The
health dividend while preventing climate change, changes one village woman at a time
Genevieve Nyirabagabe from Gatsibo
District in Eastern Province dreads the cost of cooking fuel. Before she
acquired the Save80 wood stove, it would cost her at least 12,000 Rwandan
Francs (Rwf) to buy charcoal per month.
When she did not have the money –
which was often – she had to spare time two or so day to gather firewood –
usually agricultural residues, scraps of wood or fallen sticks wherever they
may find them.
Now, with a few bits of wood, costing
a minimal Rwf 2800 per month, she can cook a meal for her entire family. The
stove can cook meal for a total of eight people.
Acquiring the stove has proved
empowering, not only in terms of money, but also with the time saved.
The time the she used to spare to look
for firewood she now employs in other activities. This has allowed her to
dedicate more time to her women group involved in socio-economic activities.
Now not only does she have more time
on her hands, but is are also making a little income through her women’s group.
Genevieve’s example is only a
snap-shot of the impact the stove is having, multiplied many times with the
empowering effect it is having in many women’s lives who no longer now have to
rely on their husbands as they used to.
“This is one of the best things to
happen to the women,” say Mary Balikungeri, RWN Director. “The stove has turned
out to be one of the most potent tools in the RWN strategy to empower women.” The Save80 Stove project is a
partnership between RWN and Atmosfair, a Germany-based organization whose main
objective is reduce carbon dioxide emission in the atmosphere.
Extensive
use of firewood and charcoal
In Rwanda, biomass
is the largest source of energy, with firewood and wood for charcoal making up
around 80 per cent of the total. Agricultural residues and peat make another
six per cent. Petroleum and electricity account for the rest. This
suggests that almost every household and institution in Rwanda must use either
firewood or charcoal for cooking.
Firewood and charcoal can be extremely inefficient in terms of
energy use. To begin with, it has been established that for every kilogramme of
charcoal produced, nine kilogrammes of wood have to be used.
Traditional
charcoal stoves and the three-stone fires, quite inefficient in their fuel
utilization, are still widely in use in kitchens across the hills.
To be
energy efficient, heat needs to be concentrated on the cooking pot in order to
make maximum use of the energy.
The flame from the three-stone and the heat from charcoal stove
tend to be dissipated into surrounding, leading to excessive use of the fuel
which demands more fuel.
The Save80 stove concentrates the heat
to the pot, ensuring that it doesn’t get lost.
The subsidized stove comes with
“wonderbox”, and works on a simple principle of retaining heat and conservation
of high temperatures. For instance, the
food is bought to a boil in the stoves using a small stick or two of firewood,
after which it is immediately placed in a “wonderbox” that continues with the
cooking until the food is ready. The “wonderbox” preserves the heat and
continuing with the cooking.
Health
Dividend
Other than empowering the women, as
the example of Genevieve illustrates, the importance of the stove is not
obvious until one looks at the facts, especially as they may affect Rwanda’s mainly
rural population as a result of global carbon dioxide emission.
Carbon dioxide, emitted when burning
wood or charcoal, causes the greenhouse effect. Among other gases it traps heat in the atmosphere leading to global
warming, which is responsible for increased drought and changing weather
patterns.
With
more households using the stove, not only in Rwanda but across Africa, the
impact would be immeasurable.
To
take the example of Rwanda, according to a study by the Stockholm Environment
Institute, the country could suffer economic costs amounting to 1 percent of
annual GDP by 2030 due to global warming. The institute predicts a temperature
rise of between 1.5 and 3 degrees Celsius by the 2050s.
The
study notes that a large proportion of the rural population in Rwanda currently
lives at altitudes beyond the normal mosquito habitat.
It explains that as temperatures rise, so will the threshold
altitude, increasing by 150% the number of Rwandans at risk of Malaria by 2050.
The potential healthcare costs are of the order of $50 million per annum.
Therefore, other than empowering the women, the stove project
harbours a health dividend.
Rwanda Women's Network (RWN) is one of the four partner institutes of the African Centers of Excellence (ACE) for Women's Leadership program run by the Institute of International Education (IIE) , Ethiopia Office.
For more on IIE , ACE or RWN please follow the links below.
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