Skip to main content
Welcome to the United Nations
Language:
  • العربية
  • 中文
  • English
  • Français
  • Русский
  • Español
  • Português
  • Kiswahili
  • Other
    • Hindi हिंदी
    • Global
United Nations
UN News
Global perspective Human stories

Search the United Nations

Advanced Search
  • Home
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • UN Art and Gifts
    • History Corner
  • Topics
    • Peace and Security
    • Economic Development
    • Humanitarian Aid
    • Climate and Environment
    • Human Rights
    • UN Affairs
    • Women
    • Law and Crime Prevention
    • Health
    • Culture and Education
    • SDGs
    • Migrants and Refugees
  • In depth
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • Photo Stories
    • News in Brief
    • The Lid is On
    • UN Gender Focus
    • UN and Africa
    • UN Podcasts
  • Secretary-General
    • Spokesperson
    • All Statements
    • Selected Speeches
    • Press Encounters
    • Official Travels
  • Media
    • UN Video
    • UN Photo
    • Meeting Coverage
    • Media Accreditation
    • Webtv
  • Home
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • UN Art and Gifts
    • History Corner
  • Topics
    • Peace and Security
    • Economic Development
    • Humanitarian Aid
    • Climate and Environment
    • Human Rights
    • UN Affairs
    • Women
    • Law and Crime Prevention
    • Health
    • Culture and Education
    • SDGs
    • Migrants and Refugees
  • In depth
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • Photo Stories
    • News in Brief
    • The Lid is On
    • UN Gender Focus
    • UN and Africa
    • UN Podcasts
  • Secretary-General
    • Spokesperson
    • All Statements
    • Selected Speeches
    • Press Encounters
    • Official Travels
  • Media
    • UN Video
    • UN Photo
    • Meeting Coverage
    • Media Accreditation
    • Webtv
 

Subscribe

Audio Hub

Hauwa's GOGLA lamp helps her cook and carry out other chores around her home, and it helps her children study.
IOM/Jorge Galindo
Hauwa's GOGLA lamp helps her cook and carry out other chores around her home, and it helps her children study.

Shining a light on sustainable power: how clean energy is helping to improve camps for displaced people

14 June 2019
Climate and Environment

Hauwa, from Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria, fled her home village of Adamari with her husband and four children in March, when violence struck. Now, she is in the relative safety of a UN-run camp but, with little electricity available at night, lighting is scarce, and darkness can mean danger. However, thanks to a solar-energy initiative from the UN migration agency IOM, that is beginning to change.

El-Miskin, where Hauwa and her family are sheltering, sits at the edge of the capital of Borno State, Maiduguri. It is one of several camps for internally displaced people (IDP) in the region, victims of the fighting between armed groups and Nigerian forces that has persisted for almost a decade.

Newcomers to El-Miskin camp live in makeshift shelters made of straw, and energy is hard to come by. This means that safety is an issue, particularly for women and girls: without proper lighting, they often have to walk in the dark to use the latrines and other water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. For Hauwa, even the cost of batteries to power a small lamp is beyond her means, so when she was given a solar-powered lamp – purchased with financial support from GOGLA, the global association for the off-grid solar energy industry – in early April, as part of the IOM initiative, her daily routine improved drastically. 

El-Miskin Camp in in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State is home to around 5000 IDPs.

Hauwa recalls that during the distribution of the lamps, IOM staff assisted her and taught her how to use it. “I think it is very easy to use,” she says as she proudly shows IOM staff how to fix the lamp on her roof to charge it. With the lamp, Hauwa feels safe when she uses the latrines at night. “The lamp helps me see the path when it’s dark, but I still need to be careful not to step on a lizard!” she jokes.

“Our member companies have already provided 245 million people with access to electricity with clean and affordable off-grid solar solutions. We know they can reach many more. However, some of the most vulnerable communities, such as displaced persons, are often out of reach for the market. That’s why we are glad we could support IOM in bringing the power of off-grid solar to more than 2,100 displaced persons in north-east Nigeria,” said Koen Peters, GOGLA Executive Director. 

Smart tech to keep refugees, and forests, alive

But safety is not the only advantage that renewable energy has brought to humanitarian camps, as Djamila Fatime Harine, a Nigeria-based IOM Programme Manager explains. “With solar lights, children can continue to learn without the health and safety risks of smoky firewood or kerosene lamps, which also pose health hazards such as burns and respiratory problems”.

