DelAgua Tubeho Neza Programme VIP Field Visit 9th December 2020

The DelAgua team headed by Euan McDougall, Regional Director of East Africa, were delighted to host Jo Lomas, British High Commissioner to Rwanda, Juliet Kabera, Director General at REMA, Herman Hakuzimana Director of Climate Change and International Obligations Unit at REMA, Teddy Mugabo CEO of FONERWA  and Nathalie Mutalikanwa Climate Finance Specialist at FONERWA to a field visit to see the DelAgua stove being distributed and in use by recent stove beneficiaries. The Vice Mayor of Muhanga District welcomed our guests to Cyeza Cell.
Jo Lomas and DelAgua staff.
During the distribution of 200 stoves every aspect of the process was seen by the group, starting with the allocation of each stove to a head of household: each stove has a unique barcode which is assigned to a specific household and all the relevant data of the beneficiary household is captured on the DelAgua app- described as “eyeopening” by our guests. Our amazing team of Community Health Workers (CHWs) have been trained by DelAgua in the use of dedicated DelAgua smartphones and the app. This ensures that every stove and its usage can be tracked and that every beneficiary can receive individual ongoing support from CHW household visits throughout the stove’s 5-year life.
Jo Lomas visited a village to see the stove in action.
Jo Lomas visited a village to see the stove in action.

The distribution was followed by a visit to the village to see the stoves in use. Although the households had only had their stoves for a day or two they had all adapted easily from their traditional three stone fire. They told us that the stoves were much quicker to cook with, used much less wood, and produced much less smoke so their eyes didn’t get sore and their nose and throat did not hurt. In fact it was difficult to tell if some stoves were actually alight as there was no smoke was visible.

Languida showed Jo a delicious looking vegetable stew she had prepared. Olive explained that her beans took half the time to cook and using so much less wood meant she could spend more time cultivating her crops and caring for her animals, she could cook more often for her children and could even have some time to socialise with her friends. It was rewarding to see the immediate impact of the stove on these women and men’s lives. In addition to these benefits to health and wellbeing and of huge significance, is the impact of the DelAgua stove on the environment. Traditional cooking practises are a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and Tubeho Neza leads the way in the global drive to increase adoption of clean cooking methods. Each DelAgua stove over its 5-year life saves the equivalent of over 10 tons of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.

On completion of our programme to 2 million rural Rwandan households, one of the largest of its kind in the world, we will be reducing carbon emissions by over 4 million tons annually. Juliet and her team from REMA and Teddy and her team from FONERWA were impressed by having seen the scale (over half a million stoves distributed), the technology and the impact of the project- “an amazing programme touching people’s lives”. We are looking forward to working closely with them and the British High Commission so that together we can make an even bigger impact on climate change, a key focus for CHOGM 2021, as well as improving the daily lives of the Rwandan people.

Languida showing her new stove to Teddy Mugabo, CEO of FONERWA.