Power to the People
During my first few days in a municipal district an hour south of Masaya, Nicaragua my eyes were itchy, and I had a chronic cough. Quickly I realized it was from the blend of exhaust spewing from old trucks and cars as they struggled up the mountainous terrain, as well as the even more obvious, the thick and almost ever-present haze of smoke from the 1,000's of open air cooking fires in the "urban center."
It was also hard to miss noticing that the power grid infrastructure is in serious disrepair, and that in most homes and businesses extension cords and electric wires are strung all over the place in "MacGyver-style."
This new insight rolls around in my brain bumping up against the fact that despite this lack of utilities, the per person emission of carbon for the average Nicaraguan is 0.82 compared to that of someone from the United States, which is 19.78 (as of 2007 data). Pretty eye-opening, especially if you consider that Nicaragua ranks fourth in the Long-term World Climate Risk Index (Germanwatch 2016. Think what these resourceful, frugal people could do with renewable energy!
Although the purpose of my trip to Nicaragua was to gather information for a case study on agricultural cooperatives, now I find myself reading about the energy issues…….
Nicaragua is the country in Central America with the lowest electricity generation, as well as the lowest percentage of the population with access to electricity. About 68% of the rural population still lacks access to electricity. In absolute terms, it is estimated that a total of about 340,000 dwellings (1.8 million people) in both urban and rural areas lack electricity service (MEM 2010) Nicaragua also continues to have a high dependence on oil for electricity generation (the highest in the region). Nicaragua also has one of the dirtiest power grids, with nearly half of their electricity coming from plants that run mainly on low-cost bunker fuel, which is the heavy, residual oil that is left over after gasoline, diesel and other light hydrocarbons are extracted from crude oil during the refining process. So in addition to the exhaust from vehicles, and the cooking fires, this low-quality fossil fuel burned for electricity also has an impact on the health of local inhabitants (Globalissues.org). I also learned while I was there that part of the problem is that even the people who have access to electricity do not use it, or use it sparingly due to the high cost and the power outages. Yet right next door Costa Rica is almost entirely running its grid on renewables. What's up with that Ortega?
MEM.2010. Electrificación rural: descripción general, estado actual de la electrificación rural en Nicaragua. Acceso online 15.10.10 http://www.mem.gob.ni
