- 2 days ago
How women can profit from DRC's male-dominated mining sector and how to recycle used motor oil.
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00:00Our environment faces multiple threats, most of them as a result of human activities that
00:24have a highly damaging effect on the world around us, and there really are no quick fixes.
00:30But we'll see how some people are finding ways to make the most of a bad situation and
00:36finding positives.
00:38I am Chris Alems in Lagos, Nigeria, and over in Lusaka, Zambia is my co-host, Malama Mukonde.
00:49Hi there and a warm welcome from me to Here's What's Coming Up in today's show.
00:54What migratory birds can tell us about climate change.
01:02How an invasive plant species can be turned into high quality animal feed.
01:10And ways to recycle used motor oil.
01:15We start the show in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
01:19Now the country is the world's largest producer of minerals including cobalt by a long way.
01:27And the demand is growing.
01:29The metal is used in the batteries that power smartphones, computers, and electric vehicles.
01:36So this is a highly profitable industry.
01:39But it is also male dominated.
01:42We met a group of women who are making sure that they too benefit from the mining boom.
01:47And they are protecting the environment in the process.
01:59Stones are Vajini Adala's first love.
02:02And here in Utkatanga, in the south of the DRC, the geologist is fascinated by the soil underground.
02:07These are dendrites.
02:09We call them comb structures.
02:13Despite her qualifications, Vajini Adala couldn't find a job in the country's mining sector where prejudice persists.
02:20Women are believed to scare minerals away.
02:23As a result, women constitute just 5% of the workforce, excluding them from colossal profits.
02:31The head of the Kapeshi copper and cobalt mine makes an exception because it's a Sunday and grants Adala access.
02:41She knows exactly where to dig.
02:44So the mineralization goes like this, if you follow it.
02:52If you want to find it, see how it dips?
02:55That's where it's going to go.
02:57Just follow the shape.
02:59See?
03:00That's where it all starts.
03:02Just like over there.
03:04That's where you'll find it.
03:06Copper and cobalt are always found together in suburbs.
03:13The DRC has around 6 million tons of cobalt, more than half of the world's deposits.
03:20This mineral is an essential component for the batteries powering everything from smartphones and computers to our electric vehicles.
03:32But its extraction also poses a threat to biodiversity.
03:36The dust from the country's artisanal mines, where 250,000 people work with their bare hands, pollutes the water and suffocates flora and fauna.
03:48Cobalt production has increased by 600% in 30 years, reaching 170,000 tons in 2023.
03:56A total of 12.5 million Congolese are employed in the mines, most of them run by multinationals, especially Chinese companies.
04:04The Kapeshi Artisanal Mine belongs to a local community, which gave Vajine Adala, as a member of the NGO Women in Mining, or WIM, access to the site on this particular Sunday.
04:15Dorote Masala, the organization's president, wanted the geologist to assess the mine's impact on the environment.
04:22The NGO's mission is to mitigate the environmental impact of the mining sector and to find income-generating opportunities for women who suffer the most from the impact of the boom.
04:33Minerals are extracted all week long at such sites.
04:40And as they spend the whole day here, the workers leave masses of water bottles and other plastic wastes on site.
04:49As a member of WIM, Vajine Adala has set herself the task of recycling this waste created by the mining boom.
04:56What I love most about my work is how I help the environment.
05:01The biggest challenge is the lack of necessary materials.
05:05The impact we're having on future generations motivates us to keep going.
05:10Vajine Adala is not alone in her fight.
05:13Supported by Women in Mining, the 27-year-old has set up her own recycling business.
05:18She's hired two young people and also has a team of committed volunteers.
05:24Together, they transform plastic waste into baskets and useful gadgets for the miners.
05:31In the evening, she shares her insights.
05:33Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our webinar tonight.
05:38On the agenda this time, creating networks and encouraging women to become entrepreneurs by recycling waste.
05:45Without access to mining jobs, the aim is to turn a lack of opportunities into an asset.
05:50This is also the idea behind the Women in Mining organization.
05:55We said to ourselves, if we can't find jobs there, maybe what we can do is recover everything people throw away to create jobs that can generate income for households.
06:07And that's where the women are being mentored by us.
06:12A concrete example, ecological charcoal, which the NGO trains women to produce from ash, sawdust and clay.
06:20This environmentally friendly method enables women in rural areas where the mines have rendered land unfarmable to generate income.
06:28Prior to this project, they used to cut down trees still untouched by the expansion of the mines.
06:34It's good for us because it will reduce timber cutting and we've just discovered that these embers and the ash are fertilizers.
