THE Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has provided training to 126 biogas builders nationwide this year to motivate villagers to adopt smart cooking practices and refrain cutting trees in search of firewood and causing deforestation.
Training of builders is an initiative taken by the parastatal to allow villagers who need biogas digesters at their homesteads and farms to get the services from builders in their local villagers to speed up the process.
REA public relations and marketing executive Johannes Nyamayedenga said the number of trained biogas builders since 2019 has risen to 582 and more are being trained in all districts in the country.
“We are bringing services close to the people to accelerate the construction of these domestic biogas digesters in the villages,” he said.
“Ideally, we want every ward to have one builder, but funding for training remains a challenge.”
Under the arrangement, a villager needing a biogas digester will approach a local trained builder and negotiate for a fee rather than travelling long distances to REA offices for the service.
So far, 312 domestic biogas digesters have been built across the country, benefiting about 1 500 villagers.
Nyamayedenga added that REA is encouraging villagers with at least six heads of cattle to build biogas digesters, a source of energy which is affordable, cost effective and smart to use for domestic purposes.
- Biogas project changes lives
- 120 Mat South schools, 47 clinics electrified
- REA trains 580 biogas builders in rural areas
