Renewable energy boosts sustainability for Zimbabwe Catholic sisters

Green energy has become the watchword for sustainable agriculture in the face of climate uncertainty, and Catholic sisters in Zimbabwe’s second-largest city have responded by creating off-grid infrastructure to power their operations.

The southern African country has not been spared disruptions to hydropower generation caused by low rainfall due to climate change, forcing authorities to import electricity from neighbouring power plants.

In recent years, water levels at the Kariba Dam, located on the Zambezi River along the famous Victoria Falls, have fallen, paralysing energy production.

In this situation, millions of people in Zimbabwe struggle with a lack of access to electricity – in businesses, households, industry and agriculture.

At their sprawling headquarters in one of Bulawayo’s quiet eastern suburbs, the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood have turned to solar energy to run a thriving gardening project.

The Zimbabwean government has emphasised the importance of locally grown food, but this has been hampered by the lack of adequate infrastructure, resulting in crop failures and imports of basic goods.

The Catholic sisters’ work to promote the sustainable use of natural resources comes at a critical time for many African countries, which are grappling with the rising costs of generating energy from fossil fuels due to environmental concerns.

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is helping the Precious Blood sisters cope with Zimbabwe’s high electricity tariffs at a time when hours-long power cuts disrupt every sector of the country’s economy.

Authorities have identified renewable energy as the future of sustainable agriculture, and the Precious Blood sisters’ gardening project has become an example of the country’s energy transition efforts.

“We have five solar-powered boreholes that support gardening as well as our home,” said Sister Caroline Busvumani during a recent visit to the Precious Blood sisters’ project.

“Solar energy works best for our day-to-day operations, which include fundraising, because electricity from the energy supplier is intermittent,” Busvumani told Global Sisters Report.

The country’s struggling energy supplier has come under pressure to boost energy production, with sectors such as agriculture demanding relief from power cuts.

Thanks to heavy investments in renewable energy, the Catholic sisters have managed to create their own horticultural miracle that can serve as a model for other religious orders that strive to be environmentally friendly while making a living from it.

Giant tanks, called “JoJo tanks,” help store water for the gardening project. The produce is sold to members of the public, and the sisters receive healthy, organic, home-grown food that they can eat.

The provincial government boasts several such tanks, some of which can hold 10,000 litres of water, a testament to the difficult water situation in the city and the efforts the sisters make to sustain themselves.

“Foreign support has dried up in recent years and we are constantly looking at how we can best support ourselves. The greenhouse horticulture initiative is part of that effort,” Busvumani said.

The solar infrastructure installed by the sisters also provides electricity to their home at a time when millions of residents are struggling with power outages.

Precious Blood Provincial was built decades before Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, long before issues of climate change and power outages became topics of public debate.

The city of Bulawayo, which is home to numerous congregations of Catholic sisters, once had its own coal-fired power station, which supplied energy to many industries, including agriculture.

However, the plant is neglected and, given the current plans for the global energy transformation, there are no visible plans to reactivate it.

Disconnecting from the network

The pristine grounds of Precious Blood Sisters are home to countless photovoltaic panels, some perfectly aligned on different points of the roof, others mounted on the ground, demonstrating a huge commitment to renewable energy.

It also reflects the Vatican’s pursuit of energy independence, with the Holy See advocating combining agriculture and solar energy.

“It is necessary to move towards a model of sustainable development that limits greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, with the goal of climate neutrality,” wrote Pope Francis in his apostolic letter, Brother of the Sole.

“Humanity has the technological means to deal with these environmental changes and their devastating ethical, social, economic and political consequences, and solar energy plays a key role among them,” the Pope said.

Food production remains one of the church’s primary goals in the face of world hunger, and the Precious Blood sisters say their solar energy and gardening project is a step toward sustainable farming practices.

In addition to gardening, the sisters are also involved in a pigsty project, where a biogas plant has also been installed.

As the world moves toward clean energy, the Precious Blood sisters are doing their small part, albeit at a high cost of living.

“We installed a generator as a backup in case of power outages, but we realised it was too expensive because of the price of fuel. We invested in solar power instead,” Busvumani told GSR.

Zimbabwe has some of the highest fuel prices in the region, with businesses complaining of unsustainable operating costs due to constant power cuts.

But for Catholic sisters, this model of going off the grid echoes efforts in developed countries, where some dioceses have committed to relying entirely on renewable energy sources in parishes, schools, offices and even cemeteries.

“This whole place used to be green, but because of the water problem, even the lawn has dried up. We can’t rely on city water,” Busvumani said, adding that low rainfall had affected groundwater levels, causing tanks to take too long to fill.

“The water situation is really bad at the moment because we have to share the water usage from the tanks between the two greenhouses and also between the hospital and the sisters’ house. In the past, this has never happened during good rains,” she said.

Like many other public goods and services, Bulawayo Municipality has introduced strict water rationing measures, with some areas experiencing water outages lasting more than a week. Residents have been banned from using hoses to water their gardens.

Investing in solar panels, like the one the Precious Blood sisters undertook, is a costly endeavor for many in a country facing record unemployment.

It may take years for renewable energy infrastructure to be widely adopted and installed in the country, but for now, the sisters have managed to create a solid model against difficult odds.