By Anthony Apubeo, GNA
Navrongo (U/E), Aug. 27, GNA – Mr Pious
Akambe, the Environmental Officer in charge of Kassena-Nankana Municipal, has
advised members of the public who rely on firewood and charcoal for cooking to
constantly undergo medical examination to ascertain their health status.
He urged particularly caterers of the senior
high schools and the Ghana School Feeding Programme, food vendors, pito brewers
and sheabutter processors who depend on firewood and charcoal as a source of
energy to regularly go for medical check-ups.
Mr Akambe gave the advice at the
dissemination of a baseline survey on Clean Cooking held in Navrongo in the
Upper East Region.
He said a routine medical screening exercise
often conducted by his outfit, in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service,
revealed that majority of the school caterers, food vendors, pito brewers and
sheabutter processors who relied on fuel wood as source of energy had
contracted respiratory diseases.
The forum was organised by the Assembly in
partnership with the Organisation for Indigenous Initiatives and Sustainability
(ORGIIS-Ghana) with funding support from SNV, a Netherland Development
Organization.
It attracted stakeholders including caterers
from senior high schools, food vendors, traditional rulers, women groups, heads
of departments and assembly members.
Mr Andani Iddrisu, the Municipal Planning
Officer, who presented the survey findings, said all the respondents in the
eight communities and eight institutions selected in the Municipality indicated
that the traditional methods of cooking posed health hazards including sight
and skin problems, burns, coughing and loss of hair.
The survey showed that traditional cooking
methods such as the three stone fire and the traditional charcoal stoves were
still common though the use of cleaner and efficient cook stoves had been
promoted for many years.
“Majority of households and institutions use
firewood as their main source of energy for cooking whilst straws, charcoal and
Liquefied Petroleum Gas are used as secondary sources of cooking energy,
causing environmental degradation,” Mr Iddrisu said.
All respondents in the baseline survey, who
requested for an improvement in their cooking situation and cooking
environment, indicated that at the institutional level, firewood was expensive.
Mr Iddrisu said the survey formed part of
the Assembly’s preparation towards developing a Clean Cooking Strategy for the
Municipality to accelerate universal access to safe, sustainable and affordable
clean cooking technologies.
Among the recommendations were
affordability, efficiency, durability, and accessibility of clean cooking
technologies, and the need for incentives for the private sector to engage in
the production, distribution and sale of clean cooking technologies.
Mr Julius Awaregya, the Executive Director
of ORGIIS-Ghana, lauded the Assembly for its efforts at ensuring that clean
energy was mainstreamed into its Medium Term Development Plans.
He encouraged the leadership to fast-track
the process to make the Assembly a learning centre for the rest of the
assemblies in the Region.
GNA
