Finding Potential Sites for Small-Scale Hydro Power in Uganda: a ...

Millennium Development Goals1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger2. Achieve Universal Primary Education3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women4. Reduce Child Mortality5. Improve Maternal Health6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability8. Develop a Global Partnership for DevelopmentWhile energy is not explicitly mentioned in any of the MDGs, there is a growingunderstanding that energy services play a crucial role to achieve the MDGs and inimproving the lives of poor people across the world. Lack of access to affordable,reliable, and environmentally benign energy is a severe constraint on development(Porcaro & Takada, 2005).3.3.2 Energy ServicesOver the past few decades the number of people impoverished by a lack of modernenergy services has remained unchanged. Today, almost 1.6 billion people in developingcountries live without electricity in their homes, which make them dependent on dung,firewood, and agricultural residues for cooking and heating. The availability of energyservices has a distinct impact on the lives of poor people. For women and their families,dependence on traditional fuels and fuel technologies barely allows fulfillment of thebasic human needs, let alone the opportunity for more productive activities (Porcaro &Takada, 2005).An energy service is defined as “the function for which energy is required” (Anderson etal., 1999) or as “the view of energy as a resource to perform a desired task to meet endneeds,such as illumination, human comfort, mobility etc” (Ramani et al., 1993). “Ruralpeople in developing countries do not need micro-hydropower, they need milled flour.They do not need photovoltaic cells; they need lighting in their house. They do not needa biogasifier, they need to cook” (Andersson et al., 1999).Generally the focus of rural energy has been concentrated on the technologies, while theend-uses of the energy have been given a lower priority. What is not considered is whichservices are actually required from various energy technologies (Anderson et al., 1999).According to Anderson et al. (1999), many energy projects have failed because energy25