Enduring the Charcoal, Firewood hazard

 

By ANNIE ZULU

After properly tying her Chitenge (wrapper) around her waist, Beatrice Kabunda 57, bends down to blow air on her slow-burning firewood to intensify the flame.

A few minutes later, she looks dizzy and struggles to stand. She constantly coughs and her eyes are teary too as a result of inhaling the smoke emanating from the firewood.

This is what she has been dealing with for over 10years since she started her small ‘Kachasu’ brewing business.

Kachasu is an illegal traditional distilled spirit consumed mainly in rural areas and poor urban suburbs of  Zambia and is normally brewed from sorghum and maize.

Beatrice who resides in Chibolya, the most notorious slum in the country’s capital Lusaka told this reporter that despite severe effects that the continuous use of firewood had caused on her health, she is not quitting her business any time soon.

Beatrice trying to intensify the flame of her firewood.

“I usually experience  chest pain, cough, teary eyes and back pain, but what can I do? I am a widow and mother of four children, I also have five extra dependants under my care. if I stop this business, how will I feed them and send them to school?  I have to endure because it´s the only source of income I have,” Beatrice said.

Her children, who sometimes helps her prepare the spirit also experience similar health challenges.

Asked if her family has ever sought medical help, Beatrice declined saying going to the hospital was expensive for them.

“Doctors just give prescriptions, there are no drugs in hospitals and one has to buy drugs which is expensive. When we don’t feel fine we use local herbs, its much cheaper for us,” she said.

Another woman Mutinta Maambo 37, of  Lusaka´s  Matero Township also battles with constant headache, cough, and back pain associated with cooking with solid fuels.

She uses charcoal to prepare food for her family and has done so for over 5years.

According to her, the continuous hike of electricity tariffs by the state owned electricity utility, Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) has made her resort to using charcoal for domestic cooking.

For Mutinta, using an electric stove is the only clean method of cooking she knows and she says is a luxury as its becoming more expensive.

ZESCO  has increased traffic by 27 per cent, 35 per cent, 26 percent, 16 per cent, 75 per cent in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2017 and the whopping 200 per cent in 2019, respectively

And recently, Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane announced the Government´s decision to scrap fuel and electricity subsidies in 2022 as part of a structural economic adjustment program under the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a move that would once again adjust electricity tariffs upwards.

Dr. Musokotwane said decision was necessary to halt the negative cash bleed on the national treasury through subsidy support.

Currently,  K100 buys about 43.2 ZESCO units and it is expected that units of that same amount would automatically reduce once the electricity tariff hike is effected.

Mutinta stressed that she has an electric stove in her house, but has however packed it as she could not afford to use it.

“Using an electric stove nowadays is a privileged for people with money. The electricity units depletes  quicker when you use it, so people like me who can´t afford to buy enough ZESCO units have no choice but to use charcoal,” She said.

She admits that the smoke from the charcoal makes her sick but she’s helpless.

“I feel dizzy and sick most of the times, especially if the charcoal is too smoky. I hate cooking with charcoal but there is nothing I can do, ” She said.

Beatrice and Mutinta´s stories are some of several stories of women in Zambia, whose lives are being threatened by the harmful effect of inhaling the smoke that comes from cooking with firewood and charcoal.

Health implications

According to a 2018 World Health Organisation (WHO) report close to 4 million people die every year prematurely from illness attributable to household air pollution from inefficient cooking practices using polluting stoves paired with solid fuels.

Many of these people live in under-developed countries like Zambia.

Women and children often bear the burden of household fuel collection and food preparation, which require substantial time allocations when the energy source is firewood or charcoal.

Speaking on other negative effects of cooking with firewood and charcoal, Gertrude Tembo, a medical expert, said the effect include irritation of the eyes known as conjunctivitis, which she said may result to partial or total blindness and low back pain from excessive bending chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), among others.

 “Conjunctivitis is an infection that covers the white part of the eyeball and often results in blindness. People cooking with firewood also risks having a respiratory condition like COPD, due to long term exposure to smoke, they have a chronic cough and experience difficulty in breathing,” Dr Tembo said.

Effect on climate change

Climate Change Activist Rachael Mwamba , observed that cooking with firewood and charcoal is one of the factors that contribute to deforestation which is having negative impacts on the environment by fuelling climate change.

With approximately 67% of its land surface covered by forest, Zambia is one of the most forested countries in Africa. However, at the global level, Zambia has been identified as one of the top 10 greenhouse gas emitting countries as a result of deforestation and degradation.

The country´s deforestation rate is at a staggering 250,000 to 300,000 per year and one of the highest in the world, according to United Nations (UN) statistics.

Charcoal and wood fuel production was listed as one of the reasons behind this, yet it has continued despite campaigns against illegal felling of trees.

As forests grow, they battle against climate and emissions, preserve watersheds, stabilise soil and prevent erosion. They also help to protect the planet from a major greenhouse gas by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2).

Way forward

Climate Change Expert Abel Musumali urged stakeholders to scale up sensitization of women on the negative  effects of cooking with solid fuels on their health and the environment.

Mr Musumali said there was  need to raise awareness on the need to shift to the use of energy clean methods of cooking.

“There is a need to let the women know about the negative effects of indoor pollution, there are alternative clean methods of cooking which are safer than cooking with firewood and charcoal such as briquette and biogas,” Mr Musumali said.

He said the reason why the world was shifting to renewable energy is ”because of its lack or at least minimal negative effect on the environment and health”.

 

This story was produced under the WAN-IFRA Women in News (WIN) Social Impact Reporting Initiative (SIRI) Special Edition on Climate Change. Any views expressed in this story are those of the author and do not represent the views of WIN and its partners.