06:55It will enrich our soil and enable us to recover the harvest we used to have.
07:08Virginie Adala immediately sees another potential market. She suggests working together with the women.
07:16Since they're having trouble selling their merchandise and we have customers, we're going to join forces.
07:21First, we're going to test the quality of their product because if you're going to send it to our customers, we need to be sure it's good.
07:28We'll need a few samples. It has to conform to our calculations concerning burning time.
07:33And when we're satisfied, we'll propose it to our partners.
07:40And a rounding of her day is an appointment with another member of the Women in Mining group,
07:46who has recently started producing compost near Lubumbashi with the city's organic waste.
07:55She visits the site once a week to stir the soil and check on the condition of the three compost heaps.
08:01The visit brings back not-so-distant memories for Virginie Adala.
08:05It was my first entrepreneurial project, but it takes a lot of effort.
08:14You need the willpower, the love and the means.
08:20Virginie Adala encourages the young entrepreneur and promises to buy her compost as organic fertilizer for her customers.
08:27The women from WIM are dedicated to the cost and to helping each other a little more every day.
08:36We head now to Europe, where summers are getting hotter and hotter, mainly as a result of human activities that add heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
08:48It gets especially hot in cities compared to rural areas because grass, trees and farmland absorb heat better than cement, bricks and asphalt.
09:00So the obvious thing to do is bring as much nature into the city as possible.
09:05And a start-up has found an inventive way of doing just that.
09:09High building density and very little greenery are a perfect recipe for heat islands in cities like London.
09:24But this wooden structure could help relieve this urban problem.
09:28It's called vert and is supposed to help cool down its surroundings.
09:31Vert is basically a planting structure and we are growing in this structure like seasonable plants, different kinds, which are growing up to 10 meters within one year.
09:45And providing shadow and fresh breeze in the hot summertime, especially in those areas of the cities which are affected the most by global warming.
10:00And which you typically call heat islands.
10:05Fast growing plants such as morning glory, beans and hops can provide shade and help create a better microclimate in the immediate surroundings.
10:14And clearly the structure isn't just a support for climbing plants.
10:18This structure is in a way constructed like a street furniture.
10:23It's like a shelf that you put onto a place or on the street so the cars can still pass underneath, the bicycle can go underneath, people can still walk.
10:33But they can also sit and rest and we want to offer a lot of things that people can do without that they have to immediately change the habit.
10:41The team set out to combine design with natural materials and functionality.
10:48The climbing plants don't just serve to cool down heat islands.
10:50These climbing plants are based on a seasonal cycle.
10:55What we do in autumn is that we harvest the whole biomass and then depending on the local infrastructure we can, for example, turn them into compost, energy or even biochar.
11:06And by that return the whole harvested biomass into the economic cycle.
11:11The creators of Vert say it provides a quick solution to the urban heat island problem in areas where trees can't be planted, but space is available.
11:22It was first shown at the 2024 London Design Festival.
11:27And who knows, perhaps these structures will soon be popping up in other cities.
11:34We're staying in Europe, but moving south to a remote island that is a hotspot for bird migration.
11:39Now, hotter temperatures are also having a major effect on the migratory patterns of birds.
11:46Combined with factors such as sea level rise, it is becoming harder for them to nest and find food.
11:52And that poses a serious threat to their survival.
11:56But because birds are so sensitive to environmental conditions, they have a lot to teach scientists about climate change and how to adapt to it.
12:05These birds are migrating south to escape the cold European winter.
12:13They refuel on the Greek island of Antikythera before crossing the Mediterranean and the Sahara on their journey to Africa.
12:20Researcher Christos Barbutis is observing the migratory birds on their stopover.
12:27He coordinates the annual bird census on the island.
12:30Basically, we're collecting data to identify possible population changes in migratory birds and potential threats.
12:45Characteristically, there is a trend that there are changes in both the numbers and the times when the birds come, due to the effect of climate change.
12:54Researchers want to understand if and how the creatures are adapting to changing conditions along their migratory routes.
13:05If we have less rain, which is happening, there will be less greenery and less food, which will be problematic for the birds.
13:16To better understand the changing climatic conditions and how migratory patterns of birds reflect them, researchers use nets to catch them along their routes.
13:26At dawn, Christos and his colleagues untangle the birds from the nets for examination.
13:35The researchers count them, measure them,
13:40and then they put a ring on them.
13:42Weigh them?
13:43Yeah.
13:44And then don't believe them?
13:4519.7.
13:4619.7.
13:47And then they put a ring on them.
