NAN-AE-15
Stoves
By Chidinma Agu
Lagos, Feb. 14, 2017 (NAN) The National Coordinator, Coalition of Environmental NGOs, Dr Odigha Odigha, has advised the Federal Ministry of Environment to continue to encourage women to use fuel-efficient cook stoves in their homes as part of the initiatives to protect environment.
Odigha gave this advice in Lagos on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to him, using the stoves will help the nation to combat the effects of climate change and relief households of huge expenses on kerosene and firewood.
‘‘Thermal efficiency of these fuel-efficient stoves is more than 80 per cent while the efficiency of most of the regular stoves is less than 10 per cent.
‘‘This means that where a woman used to buy N100 worth of firewood that will last for a day, with fuel-efficient stove, the same N100 worth of firewood will last up to a week.
‘‘Good enough, there is local technology for the production of the fuel-efficient cook stoves and the makers are just begging for patronage from the citizenry.
‘‘The makers of fuel-efficient cook stoves have the capacity, all they require is funding.’’
Odigha said that the nation should strive to have sustainable solutions to cutting and preserving the trees.
He said that with less than N2, 000, one could afford the fuel-efficient cook stove which would help the nightmare being experienced by people over kerosene scarcity and economic recession.
According to him, the population is increasing and the forest size is shrinking on a yearly basis and the nation needs to do something to tackle the problem.
Fuel-efficient cook stoves are triple win for child health, development and the environment.
The case for fuel-efficient cook stoves is strong in the country.
In the Nigerian society, women are in charge of cooking, spending between three and seven hours per day near the stove, depending on the demands of the local cuisine.
According to the World Health Organisation, 59 percent of all indoor air pollution-related deaths are female.
There is also a strong risk to young children who spend a large proportion of their time close to their mother, breathing in smoke from cooking fires during their early growing up years.
In addition to the health burden, there are also livelihood and environmental consequences resulting from the use of open fires.
The use of improved fuel-efficient stoves can reduce the production of smoke and harmful gasses within households.
It can also reduce the use of biomass by up to 60 percent (wood, crop waste, dung etc), reduce cooking cycle times, and create significant household safety and labour benefits.
The use of biomass for daily fuel consumption in developing countries accounts for up to 90 percent of all energy use and the majority of this is from non-renewable sources. (NAN)
ACA/MOL/MO
==========Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Morayo Omolade