5th SDG Run Launched, Buliisa Health Center IV to Receive a Solar Power

UGANDA - The Minister for East African Affairs, Rt Hon. Rebecca Kadaga together with World Wildlife Fund, Uganda Police ,UPDF and other private partners have unveiled the 5th edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) run in Kampala that targets to mobilize approximately 20,000 people in it.

The run, launched at kingdom building on Thursday, is scheduled to take place on the 29th October, flagging off at kololo ceremonial grounds is mainly purposed at installation of a solar supply system for Buliisa Health Centre IV in Buliisa district, in addition to tree planting in order to mitigate climate change impacts arising from oil processing in the Albertine graben.

Speaking to the press, Hon Kadaga explained how thankful she is for sponsors towards supporting the run with financial assistance like DTB with 5000 USD, UCC with 2000 USD, UZIMA natural mineral water among others. The Sustainable Development Goals are a global call to action to end poverty, protect the earth’s environment and climate, and ensure that people everywhere can enjoy peace and prosperity, she noted.

According to Dr. Brian Isabirye, Commissioner Renewable Energy at Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, "For our partners and sponsors want to extend our sincere gratitude for being part of this journey. We are honored by your presence but also for the main support that you provide, including members of the press that are here with us today, we know that SDG seven is in the middle, because it holds a unique position in the nexus between the 2030 agenda and the Paris Agreement. But also through these, we ensure that universal access is critical for socio economic development. It's in the middle of support for the other SDGs and if we failed with SDG, seven, then as a country and as a people will have failed on many of the other SDGs that are driven by Universal Access to energy."

As Africa we are not tracking SDDC you note that over 600 million people voted 43% of these people from this continent lack access to electricity, and most of them are within this country and indeed this quarter as the country we are currently at 57% access, meaning that the rest of the people in this country don't have any form of access to electricity, he said.

Isabirye added that in terms of cooking this is even worse. About 970 million Africans lack access to clean cooking with most of the people in Africa relying on traditional use of biomass, which has social and environmental implications. Therefore this indicates that it is in direct correlation between economic growth and electricity supply. So countries that are poor in terms of electricity supply are also way down.

The US the per capita consumption, every person is at about 1000 Watt hour, so an individual that 1000 kilowatt hour, the average of Europe is 6500. The global average is about 3000 kilowatt hours, Uganda's average percapita is 215, this informs how low we are in terms of access.

The Sub Saharan Africa, our current access on average, if you take out South Africa is 552. So our access is still low and indeed, this has implications on our development. So we note that this run that we are launching today is critical because it sends out a clear message that without energy, there will be no sustainable farming, so poverty will increase, food insecurity, and gender climate action education will fail.

"And as a country, we believe that we don't have access to eradicating poverty, and that is achieving SDG seven will be very hard. I want to note that we are happy to partner with with youth go green and all of you partners in this run, because we think that the productive and competitive energy sector will be dependent on a diverse pool of talent capable of bringing fresh perspectives. So working with youth is critical."

Ivan Tumuhimbise , Country Director World Wildlife Fund Uganda said, In Uganda and globally the challenge of renewable energy remains an issue, currently households with access to electrity in Uganda are below 40%, the rest of the communities in Uganda depend on biomass and each time communities depend on biomass it means they are the main drivers of deforestation and as we drive deforestation, subsequently they are affecting the environment, first for people and also the biodiversity and emissions of greenhouse gases.

He included, that therefore this means that as Uganda seeks to realize SDG number seven, there is need to work together to ensure that there are mechanisms and ways in which are able to disrupt dependency on biomass for energy. Uganda in some rural areas, almost 90% of households depend on firewood or fuel for that matter, and just only the 10% access the alternative use of energy.