Today is Earth Day and the Internet is teeming with tips on “living green”. Earth Day Canada’s Top Ten Actions include tips like:
Buy what you need, not what you want
Replace indandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs
Walk, cycle, car pool or use public transportation
Support local food producers
Hang your clothes to air dry
Take short showers instead of baths
etc., etc.
It’s interesting to compare living “green” in Canada with life here in rural Tanzania. For one thing, people constrained by poverty are hard pressed to buy the things they need much less those things they really want so that addresses tip number one. Most of the light bulbs used in Karatu are fluorescent energy saving bulbs because electricity is so expensive that people have to take measures to keep their costs down. Lights here don't go on until it is truly dark! Oh, and that's only about 5 per cent of Karatu's population -- 95 per cent don't have access to electricity.
Less than three per cent of people in Karatu own vehicles, and public transport is a constant struggle so the vast majority of people bicycle or walk great distances. Most of the food consumed is grown locally – maize for the staple food and tomatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots and green peppers for the stew. The bananas for dessert are grown only 20 km down the road in Mto wa Mbu. All the animal products – beef, chickens, eggs, pork – come straight from local farms.
Doing your laundry in Karatu means filling a basin half full with water (a precious commodity that must at all times be conserved), washing all your clothes by hand and hanging them on the line to dry in the sun. Showering involves filling a small bucket with water, soaping up and then scooping up water with a small container to rinse off.
One challenge is the proliferation of plastic water bottles, many discarded by the tourists passing through. Although there are no established recycling facilities, the bottles are recycled informally and used to carry milk, cooking oil and kerosene to meet day-to-day needs. Another challenge is the plastic bags that were introduced in the 1990s. The government has recently banned most of them, but the ban is slow to take effect. UMATU members are presently sewing bags made from local scraps of cloth as an environmentally friendly alternative.
Hmm, all in all... we’d say we’re pretty green...
