Discrimination of Poor Mans Energy in

Sri Lanka

Hidden Story of Firewood

by R.M.Amerasekera-Mar 5, 2017
Introduction
( March 5, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This article
does not intend to downplay the enormous achievements gained
in the Power and Energy sector which is indeed laudable.
However, the scant attention given by the energy planners and
policy makers to the biomass and informal sector energy
requirements which have contributed immensely towards
developing the quality of life and livelihoods of the poor people is
regrettable.
Biomass is renewable organic materials, such as wood,
agricultural crops or wastes, and municipal waste. Fire-derived
from firewood is unquestionably the most important discovery in
the history of mankind. The fire has illuminated, heated, protected
and fed mankind for thousands of years. Firewood was the major
source of energy in the world up to the industrial revolution when
firewood became scarce and coal was discovered. It is interesting
to note that the theft of firewood which was considered as a form
of serious crime and resistance exercised by the poor to defend
the traditional rural economic and social system in Germany in
1842 was the issue which influenced Karl Marx being sensitive to
the suffering of the peasantry to write his first essay beginning
his illustrious career on dialogue of theft of firewood . This led
him to deviate from a purely political view point to the study of
economics and from that to socialism. (sustainable energy for all
World bank 2013). Even now in developed countries the
traditional use of firewood for heating is on the increase
questioning the validity of energy ladder hypothesis where people
are expected to climb the ladder from traditional to modern fuels.
For example in Germany, firewood consumption from 2000 to
2010 has gone up by 300%. In Greece, it is reported that the
firewood problem is so serious that even the olive tree under
which Plato is said to have taught his students was cut down
illegally for firewood in 2011 winter(A ladder, wood theft, and
sustainability-Klas Sander)
Role of Biomass Energy in Sustainable Development
In Sri Lanka firewood is the major source of energy which is
renewable and indigenous. It is the only source which stores solar
energy and has an energy capacity of about 4kw/kg.
It is very clear that the Energy policies and strategies formulated
by the Ministry of Power and Energy (MPE)are severely biased in
favour of commercial fuels(Electricity and Petroleum ) devoting
large amount of resources but hardly any for biomass
(firewood)which is basically a non-commercial fuel. The irony of it
is that biomass is the major source of energy which is 53.4% of
the total energy demand comprising of 76.8% of the household
and commercial demand, thus facilitating feeding 80% of the
population and meeting 74% of the national industrial energy
demand. The biomass(Firewood) is derived from 90% non-forestry
sources (Sustainable Energy Authority) making fear of
deforestation due to firewood use a myth. However, supply and
demand interventions are necessary to avoid such a situation in
the future.The current seemingly low price of energy in the
international markets will soon be a thing of the past and with the
depreciating Rupee, the price of imported fuels will be a
significant burden on the economy. In this backdrop, the scant
regard for biomass in the energy policy cannot be ignored. This
invariably will impact our energy security.
However, biomass energy sector has never been an easy sector
to deal with at national level. Use of firewood while delivering
many multi sectoral benefits also has detrimental effects in the
fields of health and environment which calls for remedial
measures both in the supply and consumption of firewood to
avoid serious drawbacks in the sustainable development of the
country if firewood is continued to be used without proper
regulation and improvements. This warrants active interventions
by the Ministry of Power and Energy which is presently lacking.
Energy Data highlighting biomass

