×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Implement gender equity on access to energy services, Parly urged

News
MDC-T legislator Fanny Chirisa (Proportional Representation) on Thursday introduced a motion in the National Assembly, which called for implementation of gender equity on access to energy services.

MDC-T legislator Fanny Chirisa (Proportional Representation) on Thursday introduced a motion in the National Assembly, which called for implementation of gender equity on access to energy services.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

Chirisa said there was need for gender sensitive strategies and mobilisation of resources for purposes of boosting energy renewal and combating climate change, She said the country should adhere to the various protocols it was signatory to and ensure the development of women in the energy sector.

Chirisa said women were the worst affected by lack of clean energy sources, as 67% of the population lives in the rural areas, where females are expected to fetch firewood and water.

“Zimbabwe has a shortfall on its electricity requirements and only 37% of homes in the country have electricity and are connected to power lines, and this is in urban areas,” she said.

“More than 80% of homes have access to electricity while only 1% in the rural areas has access to energy, and the rural areas are, therefore, experiencing pronounced energy poverty with the majority of the Zimbabwean population, about 67% living in the rural areas as per the last census of 2012.”

Chirisa said of the 70% Zimbabweans living in poverty, the majority were women, making energy access to them even more difficult. “In the face of energy scarcity, particularly in rural areas, rural communities mostly, 94% of their cooking energy requirements, is from the traditional fields, which is mostly firewood, and 20% of urban households use firewood for cooking. Only 6% less than 1% of urban households use coal or charcoal or gas,” she said.

Chirisa said without women’s meaningful involvement in all stages of energy project design, delivery and policy interventions around planning and financing, the government will not be able to accelerate progress on its national energy access goals and gender equality objectives.

Seconder of the motion, Concillia Chinanzvavana (MDC-T Proportional Representation) said renewable energy concerns women mostly because it is the women that require renewable energy in the various forms like firewood, or as light energy.

“The forests have now been wiped out, and they have to travel for a distance of about 20km and the firewood bundles are quite heavy to the extent that they can cause health problems. Women were never meant to be scotch-carts that carry firewood.”

Chinanzvavana said government should introduce biogas and solar energy projects at low cost for women in order to ease their woes.