A Clean Cooking Pilot Project which seeks to identify sustainable models for enhancing the demand, strengthening supply and expanding access to clean cooking solution has been launched in Accra.
The project, which would kick-start in the Western Region, is being championed by the World Bank in partnership with the OCTP/ Sankofa partners (ENI Ghana, Vitol Upstream Ghana and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation).
In a speech read on behalf of the Country Director, World Bank, Juliet Pumpunin, Senior Energy Specialist, said the project was expected to benefit 13,000 people across 10 communities in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region.
She said the initiative would also help ensure a broader goal of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), “‘Universal Access to Modern Energy Service for All’ is also achieved by 2030.”
A speech read on behalf of Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development said a recent survey indicated that more than 70 per cent of households in the country, largely women, depended on wood and charcoal fuels for cooking.
According to the minister, the health risk associated with inhaling the smoke of burning large quantity of wood and charcoal was incalculable therefore, the need to be addressed with utmost urgency.
“What is more threatening is that, about 90 per cent of this firewood is harvested directly from the forest woodlots, while the rest are from waste woods, the result of this include forest degradation and climate change,” she said.
The minister said there was the need to hasten efforts towards developing more effective sustainable plans that would reduce the excessive use of wood and charcoal, in order to achieve the SDG7.
Hajia Mahama advised the organisers to work with the Ghana School Feeding Programme and make available to them the clean cookers and energy.
She said an intensive sensitisation programme should be instituted for beneficiaries and other stakeholders in the implementation of the project.
The Paramount Chief of Eastern-Nzema traditional area, Awulae Amihere Kpanyinli III, commended the organisers for the initiative, adding that it would improve the livelihood of the indigenes.
BY AGNES OPOKU SARPONG
