For two years now, Mwangeka Girls’ Secondary School has offset the pressing burden of purchasing firewood.
The Wundanyi school at the foot of Vuria Hill, Taita Taveta, partnered with German volunteers to build a Sh600,000 biogas plant, setting a precedent for a clean source of fuel.
“Our proposal was accepted in 2017, two years later, we are enjoying the fruits of this awesome technology. It is very fast to prepare food for the whole school,” principal Christine Mlemwa said.
Even as the world marks World Environment Day on Wednesday, Mlemwa said the school has started the journey towards achieving a less air-polluted environment. This year's theme is 'Air Pollution'.
The school management paid Sh200,000 while the German volunteers paid Sh400,000. The plant uses waste school toilets and cow dung from the school dairy farm. The waste is deposited into a large biodigester sealed tank buried underground. In the tank, it is broken down into methane, the burning gas.
Mwangeka Girls now serves as a model for a number of learning institutions in the county. Several others have adopted clean energy to reduce deforestation and intend to install their own plants.
Mlemwa said the biodigester helps in preparing meals on time for the population of 746 students compared to firewood.
“Initially, we used to buy eight lorryloads of firewood, but now we need less. We only supplement with firewood when the biogas is low in the chambers. We plan to expand the digester to supply enough gas. This means we are saving more trees,” she added.
Biogas use is one of the best ways of taming air pollution.
According to a United Nations report, about seven million people die worldwide prematurely each year from air pollution, while 92 per cent do not breathe clean air.
Mwangeka Girls' head of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Stem) Patrick Irungu said the project has made learning more practical and enjoyable. Irungu monitors the daily operations in the plant.
They boast of being the only secondary school enrolled in Stem in Taita Taveta to have made an incredible development towards achieving clean energy and preserving the environment. The school also grows vegetables using excess water from the plant.
As a result, students Hotence Mwasusu, Queen Nyange and Elizabeth Mwau, all leaders of the school’s Community Service Learning (CSL) have started an Agriculture and Environment club as part of their passion to pursue environment management-related courses.
Mwau said the slurry from the plant provides an excellent fertiliser that has increased vegetable production on the school farm.
National Environment Management Authority Taita Taveta director Edith Kalo said biogas is a key contributor to environmental conservation.
“This contributes positively to air pollution control because the trees that are saved absorb carbon dioxide from the air. Basically, most of the biogas plants use human and kitchen waste to generate the gas,” Kalo said in an interview.
Other schools that have started embracing biogas include Mwasere Girls, St Mary’s Lushangonyi and Canon Kituri secondary schools.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)
