The government has been called upon to support companies manufacturing clean cook stoves for households to make its affordable and accessible.
The move is to promote sustainable clean cooking technologies to reduce smoke and toxic emissions, cooking time, fuel requirement, improved cooking effectiveness and efficiency.
The Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND)made the call at a press conference in Accra yesterday after conducting a clean cooking research in some parts of the country.
The objectives of the research was to know participants’ experience on the use of the various cooking equipment, understand their choice of using a particular cooking equipment, determine the number of households using a clean cooking stove and assess the distribution of free clean cook stoves distributed by the government.
The seven-day research was conducted in Atwima Kwanwoma in the Ashanti Region, Tamale Metropolitan in Northern Region and Cape CoastMetropolitan in the Central Region.
Priscilla Adogo Ahiada, Energy Focal Point, SYND, addressing the gathering said the country launched an improved cooking distribution project which would see the manufacturing and free distribution of 500,000 improved charcoal stoves to 350,000 rural households across the country by 2022 which would benefit approximately 1.8 million Ghanaians.
It formed part of the $5.5million project funded by the South Korea government expected to reduce significantly the emission of carbon dioxide and the rate of deforestation in the country.
She said the research would feed into the government’s free distribution of 500,000 clean cook stoves in terms of the next steps on policy directions.
Highlighting on the devastating impact of the deforestation, Ms Ahiada noted that replacing traditional cook stoves with more efficient and effective ones would impact positively on the health of the people, adding that, modern cookstoves emitted less greenhouse gases and reduced fuel use by 30 to 60 per cent.
“The natural forests are being depleted thus contributing to climate change with negative repercussions, and households that used traditional forms of cooking are exposed to indoor-air pollution which is responsible for the four million premature deaths per year globally as reported by the World Energy Outlook in 2012.
“The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional level, 80 per cent of households still relied on traditional biomass as their primary source of fuel and it posed serious threats to the health of the people, especially women and children and climate change with its inherent health issues called for greater innovation and creativity and the need to passionately overcome the challenges,” Ms Ahiada cautioned.
She stressed on the need to support high quality cooking solutions saying “it is important to promote cookstoves that met quality standards for fuel efficiency, safety, reduced emissions, affordability, durability and convenience for households cooking needs.”
Ms Ahiada observed that it would guarantee that cookstoves were produced and used to their maximum, especially when local design and manufacturing technologies were promoted.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