The Energy Demand 2014 prepared by the Sustainable

Energy Authority
The household expenditure survey 2013 reveals the type
of cooking fuel used in Sri Lanka
Strangely enough biomass (firewood) comes into the limelight
and focus only when it is to be used as raw material to generate
electricity and not when it is used as a poor mans day to day
energy. The reasons for this attitude are many. Biomass fuels are
widely associated with the poorest, most disadvantaged and
politically powerless segments of society, particularly in rural
areas. Their needs and aspirations are more often neglected, or
seriously downplayed and marginalised in official government
policies. Firewood is basically collected by women and children at
zero monetary cost. Although it has an opportunity cost, it falls
outside the national energy accounts. As a consequence decision
makers are not aware of the significance and impact of biomass.
Quote In many developing countries, gathering firewood is the
task done by women and children, which can be a serious
disadvantage to them. Despite this, the mounting woodfuel crisis
has not reached high-level political attention and may not become
an important issue for many years to come. Until womens
workloads become intolerable, affecting rural livelihoods overall,
the situation may make no impact on heads of households or
community and national leaders. GIZ- Publication Germany 2013.
This discrimination is evident from the National Energy
Development Plan 2015 2030 released by the MPE which is
heavily biased in favour of electricity and petroleum without any
mention of biomass. Many developing countries, striving for
industrialisation and modernisation, regard the use of biomass
energy as traditional, primitive or backwards thus attaching
a label of social stigma. Instead, they pursue ambitious visions of
modern, supposed to be cleaner energy sources such as
electricity or oil and gas. For the same reasons, there is lack of
political will and interest which creates a lukewarm attitude
among the concerned officials who have to fall in line.
Perhaps the silence of the relevant authorities may be that they
are not very sensitive to see a womans drudgery carrying
firewood and cooking the food for the family or a poor rural
man struggling to meet his ends meet to find firewood for his
inefficient traditional kiln to burn his earthern ware which
contributes towards rural income generation. The media too has
hardly provided any space to highlight this disparity perhaps due
to its non-sensational character making it difficult to influence the
relevant authorities pushing for action.
Despite the neglect of biomass, the topic Energy is a popular one
as there is never a day where this is not discussed in the media
may it be digital or print. Nevertheless, sadly enough the concept
of energy is not discussed. Discussions generally revolve around
commercial fuels such as electricity, gas, oil and coal leaving out
the major source of energy firewood (biomass) out of the energy
scenario. This gives a distorted picture of the energy situation in
Sri Lanka missing the more important aspect of energy which is
the energy services which is irrelevant of the type of energy used.
The energy ministry has revealed that Sri Lanka spends almost 50
% our foreign exchange earnings to import commercial fuels. The
cost of importing LPG to provide cooking energy alone for the
18.5% of the households using gas has cost 25837 Million Rs in
the year 2014. To provide LPG to the rest of the population using
firewood will accordingly cost an additional amount of Rs 100
billion per annum barring the cost of imported gas cylinders and
stoves which have been avoided by the use of firewood.
You dont need to be a social scientist or an economist even a
layman could understand the socio-economic impact of using
firewood looking at the data given above. However, to downplay
the significant role played by firewood within the society and
stirring the ambitions of communities for modern and high-tech
solutions at a cost to the state exchequer especially when nearly
75 % of the GDP is already going towards servicing the existing
debt.
Not limited to the above data and concerns growing interested in
biomass energy is driven by the following facts among others:
It contributes to poverty reduction in developing
countries;
It meets energy needs at all times, without expensive
conversion devices;
It can deliver energy in all forms that people need
(liquid and gaseous fuels, heat and electricity)
It is carbon dioxide-neutral and can even act as
carbon sinks; and
It helps to restore unproductive and degraded lands,
increasing biodiversity, soil fertility and water
retention
It has helped communities to maintain and manage
their own homesteads with vegetation to meet their
biomass requirements. This in effect is the
contribution of the biomass energy using community
to national development and protection of
environment which has been undermined by the
policy makers. This contribution by the community, if
considered within state policy, can contribute towards
its claims on Carbon Foot Print
Considering the data of firewood use, given above it is surprising
how Energy Empowerment of the nation could be achieved and
Energy Policy/Energy Plan/Energy Strategies could be formulated
without giving due consideration to Firewood use in Sri Lanka
which is the major source of energy for 80% of the population. It
must be noted that despite the 40 yr long free market economy in
SriLanka, the LPG users are only about 20% which indicates that
firewood would still remain as the major source of energy in the
foreseeable future despite the ambitions for modern fuels. Since
the transition from traditional to modern is likely to take
substantial time, the priority interest should be to first, improve
the current use of traditional biomass and secondly to transform
biomass into high-quality low-emission modern fuels. But where
are the strategies and initiatives?
However, it must be realised that biomass energy is much more
complicated than commercial fuels and warrants a broader focus
to cover the linkage with other development sectors which brings
in several stakeholders who are not directly related to energy into
the energy picture.
This is inevitable since firewood, unlike centrally produced
commercial fuels, is a by-product of the forestry, plantations,
