{"id":4721,"date":"2019-08-20T09:39:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T06:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=4721"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:29","slug":"power-duo-tackle-twin-challenges-in-burkina-faso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/08\/20\/power-duo-tackle-twin-challenges-in-burkina-faso\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Duo Tackle Twin Challenges In Burkina Faso"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By the UN Environment<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volunteering every\nweekend with humanitarian organizations is not for the faint-hearted. For Mani\nYezid, a water and sanitation student in Burkina Faso, the work has been hard,\nbut rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really wanted to make a difference in my community,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw a great difference that our work made, and I wanted to continue helping others in my capacity as a student studying water and sanitation issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his travel in Niger, Yezid hit upon a recurrent issue in areas where there was conflict: That many refugees didn\u2019t know how to use gas for cooking, and preferred using coal and firewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a student\nat Burkina Faso\u2019s International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering\nin Ouagadougou (2iE)\u2014where he works alongside Young Champion of the Earth for\nAfrica in 2017, Mariama Mamane<\/a>, he was acutely aware of the\nenvironmental destruction from deforestation to provide firewood for fuel,\nespecially in Burkina Faso where many refugees are settling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wood is the dominant fuel used for cooking in rural households, accounting for more than half of Burkina Faso\u2019s energy mix. Only\u00a0around 18 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the population has access to electricity, and indoor pollution causes an estimated 16,500 premature deaths every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that around one-third of Burkina Faso\u2019s productive land\u2014around 9 million hectares\u2014is degraded, and this area is expected to increase every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProblems related to\ncooking energy are added to those related to malnutrition in camps,\u201d said\nYezid. \u201cIn cases where immediate action is needed, following a natural disaster\nor just after an influx of refugees, humanitarian organizations need to react\npromptly. At the start of interventions, food security is often a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are\nenergy-efficient stoves and briquettes made from non-wood products available,\nreducing deforestation and cutting harmful indoor pollution. But when he teamed\nup with agricultural engineer Judith Djaonaiel, the pair realized more\nlocal solutions were needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hope that our\neco-charcoal fireplaces can help families to cook food they are provided with\nin the camps, in an environmentally sustainable way, while also helping women\ncarry out other income-generating activities like selling cakes and other\nfoods,\u201d said Djaonaiel.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The duo founded Green\nBrikstove using their expertise and combined passion to work with communities\nin Ouagadougou and the surrounding area to test their products. The briquettes\nare made purely from food waste, and the efficient and quick-cook stoves are\nmade from recycled shipping containers and boat parts, which they get from the\nports of Lom\u00e9 in Togo, Cotonou in Benin and Abidjan, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire. Read more>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the UN Environment Volunteering every weekend with humanitarian organizations is not for the faint-hearted. For Mani Yezid, a water and sanitation student in Burkina Faso, the work has been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}