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Ruth Butaumocho Gender Editor
Thomas Charwe (11) mills around the entrance of one of the populous bottle stores at Chigovanyika Shopping Centre in St Mary’s, Chitungwiza.

It is barely 9am in the morning, with only a few imbibers trickling in the bottle store that has just opened for the day.

Although his peers are still in bed on this wintry Saturday morning, Thomas cannot afford such luxury, since he has a mission to accomplish.

He wants to collect the empty containers of opaque beer – commonly referred to as Super – for use as firewood to prepare the family’s meal for the day.

Having collected enough plastic containers to fill in a 50kg empty sack, he victoriously dashes off back home along Chiratidzo Road, to his ailing mother.

The onset of winter in Zimbabwe has brought consternation and headaches to most impoverished communities and families, who now have to scrounge for cheaper alternatives sources of energy other than electricity and gas for daily use.

And with the winter season being a period of unprecedented expansion of energy demand for both industrial and domestic use, most families from disadvantaged communities are splitting hairs on how to meet the requirements.

Firewood, paraffin, sawdust and in some extreme cases, empty plastic containers of opaque beer and used second hand tyres are increasingly become alternative sources of energy for impoverished communities.

“Electricity was long disconnected after we accumulate a huge bill, which we are yet to settle because there is no money.

“We have had to use firewood, paraffin but empty plastic containers of beverages are proving to be much cheaper than anything else,” said Mrs Jacinta Charwe (42) of St Marys.

With a litre of paraffin costing 75c and only adequate to cook two meals a day, Mrs Charwe says she has since found solace in cheaper energy alternatives, particularly empty plastic containers.

“A log and six empty “Super” plastic containers, is sufficient to cook a meal for the whole family,” she volunteered the information.

Naturally such a cheap alternative comes at a cost.

Mrs Charwe has to grapple with thick choking smoke that engulfs the whole yard including her neighbours’ electrified premises, but she is not fazed.

For the Murapa family in Southlea Park, along Masvingo Road, accessing energy for domestic use has always been a struggle for the family from the time they relocated to the area from Beatrice where they used firewood for cooking.

Although the newly established residential is awash with selling points for both paraffin and gas-to ameliorate the problem of energy to the area, which is yet to be electrified- the family uses sawdust for cooking.

And when the temperatures drop, life becomes a struggle for the Murapa family.

“Buying paraffin and even firewood is increasingly becoming expensive. We have had to look for other alternatives and using sawdust and empty containers which is cheaper for preparing family meals,” said Mr Kodeous Murapa.

He, however, concedes that the social cost of using the alternatives is high.

“Our neighbours sometimes complain of the pungent smoke, but there is nothing that we can do,” he said.

Far from being a tragedy, the increase in cost of electricity has actually spawned a new breed of entrepreneurs’ who are now selling anything and in between gadgets, and alternative sources of energy to desperate consumers.

Toddy Matamba of Mufakose, a local entrepreneur who buys sawdust for resale says business has peaked up in the last three weeks as more families than before, are buying the cheap alternative source of energy to ameliorate the cost of electricity and gas.

“Quite a number of families in the neighbourhood now use sawdust and coal for cooking, because it is cheaper than electricity, gas and paraffin. But of course, the majority of my customers are usually those who had their electricity supplies cut, due to non payment,” said Toddy.

He sells a 50kg bag for $1 which is adequate to prepare different dishes for a family of five for three weeks, including heating water for bathing. The stove, which is made from an empty 5-litre container of paint, costs $1 or less.

Owing to the proximity of sawmills to Hopley, Glen Norah and Southlea Park, the majority of residents now use sawdust for cooking, and some have since constructed sawdust stoves made from bricks and mortar.

Despite the outcry from residents on possibilities of pollution, Environment Management Authority says the alternatives do not pose serious threat to the environment.

Environmental Education and Publicity manager, Mr Steady Kangata said the effect of using saw dust and empty plastic containers is similar to that of using firewood.

“The effects are similar in terms of what comes out of firewood and is the pollution is not serious. We would however urge energy users to be cautious with other alternatives that are not amenable,” he said.

With the country requiring an investment of $14 billion for the rehabilitation of old and development of new energy infrastructure to facilitate access to reliable energy for all Zimbabweans, the majority of people from disadvantaged communities would have to continue scrounging for energy alternatives.

Energy is becoming costlier not for Zimbabwe alone but for the majority of countries in Africa and across the globe.

Prices are also becoming volatile, forcing poor and impoverished communities to look for alternative courses, whose effects to the climate are quite profound.

Conservationists are already calling for countries to consider energy options which are of low costs and “safe bets”.

For instance coal is considered as one of the most effective alternatives.

Many countries are struggling with severe air pollution, especially in urban and industrial areas.

Although they are not yet known statistics of pollution of countries in Africa, China is the most visible example with public outrage about air quality which led the government to launch a war on pollution in early 2014.

Globally energy use already accounts for two-thirds of global greenhouse emissions and they continue to rise as people like the Murapa’s resort to cheap but unorthodox energy alternatives.