Eastern Cape Looks at Waste to Bio, Other Initiatives

South Africa’s Eastern Cape is home to a technology unit that has signed a MoU with AGAMA Energy and Peoples Power Africa to further explore options of converting waste to biogas. The agreement will also provide means to explore rural development initiatives based on energy alternatives.

The Eastern Cape Appropriate Technology Unit (ECATU) was created through a service level agreement that forms the basis of performance review, listed under Schedule 3C of the Public Finance Management Act No. 29 of 1999.

One of its main objectives is to promote sustainable development techniques and methodologies. Since its inauguration in 1983, it has strengthened capacity in rural onsite water, sanitation, and the health sector through the provision of sanitation facilities and water bio-filter purification systems.

In addition, the establishment of the ECATU organic pilot site has demonstrated alternative technologies in organic farming and the production of ECATU brick has provided an alternative means in the housing sector.

The company said in its update that it seeks to “demonstrate the principles of organic farming, alternative approaches, and technologies to organic farming to improve farming methods and address food security.”