By Obiabin Onukwugha
An advocacy body, Youths for Environmental and Advocacy Centre, has launched a Solar Off-grid Project to provide electricity solution to communities without power in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
The project, known as YEAC Community Energy And Development Centre,(YEAC-CEAD), is being sponsored by development partners feom.the United Kingdom.
Speaking during the formal launch of the project in Port Harcourt the Rivers State capital on Thursday, the initiator of the project, Me. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, stated that the project promotes clean energy as its generates power from solar.
He also stated that the initiative is in line with global drive to move away from fossil fuels.
Fyneface, who is an advocate for the establishment of artisanal refineries and alternative livelihood for youths in the region, highlighted the importance of the project to include employment and economic development for benefitting communities.
Fyneface said: “Contrary to what we know in terms of power generation, this is a totally clean and renewable energy, every other power generating source either uses gas, diesel or PMS. This energy is being sourced from solar and that makes it very different from whatever we used to have and it pushes the call for fossil fuels to be left in the soil, because fossil fuels are not doing us any good and now we are having alternative sources from solar.
“With the solar mini-grid electricity we are setting up in communities, we are not going to have power failure, we are not going to have low current and we are not going to have a system whereby you pay for electricity and you don’t enjoy the electricity, all those things are not going to be there.
“So we have brought on board a sustainable clean and renewable energy that is also affordable for communities without electricity in the Niger Delta to mitigate oil theft because those community people normally depend on petrol, diesel and kerosene from artisanal refinery source will now jettison such and then use the renewable energy in their communities.
“Also, because there is no market again for the artisanal refiners who are breaking the pipelines to sell their products, they will begin to stay away from that and come to the community where they will build their businesses using the electricity in a peaceful environment without being shot at, without being chased by the security agencies as it is currently happening in the Niger Delta.
“This is going to give peace of mind to both the communities and youths involved in artisanal refining in the Niger Delta through alternative livelihood opportunities.”
On the economic importance of the project, Fyneface noted that communities who have hitherto been without electricity for decades will have their livelihoods improved as businesses will begin to strive. He particularly cited Umuolo Community in Delta State where the project is currently being executed.
He said the community has been without electricity since its existence.
“The project has enormous economic benefits, we are starting in Umuolu community, Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State, that community has been without electricity since creation, you can imagine since God created this world, the community has not had electricity, so they are very excited to have this. So in that community, businesses would now have to sell off their generators, because they don’t need to power their generators anymore.
“When you talk about pollution, it is not only at the pipelines, when you have generators, pouring petrol or diesel into it everyday, if you look at that spot it is always very black, which means you have polluted the environment, all these things are going to go out.
“That community usually have biannual fishing festival and if you go the the community, over half of the fishes caught from the river always perish away because they don’t have anywhere to store it because before they could dry all the fishes, most of them have gotten bad, now they are going to have cold rooms in that community where they can preserve and continue to eat fish throughout the year.
“Welders in those communities, hairdressers in these communities, barbershops in these communities, shop owners in these communities, now no longer going to depend on fossil fuels to power their houses.
“The core of this project is to create youth employment, to create alternate livelihood opportunities for youths in the Niger Delta, youths involved in pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining leading to environmental pollution and at the same time we are also contributing to the fight against climate change the Niger Delta and across the world.
“So we are not just generating electricity for communities, we are also providing what we call funds, resources for the community for them to be productive. Once the electricity is being produced, the community would use the electricity to empower themselves by going into businesses that would yield good profit for them.
“The project is going to contribute enormously to the youths in the Niger Delta and mitigate the acts of Crude oil theft by creating jobs for those youths who are involved in artisanal refining in the region,” he stated.