In November 2013 the ONLUS Peace Now together with Prof. Collins Okello of the University of Gulu prepared a project for the construction of a biogas plant for domestic use in Gulu (Uganda).

Thanks to the funding of the LACME Cooperative of Medicina (BO), the project was implemented by the Ugandan Company Engineering and Sustainable Energy Company Limited (ESEC) in a farm owned by the Ugandan NGO Comboni Samaritans of Gulu in December 2014. In August 2019 some volounteers from Bologna went to visit where the plant is working and their experience is resumed in this video.

This project has a great social and economic value as in the developing countries like Uganda cooking of food with firewood involves a great waste of time and energy. Besides, there is a problem of smoke exhalations that cause many serious illnesses: the World Health Organization estimates that 4.3 million people die every year from diseases caused by domestic air pollution (see website) around the world, of which 45,000 per year in Uganda. Moreover, FAO data of 2005 show that in African countries the demand for firewood is greater than it is able to be produced by the natural environment, in particular in the Ugandan case the demand for wood is 21.8% higher than the availability.

 

The total cost of the project is about 1100 euros, the precise description of the costs is present in the detailed description of the project uploaded on the site.