Ethiopia promoting e-cooking to safeguard people’s health, environment

For millions across the globe, the simple act of preparing a meal is fraught with danger. Imagine the kitchen filled not with delicious smells but with harsh smoke that burns your eyes, chokes your lungs, and slowly diminishes your health. This is the reality of a harsh impact of unclean cooking, a universal issue that disproportionately affecting vulnerable households, trapping them in a devastating cycle of illness and poverty.

Dependence on dense fuel sources such as charcoal, wood, and dung, often burned in inefficient stoves, releases a toxic cocktail of pollutants. Women and children, who spend the most time in these environments, bear the brunt of this exposure, suffering from respiratory infections, heart disease, and even cancer.

Addressing unclean cooking is not just a health imperative but a crucial economic one, offering significant returns on investment through improved health, environmental sustainability and enhanced productivity.

To handling these issues, Ethiopia has applied various initiatives that aimed to reducing the impact of unclean cooking across the country. For instance, over the past six years, Ethiopia has planted billions of seedlings to combat the escalating impacts of climate change, demonstrating a profound commitment to environmental stewardship on a global scale.

This Green Legacy Initiatives is not just a tree-planting campaign; it’s a multi-faceted approach for national development and public health.

Beyond its primary goal of carbon sequestration and mitigating climate change effects like erratic rainfall and drought, the initiative is making tangible strides in minimizing the severe health consequences associated with unclean cooking practices prevalent across the country.

By promoting sustainable forestry and increasing access to fuelwood, it aims to reduce reliance on traditional, inefficient cooking methods that contributes to indoor air pollution and respiratory illnesses. This holistic approach underscores Ethiopia’s dedication to building a greener, healthier, and more resilient future for its citizens.

Beyond GLI, recently, the Ministry of Water and Energy has launched its National Clean Cooking Roadmap, an essential initiative to curb reliance on traditional cooking, tackling health, environmental, and economic challenges.

In his opening Speech, Engineer Sultan Wali (PhD) State Minister of Water and Energy stated that currently, a staggering 90 percent of the Ethiopian population relies on traditional methods or wood for cooking, leaving only 10 percent utilizing modern alternatives.

He noted that over 100 million Ethiopians, predominantly women and children, depend on biomass fuels like firewood, charcoal, and dung.

Smoke from these traditional cooking stoves is a major hazard, estimated to cause over 63,000 deaths annually, Sultan said, the economic toll is equally staggering, with household pollution costing Ethiopia an estimated 29.9 billion USD each year. These losses stem from healthcare expenditures, reduced productivity due to illness, and premature mortality.

The State Minister highlighted that the newly launched roadmap seeks to address these multifaceted issues by focusing on improving the accessibility of clean cooking technology, developing supportive policies, strategies, and laws, and promoting the adoption of clean cooking solutions that align with community culture and lifestyle.

Sate Minister of Health, MD, Dereje Duguma noted that the Health Extension Program was instrumental in achieving the MDGs and SDGs. This clean cooking roadmap also is linked with SDGs as well as the backbone of the Health Extension Program by our health extension workers, he added.

He mentioned that with over 40,000 health extension workers, it is possible to educate communities, oversee maternal and child care services, improve WASH facilities and their utilization, and conduct various health campaigns.

Dereje further stated that this platform will also be vital in ensuring our communities adopt clean cooking technologies and change behaviors regarding the risks of biomass-based energy sources.

Beyond the health burden, State Minister of Agriculture, Prof. Eyasu Elias noted that unsustainable cooking practices contribute to rampant deforestation, exacerbate climate change, and lead to water and soil erosion, ultimately reducing agricultural productivity.

According to the reports, Ethiopia loses an estimated 140,000 hectares of forest annually, primarily due to firewood collection. This environmental degradation contributes to soil erosion and reduced agricultural productivity, affecting a sector vital to the Ethiopian economy. The reports suggested a diversion of labor for wood collection costs Ethiopia about 320 million USD annually in lost agricultural output.

Furthermore, for small businesses like Injera bakeries, fuel costs can consume up to 45% of their income, hindering reinvestment and growth. The time spent by women and children, predominantly, on collecting firewood an estimated 132 million hours annually also represents a significant loss of potential for education and productive economic activities.

“We are trying to distribute some cooking stoves as part of the sustainable land management program that is supported by the World Bank and many other programs,” he explained. So far, around 50,000 households have received cooking stoves. However, Eyasu recognized, the numbers are too little in the face of huge demand for those technologies.

Furthermore, Women and children, who are primarily responsible for fuel collection, spend significant time and effort gathering biomass. This daily labor leads to missed educational and economic opportunities.

Some research suggested that switching to e-cooking could save households around 15 days per year, totaling nearly six months over 10 years, representing 132 million hours per year of women’s time saved. The economic value of this time loss is substantial, estimated at 69 billion birr or 1.96 billion USD as part of the total HAP economic burden, according to the reports.

Sultan mentioned that at the end of the implementation of this roadmap, we hope that 93% of Ethiopians will get access to clean cooking. The project is expected to generate over 335,000 jobs and save 13.2 billion hours of time annually, primarily benefiting women. Moreover, it reduces carbon emissions effectively, he said.

He also mentioned that the total investment required for this transformative initiative is estimated at USD 3.4 billion, which includes not only technology procurement but also public awareness campaigns, consumer financing, monitoring systems and incentives.

Moreover, the private, NGO, and other concerned parties should collaborate with government to strengthen the efforts of against the impact of unclean cooking.

BY FIKADU BELAY

THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 29 JUNE 2025

Recommended For You