Kenya: Schools Deplete 60 Trees a Day - Expert

Green Africa Foundation chairman Isaac Kalua has asked schools to find alternative sources of energy like biogas. Addressing school heads in Mombasa yesterday, Kalua, who is an environment expert, said schools depend too much on wood fuel.

He was speaking at the just-concluded conference for school heads.He said schools use an average of 60 trees daily. "If we do not conserve our environment, our country is headed for doom," Kalua said. He also said the depletion of water towers in the country is "mind boggling".Kalua said out of 8.7 million houses in the country, 5.6 million depend entirely on firewood for energy.

Each household uses 10kg of firewood per day."10kg of firewood can only be found in a three-year-old fastest ever growing tree. This means the country is depleting 5.6 million trees every day," he said.

Kalua said though much has been done to conserve trees, much more needs to be done.He asked teachers to be more involved in tree and environmental conservation by preaching against encroachment of the water towers. The Mt Elgon, Mau Region, Aberdares, Shimba Hills and Cheraanganyi Hills are some of the gazetted water towers in the country that have been adversely affected by encroachment and felling of trees.

"The institutions mandated to do some of this work cannot handle it by themselves. We need to be involved and do something ourselves," he said.

The environmental expert said Kenya needs 90,000 metric tonnes of carbohydrates per month.That equates to about 1.08 million metric tonnes of carbohydrates per year. Kalua said this needs a minimum of three million cubic meters of water to sustain.Masinga dam alone has an intake of one million cubic metres of water per year.

He said schools can save on the amount of money used on food by growing their own through green houses.Kalua said teachers can champion for the use of renewable energy, including biogas, and use other eco-friendly cooking methods.

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