primary Schools with over 300 students in each school and 1 Secondary School with over 300 students too, therefore the installations of solar power systems should boost education systems in the area.

By this project the communities of Mabilioni and others in Same district shall get the chance to improve their livelihood and also increase availability of biomass energy, clean water and generally gaining deeper environmental knowledge.