THE ROLE SMALL HYDRO CAN PLAY IN HELPING TO REDUCE DEFORESTATION IN GHANA

摘要

In Ghana, it is estimated that about 41% of energy demand is consumed by the household sector, used primarily for cooking and heating. According to the Ghana Statistical Service, about 35 minutes is used for fetching firewood per day per household in the rural areas (a day refers to an 8-hour standard workday). As 2.1 million rural households use firewood, annual collection time equals 447 million hours, or 56 million days of work per year (using an average of 26 days per household per year). A survey carried out in Ghana over the past ten years has documented over 70 promising sites dispersed all over the country for the development of small to mini hydropower capable of generating 24,545 kW of power for use by rural households in cooking and heating and also to run small cottage industries. A shift in fuel type from firewood to electricity for example is therefore only possible when the price of electricity is competitive with that of firewood. Development of the identified promising sites of small hydropower will make this possible. This will also reduce the demand for wood fuel, utilize the many lost hours used in gathering firewood for productive work and hence minimize deforestation which is proceeding at an unprecedented rate all over the tropics.