home gardens and agricultural sectors involving many
stakeholders who have absolutely no concern for energy .
Therefore, firewood becomes a multi- dimensional and a multi-
sectoral issue making it very complicated to address which calls
for multi stakeholder participation. Since issues related to
firewood production and use are mostly micro level concerns,
planning and implementation of biomass activities have to be
addressed at local, decentralised levels where the Provincial
Energy Ministries could take the lead role supported and
facilitated by a strong policy framework spelled out by the MPE
Relevance and importance of focusing on Energy services
and integrated approaches rather than on Energy or
Fuels
CEB Improved Stove
Lack of integrated approaches and poor energy vision creates an
atmosphere for the energy planners to be biased to favour a
particular energy source or technology. Energy is not a basic
need but is crucial to meet the basic needs. People do not want
energy in itself. What people really need is not fuels but energy
services in the form of (1) Heat (2) Light (3) Motive Power and (4)
Electro Magnetic Power. With this vision it is easy to identify the
most appropriate energy source for a particular service
irrespective of any individual biases. For example, if our need is
for heat to cook food there are several choices available. Cooking
with electricity, firewood , gas or kerosene depending on the
socio economic setting of the country which address the
individual preferences like affordability, availability, and other
national priorities, environment and health reasons etc. leaving
room for the final choice, to the user. In the case of cooking, the
reality is majority of users may prefer using modern fuels. But the
actual market niche for gas is in the urban areas since the users
in urban areas do not have access to firewood. Moreover, type
of urban housing and cooking patterns favour gas to firewood.
However, nearly 30% of urban dwellers cannot afford gas. In rural
areas as firewood is easily accessible, available free or at a low
price and the cooking patterns favour firewood, making gas
irrelevant if not for the social status it provides.
NERD Gasifier Stove
Thus the vision of energy services gives the opportunity to the
userto make the appropriate decision and the energy planner
/policy maker to prepare the policies/plans to propose strategies
accordingly avoiding unnecessary competition and investments
without blindly promoting a particular fuel/technology. To give a
rare encouraging example of this concept , In 1980s Ministry of
Power and Energy and the CEB jointly initiated an improved wood
stove programme( which became very popular 37% penetration
by now)with the objective of discouraging cooking with electricity
despite the income that it can generate if electricity was used.
Given that electricity was very cheap at that time, if people would
have started cooking with electricity, the electricity industry
would have required heavy investments to meet the peak
demand .Moreover, the intention was to avoid promoting an
energy inefficient technology of using electricity for cooking as
well. Although cooking with electricity at the user end is
comparatively an efficient process, energy inefficiency arises
because electricity is generated mostly using fossil fuels
converting heat to electricity and when electricity is used for
cooking it is necessary to convert electricity back to heat making
the total process inefficient and expensive. Instead the CEB and
MPE decided to support promoting an improved wood stove
called ANAGI produced by rural potters which also helps to
enhance their income generation potential.
The SEA reveals that we have vast resources of biomass which
can be utilized. On the long run, the need is to develop renewable
energy technologies utilising biomass as a cleaner fuel rather
than importing fossil fuels as replacement, the motive of which
is questionable. In this regard It is a pity that large research
organizations like National Engineering Research Department
(NERD) which has the capacity and resources which can be
utilised is kept inactive without proper direction. NERD should be
given directives to engage in comprehensive research which
could enhance the efficiency and productivity of biomass
applications and practices at the rural level.Thirty years later, the
opposite happened nullifying all the efforts of the stove
programme. The Gas Co, ironically a company of the same
Ministry promoting LPG launched a massive unethical advertising
campaign discouraging the very same stove promoted by the CEB
as inefficient and dirty. Since there is a market niche for both gas
and firewood this unnecessary competition could have been
avoided in the presence of clear energy policy and vision. Little
the people know that gas is not as clean as claimed, firewood is
not as black as thought. The writer has seen many rural
households having gas stoves and rice cookers in addition to the
firewood stove but upon inquiry it has been revealed that those
appliances are not frequently used due to high costs of gas and
electricity. However, all fuels are not clean and have varying
degrees of pollution. The option is to select the most
appropriate source and technology to suit the energy service we
require without any bias or discrimination .
To conclude, if firewood is to play a meaningful role in the energy
scenario it is essential that a separate facilitation agency
comprising of all stakeholders of the biomass energy supply,
consumption and research sectors be established. The task of
this organisation would be to formulate and facilitate
implementation of an integrated strategy to encourage the
utilization of biomass in a much more organized manner under
the supervision of Sustainable Energy Authority which could
realise the Sustainable Development Goals which the Hon
President of Sri Lanka has pledged to participate. With due
respect to SEA It is recommended that a team of staff members
from SEA be allocated dedicated to Biomass activities without
being burdened by other activities of the SEA.

( Writer is a Retired Electrical Engineer , CEB,

Project Manager, National Firewood Conservation
Programme, Director, Energy Conservation Fund,
International Consultant UNDP Renewable Energy Project,
Sudan and Short Term Consultant, World Bank.)
Posted by Thavam