By Godfrey Muhumuza
Clean Energy experts have called on communities in Bunyoro region to embrace clean cooking technology in order to minimize on dangers brought by cooking smoke and save on nature.
Cooking smoke continue to kill millions of people in developing countries like Uganda with many of the citizens still depending on firing up a kerosene stove, lighting a charcoal grill or setting some logs ablaze among others.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, much of this cooking happens inside and the smoke it produces is laced with toxic particles which creates air pollution.
The household air pollution is one of the world’s greatest public health threats and it is particularly harmful for children leading to premature deaths across the globe.
According to Nelson Byanyima, the communications officer of Uganda National Alliance on Clean Cooking (UNACC), at least two million people die every year due to smoke coming from items used to cook.
Speaking to Spice FM in an interview at the ongoing exhibition on clean cooking technologies being held at Hoima central market in Hoima city on Wednesday, Byanyima says several communities in the country are yet to discover the dangers associated with this smoke from the items like firewood and charcoal among others that are contributors to the death of over 2 Million people annually across the globe..
Nelson further reveals 90% of Ugandans to depend on forest products as a source of energy something he says is dangerous to the environment which has also contributed to climate change effects.
To mitigate this, Byanyima calls on communities in Bunyoro to embrace the clean energy sources and cooking technologies such as electric pressure cooker, ethanol, cooking with Solar, volcanic rocks, briquettes, improved cook stoves, biogas among others which he says are all clean and do not produce smoke as part of innovations in existence to save natural resources and money.
The exhibition that started on Monday will end this Saturday October 19, 2024.
