50,000 Stoves, cylinders for rural areas
Fifty thousand six-kilogramme cylinders and cook stoves will be distributed to some rural areas in the country this year.
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This is to improve the quality of life in rural communities by reducing drudgery and the time wasted in fetching firewood.
It will also help reduce health-related problems associated with the use of wood fuel, which affects the immune system of women exposed to indoor smoke or fumes while cooking.
The Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, said the ministry would help to set up mini-refill plant outlets in some of the rural areas to ensure a constant supply of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG).
That, he said, would prevent users from reverting to the use of wood fuel.
The minister made this known in a speech read on his behalf by the Deputy Director at the Petroleum Directorate of the Ministry of Energy, Mr Kwame Bona Siriboe, at a workshop on LPG advocacy in Accra.
The workshop was organised by the Ghana Alliance for Clean Cook stoves (GHACCO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.
It aimed at supporting government to achieve its energy policies and also to increase consumer awareness of the importance of fuel efficiency and clean cook stoves.
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GHACCO seeks to ensure the use of cook stoves to address the high levels of indoor air pollution as a result of cooking with solid fuels.
LPG use
Mr Armah-Kofi Buah said his outfit was making an effort to increase access to and consumption of LPG in the urban areas as well.
He said as part of the effort, refilling plants and vending points would be established, together with the distribution of bulk cylinders to increase LPG usage in urban communities.
“The ministry is working with the National Petroleum Authority and other relevant stakeholders to come up with guidelines and regulations to introduce the cylinder re-circulation model. This model will reduce to minimal levels the numerous health and safety LPG related challenges, including fatal accidents that have been confronting the country recently,” he added.
The minister said his outfit was facilitating the construction of LPG tanks to increase the nation’s storage capacity to the required 100,000 tonnes storage.
The Regional Market Manager of GHACCO, Mr Kwesi B. Sarpong, said the mission of GHACCO was to promote partnerships among members to encourage actions that could contribute to the distribution of five million improved and clean cook stoves in Ghana by 2020.
To encourage rural communities to switch from wood fuel to clean cook stoves, he said, GHACCO would increase education on the efficient utilisation of LPG and clean and improved cook stoves.
“Once the people start using LPG and the improved cook stoves, it will definitely become an inspiration to others to adopt it,” he said.
Open forum
In an open forum, participants suggested the need for public education on the use of LPG.
Some participants from the Northern Region said LPG was not highly patronised in their region because it was expensive, compared to a sack of charcoal which sold at GH¢18. They, therefore, stressed the need for the price of LPG to be reduced to encourage rural communities to patronise it.