November 20, 2006	Monday	Shawwal 27, 1427

PRESENTLY more than half of our population is not connected to the national power grid. Around 70 per cent of them live in rural areas and 90 per cent rely on traditional energy sources such as fuel, wood and biomass. According to an estimate, about 40 per cent of the total energy consumed comes from firewood, dung and crop residue. Poor people spend up to one fourth of their incomes on energy, mostly for cook purposes.

Energy in itself is not a basic human need, but it is an important element in providing them jobs, health services, housing and water sewerage, Hence it is not surprising that there are multiple links between energy and poverty. The poor often do not have access to high-quality energy or simply cannot afford it and have to depend on their own labour, animal power or fuel wood or other types of biomass which have a high price in terms of time and labour.

The extent of energy poverty for the poorest is his inability to cook with modern methods of cooking and the lack of a bare minimum of electric lighting for performing household and other productive activities after sunset. These minimum needs require about 50 kg of oil equivalent (kgoe) per annual commercial energy per capita. The estimate is based on the need for approximately 40 kgoe per capita for cooking and 10 kgoe used as fuel for electricity.

Although low energy consumption is not a cause of poverty, lack of the available energy services correlates closely with many poverty indicators. Moreover, prospects for income generating activities that can help break the cycle of poverty, often rely on the availability of energy.

Research shows that it is possible to bring considerable improvements in living standards without significantly increasing per capita energy by shifting to high-quality carriers and exploiting cost-effective opportunities for more efficient use of energy.

For example, as cooking energy changes from animal dung to agricultural waste, woodstoves, charcoal stoves, kerosene wick stoves, kerosene pressure stoves, LPG stoves, electric hot plate, the efficiency for cooking increases by approximately a factor of five and this is the meaning of “climbing the energy ladder.”

As one climbs the ladder, capital costs also increase from zero for animal dung to Rs1000 or more per stove and yet a large number of programmes in the third world countries have disseminated millions of efficient stoves in rural and suburban areas.

The order of fuels on energy ladder corresponds to the energy efficiency i.e., the fraction of energy released from the carrier turned into an energy service by the end-use device and their “cleanliness”. For example, efficiencies of firewood, kerosene and gas stoves are roughly 15, 50 and and 65 per cent respectively.

People normally shift first from traditional fuels to intermediate modern fuels, such as coal, kerosene and finally fuels such as, LPG, natural gas and electricity, depending on the access.

Kerosene is the cheapest fuel for cooking, heating and pumping water, and is the easiest to obtain in remote areas, but is hazardous as a household fuel. Kerosene stoves are a major cause of fires and source of indoor pollution.

LPG is a cleaner and safer fuel, but it is poorly distributed. Its high cost is also a problem for poor households because of the initial cost of deposit or outright purchases of gas cylinder and stove compared to a kerosene stove.

The poor often pay higher unit costs for energy than do the rich due to the low efficiency of items used by them such as batteries, candles, kerosene, and charcoal. Use of efficient fuels reduces the large share of household income spent on cooking, lighting, and keeping warm, thus saving the much-needed money for food, education, health and other purposes.

The UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite measure of development. It is calculated on the basis of a simple average of life expectancy, educational level, and per capita gross domestic product as measured by purchasing power.

The relationship between HDI and per capita commercial energy consumption show that there is a steep increase in HDI with per capita energy consumption among countries whose per capita energy consumption is very low, in other words majority of developing countries. Therefore, modest increases in per capita energy consumption for the poorest countries lead to tremendous improvements in the quality of life of people.

Research also indicates a positive correlation between access to energy and electricity services and literacy in both the rural and urban poor. This is due to fact that families lacking adequate energy supplies limit children’s time spent on schoolwork and reading and in extreme cases families withdraw their children, especially school-going girls to spend time on fuel, wood and dung collection.

On the other side, electric light, modern means of communication and access to new media enhances opportunities for education. Cooking and heating with modern sources of fuel or electricity improves health and reduces workloads especially for women. Access to energy services is an important instrument for empowering poor people.

Access to modern energy also enables development of productive economic sectors in rural areas, especially the agricultural sector and enables farmers to process their sold at higher prices in urban centres. Energy services also add to economic growth by reducing unit costs. Additionally, if people are connected to the national grid, they can benefit from subsidised tariff rates.

In rural areas, lack of modern energy services also decrease the willingness of workers, teachers, doctors and nurses to reside in those areas. Similarly, those who have left such communities, are less likely to return to these areas without the availability of modern services.

Presently, the government provides subsidies to conventional forms of energy which result in loss of revenue and distortions in pricing structure. It also results in operational inefficiency that leads to poor quality of service to end users. Ironically, the government subsidies are targeted towards class of consumers willing to pay higher charges for quality of service.

The target of poverty eradication and improved quality of life for poor is unachievable without provision of electricity. Two main energy needs of the rural population are electrification and fuel for cooking/heating. Rural development is accompanied by replacement of traditional fuels and power sources with electricity and petroleum fuels. Unfortunately Pakistan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper has overlooked this issue.

Various other means to improve the utilisation of energy services that can help improve the living conditions of the people in poverty include improved stoves, better ventilation, provision of potable water, improved sanitation, etc.

Similarly, consideration should be given to energy services required to provide adequate street lighting, cleaner public transportation, communication infrastructure, water pumping and delivery etc.

Most of our rural areas are located far from national grid and their densities are low which make cost of energy supply much higher. This situation demands use of locally available sources to generate electricity for rural areas.

Improved access to electricity in rural areas need not take place only through grid extension. In recent years, technological developments in small hydropower, biomass utilisation, wind energy and solar photovoltaic systems have created new opportunities for rural development, so that decentralised rural electrification (DRE) is a proven competitor to grid extension.

In practice, a primary objective should be to expand the distribution of petroleum-based fuels especially LPG and where possible natural gas. The government should promote the use of energy-efficient cook-stoves, water pumps and other appliances. And electricity services be extended to households not yet connected to the grid.