Come to think of it – Super village

Delft Outlook: June 2007

“I’m not saying that we can solve the problems they have, but at least we can help, and the research opportunities are fantastic.”

The climate campus – the recently started open air laboratory for climate research on TU Delft’s campus – pales in comparison to the proposed ‘super village’ in Tanzania. In 2007, professor Huub Savenije, of the department Water Management (Civil Engineering and Geosciences), wanted to start transforming the village of Makanya, in Northern Tanzania, into a testing ground for Delft research projects in the fields of sustainable accommodation, agriculture and energy.

For some years the village had been the jumping-off point for a team of predominantly TU Delft researchers who were mapping the water streams in the surrounding hills in order to determine how local farmers could use the water – of which there was precious little – more efficiently.

A memorandum of understanding was signed with the Energy company, Eneco. The objective of the partnership was to build up scientific and practical expertise on the sustainable production of bio fuels from the plant Jatropha, which is a plant that needs relatively little water and, according to prof. Savenije, could be cultivated by farmers on the poorer quality parts of their land. The plant would therefore (most likely) not compete with food crops. Eneco was to pay the salaries of two or three PhD researchers. This partnership was the cork on which the whole super village project was floating.

But the project never got started. An Eneco spokesperson said in 2009 that Eneco had put the project on hold because of the financial crisis. Prof. Savenije, who is very disappointed in Eneco – “we signed a memorandum of understanding” – doesn’t believe that this is the reason why Eneco quit the project. “They were working together with a Jatropha plantation in the south of the country,” he explains, “but this collaboration turned out to be a fiasco, and since then Jatropha is taboo at Eneco. We didn’t have anything to do with this plantation.”

Prof. Savenije thinks that, ultimately, Eneco is no longer interested in the decentralized collection of Jatropha from small farmers.

The Eneco spokesperson, who was the talking head for this energy project in 2007, refused to reveal any details about whether or not Eneco is interested in getting Jatropha from small farmers.

“But,” the spokesperson added, “Jatropha is certainly not taboo at Eneco. We’re doing research on our own now. The reason we stopped all collaborations is of a tactical nature. I can’t say more about it than that.”

Insiders at Eneco say the company is now talking with NGO’s ICCO and Max Havelaar about a project that could lead to a certification of Tanzanian oil made from Jatropha.

Using rainwater to flush toilets and involving residents in developing sustainable rainwater deltas were two solutions that earned TU Delft student, Anke Poelstra, first prize in the New Generation Competition, sponsored by the Henry Hudson 400 Foundation. The competition called on students to propose innovative solutions to urban water problems. Poelstra stressed that developing sustainable rainwater deltas would be impossible without the involvement of local residents: “Many people are unaware of the urban water cycle and the challenges it presents. A simple system that collects rainwater from roofs and links it to toilets, together with active input from governments and water managers, could raise people’s awareness of the water cycle and how they can impact it. The benefits would be immediate, as we would need to purify less water centrally and the run-off from rain showers would be slowed.” The five-member jury praised the originality and viability of Poelstra’s proposal. 

Delft Outlook: June 2007
“I’m not saying that we can solve the problems they have, but at least we can help, and the research opportunities are fantastic.”

The climate campus – the recently started open air laboratory for climate research on TU Delft’s campus – pales in comparison to the proposed ‘super village’ in Tanzania. In 2007, professor Huub Savenije, of the department Water Management (Civil Engineering and Geosciences), wanted to start transforming the village of Makanya, in Northern Tanzania, into a testing ground for Delft research projects in the fields of sustainable accommodation, agriculture and energy.

For some years the village had been the jumping-off point for a team of predominantly TU Delft researchers who were mapping the water streams in the surrounding hills in order to determine how local farmers could use the water – of which there was precious little – more efficiently.

A memorandum of understanding was signed with the Energy company, Eneco. The objective of the partnership was to build up scientific and practical expertise on the sustainable production of bio fuels from the plant Jatropha, which is a plant that needs relatively little water and, according to prof. Savenije, could be cultivated by farmers on the poorer quality parts of their land. The plant would therefore (most likely) not compete with food crops. Eneco was to pay the salaries of two or three PhD researchers. This partnership was the cork on which the whole super village project was floating.

But the project never got started. An Eneco spokesperson said in 2009 that Eneco had put the project on hold because of the financial crisis. Prof. Savenije, who is very disappointed in Eneco – “we signed a memorandum of understanding” – doesn’t believe that this is the reason why Eneco quit the project. “They were working together with a Jatropha plantation in the south of the country,” he explains, “but this collaboration turned out to be a fiasco, and since then Jatropha is taboo at Eneco. We didn’t have anything to do with this plantation.”

Prof. Savenije thinks that, ultimately, Eneco is no longer interested in the decentralized collection of Jatropha from small farmers.

The Eneco spokesperson, who was the talking head for this energy project in 2007, refuses to reveal any details about whether or not Eneco is interested in getting Jatropha from small farmers.

“But,” the spokesperson adds, “Jatropha is certainly not taboo at Eneco. We’re doing research on our own now. The reason we stopped all collaborations is of a tactical nature. I can’t say more about it than that.”

Insiders at Eneco say the company is now talking with NGO’s ICCO and Max Havelaar about a project that could lead to a certification of Tanzanian oil made from Jatropha.