13:48Female black apple.
13:50The ring number is 833.
13:53Female 0.
13:54Three core.
13:57Banding is really important because it's the only way that we can track these small songbirds, where they're going and when they're coming back to our countries.
14:06And that's because they're too small to put a GPS tag on, which is what we use for the larger birds to track their movements.
14:13So instead, we put a band on.
14:15It has a nine-digit code.
14:17And when it gets caught by another research station, we can tell how long it took to get there.
14:22We can tell where they're travelling to.
14:25And also, even if that band doesn't get re-caught, we get information on the number of species.
14:31The data collected allows the researchers to determine the stability of the populations.
14:36And they can also keep a close eye on the arrival and departure times of the birds.
14:41So the migratory species are either adapting to climate change and coming earlier, or they're not.
14:50And they're going to suffer because of it.
14:52And it's actually happening differently for different species.
14:55So we can tell if the species are coming earlier, if we've been doing these research stations for decades.
15:01And then we can prioritize our efforts to protect them and help their recovery in climate change and in the future.
15:10Their sojourn on the island is just a pit stop for the birds.
15:13They're headed south.
15:15In the spring, the researchers will return to the field to see how much conditions have changed
15:20and how the birds have adapted so that they might help them on their journeys in years to come.
15:26Back to Africa now. International trade has been around for centuries.
15:31But globalization has seen it go into overdrive.
15:35The upside, a lot more choice and flexible prices.
15:39But the problem is, shipping goods around the world takes a heavy toll on the environment.
15:45So is it really worth it in the end?
15:48Our next report comes from Egypt, where we meet a farmer who has found a clever alternative to imported animal feed
15:56and turned a problem into an opportunity.
16:03Azolla is an invasive plant. On the surface of it, that's hardly a good thing.
16:08But besides growing extremely quickly, azolla contains a lot of protein, which makes it ideal animal fodder.
16:15Yet it hasn't caught on as a feed crop so far.
16:18Mohamed Abdel Tawwab only discovered the plant by chance on YouTube,
16:23while looking for cheaper ways of feeding his household animals.
16:27If we use the azolla to feed cattle, we can save an average of 60 to 70 percent of the feed costs.
16:33For poultry, you can save an average of 40 to 60 percent based on the bird type.
16:44Seven years ago, Mohamed Abdel Tawwab began studying and then planting azolla
16:49to feed his domestic livestock with it.
16:52And soon after, he started selling it to others.
16:55Mohamed has since decided to become a full-time azolla farmer and pioneer.
17:00He grows the plants in several large tanks, with a total area of 300 square meters.
17:05I started about seven years ago with a very small farm.
17:10Now we have a number of azolla nurseries.
17:12And we've spread the idea around Egypt, helping to grow the plant on 350 acres.
17:17Most Egyptian farmers, like Abdullah Ali, feed their animals on grain and soy.
17:23But the country now imports about half of its grain and 90 percent of its soy.
17:30And the war in Ukraine has also further pushed up prices, putting pressure on many farmers.
17:36300 kilos used to cost us almost nothing, but now they cost a lot.
17:46Today's price is 1,500 to 1,800 euros.
17:51But my income hasn't increased, so I don't make a profit.
17:55Azolla is much cheaper, and growing it is simple if there's water nearby.
18:00All you need then is sun, and sometimes some phosphorus, to act as a fertilizer.
18:06The aquatic fern was long cultivated elsewhere, for example in Peru, or in rice farms in China.
18:13But the technique has largely died out.
18:16Mohamed Abdel Tawab is using modern means to spread the word in Egypt.
18:21At first people were wary, and I didn't know what to do with my harvest.
18:28Then I started using social media.
18:31I uploaded videos on my channel showing the Azolla plant and poultry eating it.
18:36That gained attention, and people came to see it for themselves.
18:39I showed them the plant and the chickens.
18:42Then people started to accept the idea.
18:46His tanks produce some 600 kilos each day, and he has plenty of customers.
18:55Experts say that the plant can also play an important role in the environment.
19:00It can purify water and provide its own nutrients.
19:04A type of blue-green algae grows with the Azolla plant.
19:09It absorbs nitrogen from the air and transforms it into organic nitrogen that feeds the plant.
19:16It also has anthocyanins that work as antioxidants,
19:19and it's a source of vitamin A which increases the plant's nutritional value.
19:28Azolla has also caught the eye of Egyptian agricultural researchers.
19:32These university graduates are producing powdered Azolla feed
19:36and hope the plant can help farmers to become more independent in other ways.
