Category Archives: Renewable Energy

Kenya: Jubilation as Water Project is completed and handed over to the locals

JUBILATION AS KEN GEN HANDS OVER KSH.143M PROJECT TO LOCALS.

By Dickens Wasonga in Kisumu.

Syprose Jump, 77 could not hold back her joy. For several years now, Juma and her neighbours in the remote village of Ongoro in Rachuonyo district have had to trek many kilometers in search of water.

Yesterday the drought stricken village broke into song and dance as the Kenya Electricity generating company(KEN GEN) Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Engineer Eddy Njoroge, flanked by the company chairman, Mr. Titus Mbathi, handed over two water projects worth ksh.143 million to communities around Sondu as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The water projects, targeting to benefit 14,000 residents of Nyakach,Kasipul Kabondo and Karachuonyo constituencies are part of KEN GEN’s corporate social responsibility activities associated with the multi million Sondu Hydropower project.

The first project in Nyakach area, on the right bank of river Sondu, comprises of a water regulating pond and a treatment plant, with a capacity to supply 30,000 liters of water per hour.

It has a 1.5 meter high prefabricated steel tank, with a storage capacity of 60,000 liters of water and a distribution network of 13 water kiosks, each with a capacity of 5000 liters.

The second project on the left bank of the River will serve residents of Kabondo and Karachuonyo, and comprises six boreholes, feeding three, ten meter high prefabricated steel tanks, complete with two storage tanks with a total of 90,000 liters capacity.

The second water project has 18 water kiosks for distribution, with a capacity of 5000 liters each.

According to the MD, the Ksh.143 million included the cost of drilling boreholes, civil works and power connections, out of which Kengen contributed ksh.128.3 million, while the community contributed ksh.14.8 million in kind, including donating land, way levies and masonry works for the kiosks.

The successful implementation of the project that is bound to change the lives of many of the villagers was undertaken by the Wells construction Limited, which is reputed for completing many successful government funded water projects, mainly at the Coast province, where the contractor,Daniel Muli is based.

Members of parliament in whose constituencies the projects are situated praised the contractor, whom they commended for implementing the project within the contract period, and asked the government institutions to consider local contractors like Muli, who have demonstrated that they have the capacity to deliver the projects timely.

Speaking at the ceremony, Kasipul kabondo Mp, Oyugi Magwanga, said that in the past, Asian contractors have been favoured by the government institutions to do the projects and many times with disappointing results.

“Today we have witnessed a satisfying job of one of our own constructors. What now needs to be done by the government is to continue to award tenders to these contractors who have shown exemplary performance, as a way of empowering them economically, since they also help us create jobs to our people”, said Magwanga.

He also asked the committees that will now run the water projects to manage them well for sustainability.

Also present at the handing over ceremony was Karachunyo MP, engineer James Rege, who is also the chairman of the parliamentary committee on energy, and his Nyakach counterpart, Mr.Pollyns Ochieng as well as the Nyanza deputy Pc, Mrs Susan Waweru, among other dignitaries.

ENDS

Renewable energy: How to make an efficient sawdust stove

One of the simplest fuels for cooking and for heating the house in cold times is sawdust . . . a waste product which is usually thrown away and which, therefore, is obtainable free or at nominal cost. (True, not everybody lives conveniently near a sawmill or lumberyard, but the same objection applies to many other alternative sources of power. Not everyone has a stream running through his property to generate electricity, or keeps cattle to supply manure for methane. We must make use of whatever resources are available to us.)

Sawdust will burn properly only in a specially constructed stove, which is very simple to make and costs practically nothing. The fuel always lights with only one match in such a unit, and can be kept ablaze for long periods—six, eight or even twelve hours if desired—with absolutely no smoke, no blowing or fanning and no refueling.

Once lighted, such a stove burns until all the fuel it contains is consumed. It can then be recharged and lighted again. Such a device is ideal where steady heat is required for hours on end with no attention (to provide day-long hot water, for instance, or to keep a sickroom cosy and warm through a chill winter’s night).

To make a sawdust stove, take a large paint can, remove the top and cut a two-inch hole in the middle of the bottom. Set the container up on three legs, and the stove is ready. The only “tool” you’ll need to make your burner work is a smooth round stick or length of water pipe which will fit through the hole in the bottom of the can. It should be long enough to protrude four inches above the can’s top edge when the shaft is passed vertically through the stove and its lower end rests on the ground.

It is absolutely essential that the fuel for this stove be bone dry. If it’s slightly damp, it will smoke. . . and if it’s very damp it won’t light at all. Dry sawdust burns wonderfully well—sometimes even with a blue flame—and is entirely smokeless. It does give off some fumes, however, and the room where the stove is in use must be well ventilated.

To load the burner, insert the stick or pipe through the hole in the bottom of the can and hold the shaft straight up while you pour sawdust around it. Every now and then, as you fill the container, press the fuel down—the harder the better—to make it tight and compact. When the can is full, completely cover the top of the sawdust with a thin, even layer of sand or ashes. Then twist the pipe back and forth and carefully pull it out of the packed fuel. You’ll have a neat hole—which will act as a chimney—right through the mass.

The sawdust stove is easy to light. Just crumple a sheet of newspaper accordion-fashion and push it gently down the chimney until it protrudes at the bottom. Put a match to the lower end, and the homemade heating unit will require no further attention whatever until the fuel is completely consumed.

The powdered wood burns from the center outward, the hole gradually increasing in diameter until there is no sawdust left and the flame dies out. The rate of consumption is about an inch and a half to two inches per hour (the figure varies slightly with the quality of the fuel and how tightly it’s packed). A stove one foot in diameter will burn about six hours, and one eight inches across will operate long enough to cook a meal and produce some hot water to wash the pots and
pans.

The amount of heat produced is regulated by the depth of the container: the longer the chimney, the hotter the flame. A tall, narrow stove will become very hot for a relatively short time, a broad, squat model will give a gentler heat for a longer period and a tall, wide drum will burn both long and hot. Calculate the dimensions to suit your requirements.

The basic design can be adapted to special purposes. For example, a good sawdust-fired kitchen range can constructed in either of two ways: [1] Two or more legless drum stoves can be bricked in, with a small opening b low each to admit air and remove ashes. [2] The stove can be built brickwork alone, without drums, and two-inch round hole made through the wall into the bottom of the firebox. This second model is filled with the help of two sticks or pipes. One is first is pushed through the front opening least as far as the center of the stove and the other is held upright so that rests on the horizontal rod. Then the unit is packed with fuel and both sticks are drawn out.

The basic sawdust burner may be modified into a space heater to do laundry on a rainy day or warm a living room on a cold night. To adapt a can stove for this purpose, a second container (with its top removed) turned upside down and fitted snug onto the upper rim of the heater. This radiates warmth into the room. An opening is made in the upper chamber near the top, to receive a stovepipe which carries any fumes out through a wall or window. If desired, a hole with a removable cover could be cut in the top to make an open burner for heating a kettle.

Whether you decide to modify the basic sawdust burner I’ve described or not, I think you’ll find the device presents a most efficient means of using a common waste. I know you’ll also finds that it produces steady, reliable heat for cooking and/or warmth.


Thanks
Gibson Amenya
Enigma Consultants Kenya Limited
NHC Building,3rd Flr
P.O Box 10017-00200,Nairobi
Email: gibson.amenya@enigma.or.ke
Email:info@enigma.or.ke
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