Ubunifu wa Serkali ya Rwanda katika kusambaza umeme kwa wafungwa!

[Ab-Titchaz]

In order to reduce costs and protect Rwanda's forests the country's 14 prisons have introduced biogas burners so they are now 75% powered by the inmates own waste.

Almost 8,000 prisoners live in Nsinda Prison, most of them convicted of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Under the constant watch of guards, they work the immaculate fields surrounding the prison in Rwamagana district, about 60km (25 miles) east of the capital, Kigali. They farm beans, maize, bananas and cassava - most of which ends up inside the pot in one of the prison's two large kitchens.

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[Ab-Titchaz]

The biogas is produced by combining the inmates' waste from Nsinda Prison's 24 toilets with cow dung from the jail's farm cows and water. The prisoners' diet is not rich enough to produce top quality gas on its own but the pungent cocktail of human and animal waste produces premium gas.

The gas is created and stored in a series of 12 digesters beyond the prison walls. Each digester holds 100 cubic metres (3,530 cubic feet) of biogas. The prisoners maintain the digesters themselves, regularly checking for leaks and faults in the field at the back of Nsinda Prison.

"By 2013 there will be no firewood in prisons," said Inspector Emmanuel Ndori, director of biogas production in Rwanda's prisons. However, for the moment, half of Nsinda Prison still runs on the firewood chopped by the inmates within the prison grounds. This will also be phased out completely when peat is introduced.

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[Ab-Titchaz]

The prisoners eat twice per day - the same thing every day. Cassava porridge in the morning, maize and beans in the afternoon. Come lunchtime, the non-biogas kitchen in Nsinda Prison is filled with the smell of boiling maize and intense, eye-watering wood smoke.

A far cry from the choking, firewood kitchen next door, the biogas kitchen is odour-free and smokeless. The biogas is pumped from the digesters via a series of pipes. The prisoners light the crudely fashioned gas rings on the 10 mammoth stoves to produce a faint, blue powerful flame.

The biogas generated accounts for 75% of energy needs inside the prison. Nsinda Prison has seen an 85% reduction in energy costs since switching to biogas. That translates into a $1.7m (£1m) saving on energy costs for all of Rwanda's ultra-green poo-powered prisons. (Photos and words by Graham Holliday)
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[Ab-Titchaz]

JK na CCM kazi kwenu!

 

[Imany John]

nasikia wameanza gereza la keko pale

 

[Mpita Njia]

... pamoja na kuwa hili linaonekana kwua ni jambo dogo tu, lakini itachukua muda sana mpaka sisi kufikia hali hii kwa sababu hapa kwetu wafungwa wanahesabika kuwa si watu

 

[LE GAGNANT]

Mambo ya nishati ya haja kubwa

 

[Kinyengeli]

Wamepigana weeeee!!! Sahz ni maendeleo tu keep it up Kagame!!

 

[Ndahani]

Where there is a will, there is always a way