19:41We want to have a social, an environmental, and an economic impact.
19:46I teach farmers within fertile land and water with relatively high salinity levels
19:51how to grow the Azolla plant.
19:53I'll buy their harvest from them, and they'll have a decent source of income.
19:57In the meantime, Mohammed Abdul Tawab has found another application for surplus Azolla.
20:04It worked well as an organic fertilizer.
20:07Next, we head to Uganda.
20:11Cars, buses, and motorbikes are bad for the environment, and that's no secret.
20:17Their manufacture is energy-intensive.
20:20They're major emitters of carbon, and they are powered mainly by fossil fuels.
20:25By far, the largest contributor to global warming.
20:29And also, used engine oil that gets leaked or dumped is a serious pollutant.
20:37But it can, at least, be recycled.
20:42This is tar, derived from used oil.
20:46And this is Moses Zingo.
20:48As a car mechanic, he used to just tip away the oil.
20:52Benzingo lost his job during the COVID pandemic.
20:55It turned out to be a stroke of luck because he realized that it was valuable.
21:01We now recycle oil.
21:05We've learned it doesn't simply lose its usefulness because it becomes contaminated.
21:09We clean it up and restore it for reuse, allowing the cycle to continue.
21:15Recycling waste oil is a bit of a messy business.
21:20But it's worth it.
21:22Zingo has built up a small business and now employs three people.
21:27They regularly visit some 50 car repair shops in Kampala to collect used oil.
21:34When I draw used oil, for instance, from a diesel engine, I store it carefully and earn money from it to meet some of my other needs.
21:47Mechanics used to just pour it away before they realized it was a valuable resource.
21:52We can't just throw away oil, coolant or hydraulic fluids.
21:57We can't just throw away oil.
22:00Moses' Zingo now recycles some 1,000 liters of used oil a month.
22:05Dirt and water are the chief contaminants.
22:10He heats the used oil fast so the water can evaporate.
22:16Then he adds various chemicals like sulfur to remove the dust and other dirt particles.
22:26This is what used oil looks like, black, as you can see.
22:33And this is what we recycle to achieve a clearer product known as base oil.
22:38It's called base for a reason.
22:41Many lubricants are made from this base oil.
22:44Once used, this clear oil turns into dirty oil again, which we recycle back into base, and the cycle continues.
22:55Recycling allows him to rescue some 80% of the oil.
23:00From the clear base oil that he gains, he produces grease.
23:04That in turn, Zingo sells to car repair shops in Kampala.
23:08The 20% that's left over is pitch black.
23:12It's bitumen, ideal for producing asphalt.
23:16The entrepreneur supplies a number of businesses in the capital with their product.
23:21The enterprise is good for him and for the environment.
23:24In many African countries, used oil often just ends up being discarded, polluting soil and on a far bigger scale, water.
23:37Lake Victoria is not far from Kampala.
23:39And this is where most of the country's drinking water comes from.
23:43Motor boats and trash from the city are a major problem here.
23:48The oil pollution is clearly visible.
23:51The drainage system is also blighted.
23:54In recent years, the national cost for preparing drinking water has doubled to about 2.3 billion Uganda shillings.
24:02That's around 570,000 euros a month.
24:06The water sources are getting increasingly polluted.
24:09Getting polluted by storm runoff.
24:12Getting polluted by poorly disposed of oil.
24:17It's also polluted by industrial waste.
24:20The average cost, chemical cost for treating water is 2.3 billion every month.
24:27This is a very, very high cost and we try and work very hard not to transmit this cost to the people.
24:31Each oil change generates some five liters of used oil and that can contaminate about 3.7 million liters of fresh water,
24:41according to the United States Environment Protection Agency.
24:45So every recycled liter counts.
24:48Mechanics used to discard oil without thinking about it, but I'm glad they no longer do.
24:54It helps protect the environment.
24:56I also created jobs by hiring people to collect the oil from various sources.
25:01And my product directly benefits the same people who supply the used oil.
25:06I'm glad they no longer do.
25:07Well, that looks like a win-win situation to me.
25:12We would love to hear from you and what you think about the show.
25:15So feel free to reach out to us at echo.dw.com.
25:19You can also find more inspiring stories by searching for Echo Africa online.
25:24Thanks for watching.
25:26It's Malama Mukonde from Lusaka, Zambia.
25:28Goodbye.
25:29And goodbye from me to Chris Lems in Lagos, Nigeria.
25:34It's been a pleasure.
25:35Thanks for watching.
25:37We hope you'll join us again next week.
25:59Bye.
26:00Bye.
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