Where there is a large-scale concentration of refugees, anything that can reduce the need to burn wood, would have a huge impact. In Bangladesh, near the border with Myanmar, for example, some 700,000 Rohingya refugees have few options other than firewood for their household energy needs. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that a staggering 820 tonnes of trees – equivalent to 4 hectares – are being cut down for firewood by Rohingya refugees every day.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have few options other than firewood for their household energy needs. (August 2018)

This is causing tensions with local people, who want to protect their natural resources and livelihoods, and increases the risk of assaults on refugees. As for the health risks, the smoke created by around 191,000 families in such a densely populated area is having a negative effect on the whole population, especially those directly involved in tending fires and cooking.

Cases such as Bangladesh explain why UNHCR, IOM, and other humanitarian organizations, have a strong motivation to find ways to power refugee camps with cheap, clean energy. For example, at UNHCR’s two largest refugee camps, in Jordan, a solar plant has been providing clean, reliable electricity to over 100,000 Syrian refugees since 2017. Whilst it cost US$17.5 million, it is now saving the agency an estimated US$12.5 million per year in energy costs, and cutting carbon emissions by around 20,000 tons a year.

In South Sudan, where thousands of displaced people fled to a UN-protected base in Malakal, in the Upper Nile region, following attacks on communities in 2013, clean water was a priority. IOM initially trucked in water, and then began using diesel-run generators to pump in water from the Nile.

Teams in Malakal have designed a hybrid, solar power system that extracts half a million litres of water per day from the Nile to provide a more sustainable source of water.

However, since last year, the camp’s supplies come from a solar-powered pump, providing some 29,000 residents, and around 300 humanitarian workers, with around 20 litres of water every day. The environmental footprint of the camp is now much smaller, as fuel consumption has dropped drastically. This also means that the pump will have paid for itself by the end of 2019, thanks to savings on transportation and diesel fuel.

With the costs of renewable energy installations continuing to fall, more and more humanitarian centres will be powered by clean power sources, and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. To speed up the process, a group of UN-related bodies, along with other partners, co-led by IOM, have made the switch to clean energy a priority, and joined together to bring about a global sustainable energy plan of action, part of the aim to achieve Goal 7 of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: safe access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy services for all displaced people.

 

 

♦ Receive daily updates directly in your inbox - Subscribe here to a topic.
♦ Download the UN News app for your iOS or Android devices.
 
Rohingya Refugee Crisis|IDP|International Organization for Migration (IOM)|UNHCR

Related Stories

IOM Director General Ambassador William Lacy Swing meets new mothers from the Rohingya refugee and local communities who recently gave birth at an IOM medical facility in the world’s biggest refugee settlement, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

The world ‘must rally’ to support one million Rohingya refugees, UN Migration chief says

View of the mass destruction by Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island in the Bahamas. (11 September 2019)

UN migration agency launches $10 million appeal to support hurricane recovery in The Bahamas

The Italian Navy rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

Two shipwrecks add to ‘alarming increase’ in migrant deaths off Libya coast: IOM

Useful Links

  • UN goal to ensure access to sustainable energy
  • IOM blog post on solar water pump at South Sudan camp

News Tracker: Past Stories on This Issue

A green energy project is bringing electricity to the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.

From philanthropy to profit: how clean energy is kickstarting sustainable development in East Africa

31 May 2019
SDGs

Until recently, Namacurra district, in the Zambezia province of Mozambique, some 1,500 km from the capital Maputo, did not have any basic services – such as schools, health centres, or even energy – connecting the region to the electricity grid would be extremely time-consuming, and costly. But a new UN-backed clean energy initiative looks set to change the outlook for Namacurra, and, within a matter of months, kickstart sustainable development for the benefit of the thousands of people, relocated to the area following the devastating rains of 2015, and it could herald an improved outlook for other economically disadvantaged parts of Africa.

A UNEP solar energy system, the largest of its type in Africa.

The world banks on sunshine, UN says in renewable energy report

5 April 2018
Climate and Environment

In 2017, solar energy dominated global investment in new power generation like never before, according to a new United Nations-backed report, which shows a steady move away from fossil fuel-based power production to ‘green’ power sources.

Resources

  • Navigate the News
  • Information for Broadcasters
  • UN System Links
  • Media Alert
  • UN Journal
  • Meetings Coverage
  • Audiovisual Library

Secretary-General

  • All Statements
  • Official Travels
  • Press Encounters
  • SG Twitter

Spokesperson's Office

  • Latest Statements
  • Briefing Highlights
  • Briefing Transcripts
  • Notes to Correspondents

Find Us

  • UN News App
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • RSS
  • Contact UN News
United Nations
Donate
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Soundcloud
  • Podcast
  • UN Social Media
  • A-Z Site Index
  • Copyright
  • FAQ
  • Fraud Alert
  • Privacy Notice
  • Terms of Use
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Soundcloud
  • Podcast
  • The UN on Social Media