Kenya is home to some of the largest slums in Africa. In Nairobi, over 2.5 million people call a slum home and this represents over 60% of the city’s population. So how then can the idea of renewable energy be sold to these people? It turns out that one of the largest resources is virtually always available: human waste.

Bacterial breakdown of human waste in controlled environments creates methane in the absence of oxygen. A company which runs such a venture in Kenya is Sanivation. It has set up a human waste collection system where, for a small fee, they install toilets in slum and rural households, then towards the end of the month, collect the waste from subscribers of the toilet systems. The waste they collect is then burned into briquette like balls which are then sold back as fuel to low income households. Not only is this a clean and affordable form of energy, but also an efficient way of reducing the common problem of “flying toilets”, plastic paper bags used as toilets , which often leads to environmental pollution.

Briquettes made from human waste.

The United Nations estimates a $9.5 billion worth of value from bio-gas. The reason why human waste is the future is as long as humanity exists, there will probably always be a constant supply of human waste. Additionally, when we consider it as a substitute to coal, thousands if not millions of trees could be saved from being cut down.

Ultimately, the idea of sustainability also means that perhaps, using all available renewable resources in league with each other is the only way to sustain a world hurtling towards 8 billion people. 

Image Source:https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/scienceandhealth/How-waste-to-fuel-project-is-changing-lives-in-Kenyan-slum/3073694-4540912-ct8rbtz/index.html

United Nations statistics: https://unu.edu/media-relations/releases/vast-energy-value-in-human-waste.html