benyamin forked is a mailman and it's a small town near hamburg in northwest germany. he didn't know there's about eight hundred letters and ninety parcels of dave he works with dr past germany's biggest mail company. he drives an electric powered light utility vehicle called a street scooter. the post has a fleet of thirty four at this sorting office. the message i got my first impression was that they look a bit odd that the design was unusual. past special nothing like it had ever been seen before not the vehicle was commissioned by daiichi past because there were none on the market that fulfilled its requirements. dacha passed for the company that makes the vehicle four years ago. when benyamin four

sets off each morning the battery is fully charged it can't be recharged while he's out and about only back at the depo. the range is eighty kilometers that's fine for his routine it's a whole except perhaps when he has the heating on. as i was once when it was raining a lot and everything was really damp i cranked up the heating on and i used five percent more power on that day and it wasn't even cold when i have to see what happens when it really does get called agent work for. the past has eight thousand election delivery vans in small towns across germany now it wants to deploy street scooters in big cities as well but their limited range has so far been a problem dacha past spokesperson martin gauntlet acknowledges that the diesel powered vans they currently use in cities will have to be replaced as they cause a lot of pollution. between humans and the volume of parcels has been rising and

will continue to do so we can only guarantee delivery if we have a fleet they can reach our customers where ever they are that will no longer be possible with our diesel trucks and inner cities and they perceive our future with insults and so we have to consider alternatives. environmental activists and kiddies in a regularly measures the air quality. it's not just cars and trucks that pollute the air here but also ships hamburgers germany's largest port. the concentration of particulate matter is high from. the same kind of pollution from water traffic that we do from street traffic it's just that on ships the diesel engines are much bigger hence the high levels of nitrogen oxides and find particularly. matter in our setting. older diesel vehicles that don't meet the euro six standards have now been banned from parts of downtown. at least that's

a step in the right direction. just. follow all road traffic to be electric powered there are no longer any technical obstacles to cars and light commercial vehicles all going electric. then of course the air would be lovely. if large commercial fleets such as that of dr past the switch to electricity that would make a significant difference the post office his street scooters are too small for the large volumes of goods it has to shift in hamburg and you and bigger model is in the works. benyamin corp says most people he meets welcome the shift to evade calls but there is one problem. here. once an old lady was about to walk out in front of the van horn and she jumped she complained that you can't hear new cars anymore but then

she said it's good that they don't pollute the environment. benyamin forbes says he's happy with his evil he just has to drive even more carefully because people don't notice it coming as it glide silently through it so who are. in tanzania and uganda and kenya docks in lake victoria being depleted pollution is partly to blame easily by exploitation of natural resources a research project with partners from seven countries in europe and africa wants to help to talk some of these problems. all reporter went to uganda to meet with a team from the university of calls for her in germany the scientists have come to the lake to hold workshops their goal is to boost fish talks and show noble communities how to preserve the environment. muhammad

has been fishing off their gun and shows of little toller for more than twenty five years. now. we no longer fish like we used to. be economic impact on us. right now you're going to sit ups and come up empty or give just one catch a week in the old days we would get a good catch every day. the main cause for the depletion of stocks is over fishing pollution from industrial activity is another problem these issues have made it harder to meet the rising demand for fish. this has prompted some ugandans to set up fish farms. one of the biggest challenges is the lack of clean fresh water. fish from outside the capital kampala.

to fish farming you have to keep flushing your ponds all the time so you can imagine the amount of money that was spent just to make sure that we had water running into the different points every ten thousand meters. she's taking part in a union funded project called v h one she and the fish from us are learning about a new technology. it was developed by a team of european and african scientists the project is led by professor john from the university of culture away in germany the team has come up with a new system three use west water in order to cut costs while boosting efficiency. one develop a system for the market it's called research aquaculture so this system. hundred percent water reuse water is circulation so it's mentally very friendly

because there's no water going through and there's no nothing spoiling the environment and we make use of renewable energy in order to reduce c o two footprint. in the tunnel on the can and side of the lake is already in place the water is filtered using what's known as membrane bio reactor technology. in uganda has been using recycled water for the last eighteen months the used water is pumped into our tongue from there it flows into this busines which contains tomes and sun that help clean the water. now wants to use recycled water to have big points too. so we already have a system and it has proved to be very efficient for us using the same water would

maintain the same temperature because that's also very crucial when you're watching exit to there in doha cherry so for the points that still work in progress for us to see how well be able to integrate it. this is just like more from us to recycle water ideally using renewable energy the professor and his team have been working on this project for the last three years so far their work has brought them to uganda kenya and tanzania. we want to train we want to show people and we want to see how everything develops in the future and finally very very important is we need to at dept this solution for the local market so at the moment we brought a lot of ideas from europe and now we need the feedback of the local people to give us a guidance in future how can we develop a low cost system one of the ways they're hoping to achieve that is by promoting

exchange between scientists and from us the aim established best practices that boost fish stocks and protect the environment. we've come to the end of this edition of record africa but we will be back next year with more environmentalists ideas and initiatives from africa and you.