The first quarter of 2016 for our community engagement work has been nothing short of eventful. We just completed our first year of the Energy Smart Citizens in Action project funded by the European Union. The Citizens in Action project partners with eight communities in the four provinces: Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal and Western Cape. In our first and second round of workshops, we provided each community with tools for better engagement with local government on energy issues and information about alternative energy solutions. Through our engagement with community members we collected valuable data to establish the current energy situation in these areas. As a final product, we hope to develop energy planning scenarios for each community to help them improve their access to energy in the long term.
The next round of engagements with the communities is planned for May/June, which will focus on finding practical solutions that communities can implement in their own capacity to help lower their energy costs. Each community faces its own distinct set of challenges so it will be interesting and exciting for the Project 90 team to see how the communities make use of the resources and tools provided to improve their livelihoods.
