Post date: Nov 20, 2012 3:57:45 PM
A Mozambican company is hoping to drastically reduce the country's heavy dependence on charcoal for cooking and warmth by producing and distributing ethanol-powered stoves.
MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE (RECENT) (REUTERS) - Small heaps of charcoal piled up in readiness for the next customer - a common sight in many markets around the continent.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says deforestation claims four million hectares of African forests each year. A large amount of them end up as charcoal to be used for cooking and warmth. It's estimated that the African trade in charcoal is worth about 10 billion US dollars.
Charcoal is the main fuel for cooking in Mozambique, a fact that Anabela Lemos, the director of Justica Ambiental, a Mozambican environmental protection NGO, says is extremely detrimental to the environment."More trees are needed to be cut, more wood is needed because more people are depending too much on the coal and there is not any effort from the government to change that scenario," she added.
Not only does the use of charcoal contribute to the loss of forest cover, there are severe negative health consequences as well.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says cooking with a charcoal stove has the health consequences of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.
But Mozambique's carbon dioxide emissions could reduce drastically soon - if entrepreneur Thelma Venichand has her way. Venichand has partnered with the Soros Economic Development Fund to introduce Mozambique's first ethanol-powered stove.
"The reason why I entered the clean cooking business, is because I've always been very sensitive to the difficulties women have cooking. Cooking is part of women's lives in Mozambique, women and young girls and children, we all cook," she said.
Her company - CleanStar Ventures LLC - launched the 20 million US dollar initiative one year ago. They've sold 3,000 stoves as of September 2012, and hope to dig even further into the 10 billion US dollar charcoal market in Mozambique and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
The stoves and ethanol - which is made from surplus cassava - are distributed and sold around the country under the 'Ndzilo' brand name. Each stove costs about 25 US dollars. The ethanol needed to power them is expected to cost about 1 US dollar per day - making the stoves a cheaper alternative for low-income families.
"Ethanol does not make a mess. I have a young daughter who has bronchitis, and with this stove, I can easily let her play in the kitchen. Before, she would come to the kitchen for a short period of time and she would already start coughing, she couldn't stay close. The doctors advised her not to stay too close to the oven, since she was still a baby. So for me, it's a revolution, it's something else," said Maputoresident Jesuina Sale.
CleanStar plans to sell 80,000 units to residents in Maputo over the next two years.