向肯尼亚贫困地区提供电力援助（在线收听）

AS IT IS 2015-09-07 Providing Electricity to Poor Communities in Kenya 向肯尼亚贫困地区提供电力援助

In 2013, President Barack Obama launched a campaign called the Power Africa Initiative. Its goal is to increase the availability of electric power in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. Millions of people there are unable to depend on reliable power supplies. 

2013年，总统贝拉克·奥巴马发起了一个名为“电力非洲倡议”的活动。其目标是提升撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲国家电力能源的可用性。那里有数百万的人无法依靠稳定的电力供应生活。

The American-supported program is providing money for a number of projects, including one that creates electricity from human waste.

这一由美国资助的项目正在为一些计划提供资金支援，其中包括一个由人类排泄物转化为电能的计划。

“Mukuru Kwa Njenga” is the name of a community close to Nairobi where about 100,000 people live. Many of them are poor. Until recently, most did not have electricity. Those who did had illegal connections to power lines.

“奈洛比贫民区”是靠近内罗毕的一个地区，那里生活着将近10万人。这些人中大多数是很贫穷的。直到最近，大部分居民仍然过着没有电的生活。这些人为了用上电曾非法连接电力系统。

Amos Nguru had the idea for Afrisol Energy, a project that produces electricity from human waste. Two years ago, Mr. Nguru received an offer of financial support from the Power Africa initiative. The money came from General Electric and the United States African Development Foundation.

Amos Nguru想到了建立Afrisol Energy公司，主要经营的项目是把人类排泄物转化为电能。两年前，Nguru先生收到了来自“电力非洲倡议”组织发来的经济支援通知。这笔资金来自通用电气公司和美国非洲发展基金会。

The project now produces 15 kilowatts of electricity. That is enough to power a nearby school and serve the local neighborhood. Mr. Nguru says his project meets the needs of the community.

该项目目前可以生产15千瓦的电力。这足够让附近的学校和当地居民使用。Nguru先生表示他的这个项目可以满足该地区的用电需求。

Deborah Mwandagina is deputy head teacher of the local primary school. She says in the past, there were too many illegal connections to her school’s power supply. She says this resulted in higher costs for the school, so it decided to stop using electricity.

Deborah Mwandagina是当地小学的副校长。她表示，过去有很多人非法连接学校的电力系统，导致学校的电力成本越来越高，所以不得不决定停止电力供应。

She says, “We have been having challenges from the slums and time and again they hack our power systems and they connect illegally to their homes. We have been having such kind of challenges so we just decided we cannot live with electricity. It can’t do us any good, so we decided to disconnect.”

她还表示，“我们面临着贫民和时间带来的双重挑战，再加上这些贫民非法将电力系统的电偷接到家里。面对这样的挑战，我们决定开始无电生活。既然电对我们毫无益处，那么我们决定不再用电。”

But now the school is once again using electricity from Afrisol Energy. Doreen Kemunto is a student at the school. Her mother Beatrice Onchan’ga says darkness no longer limits the time when Doreen can study.   

但现在学校通过Afrisol Energy公司再一次用上了电。Doreen Kemunto是一名在校学生。她的母亲Beatrice Onchan'ga说Doreen学习不再受时间的限制了。

She says, “Before the electricity was there our children could not be able to learn since they could not come to school that early and leave that late because the school was very dark, and they could not be able to learn.”

她还说，“没有通电之前，学校里面的光线非常暗，孩子们到校晚，离校早而无法在学校正常学习。”

The World Bank says only 23 percent of Kenyans have access to electricity.

世界银行表示，在肯尼亚只有百分之二十三的人用得上电。

Words in This Story

access – n. a way of getting near or at something or someone

reliable – adj. able to be trusted to carry out agreements; dependable

convert(ing) – v. to change (something) into a different form or so that it can be used in a different way

generate – v. to produce something

sanitation – n. the process of keeping places free from dirt, infection and disease by removing waste, trash and garbage and by cleaning streets

slum(s) – n. an area of a city where poor people live and the buildings are in poor condition

hack – v. to secretly and illegally gain access to information or resources, such as power or the Internet