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Energy and the Household Environment in Accra by G McGranahan

Boiling Point
Front cover of Boiling Point issue 35
Issue 35 (1995) How Much Can NGO’s Achieve
ArticleEnergy and the Household Environment in Accra
AuthorG McGranahan?
The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), together with local researchers, recently undertook a study of household environment problems in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Accra, the capital city of Ghana, which has a population of about two million. One of the problems studied, air pollution, is closely linked to energy use through the burning of cooking fuels. This can lead to personal exposures to high levels of a variety of harmful pollutants. Many of the poorer households use biomass fuels and so are particularly at risk.

However, the women interviewed in the study did not generally view exposure to air pollutants, either indoors or outside, as a major environmental problem. Most households that saw the need to reduce pollution felt that these households affected should themselves take the lead. Only 15 per cent of the 1,000 respondents felt that the government needed to take action on air pollution, as compared to 78 per cent wanting action on water pollution, 61 per cent on solid wastes, 56 per cent on outdoor air, 44 per cent on insects and 42 per cent on sanitation. This probably reflects a misplaced lack of concern for air pollution and the belief that unlike most other environmental problems, it is not a public problem - the burden falls primarily on the polluting households.
Distribution of urban households in Accra by type of principal cooking fuel and wealth group
Distribution of urban households in Accra by type of principal cooking fuel and wealth group


One policy response would be to subsidize cleaner fuels but this would mainly benefit the better off households that are already using cleaner fuels or would be able to switch, given a subsidy. Direct, government-led interventions are unlikely to be successful.

Better information has a critical role to play with regard to air pollution as many people being exposed are not aware of the risk to their health. Until most people truly care about reducing smoke exposure they will not take the imitative and government programmes will remain ineffective.

Planners, health specialists and policy makers have a lot more to learn about smoke and are ignorant of the problems women face in choosing their cooking fuels and changing their cooking habits. Planners, health workers and technicians (stove designers and producers) need to learn from the users about their problems.

Where risks are high, it is tempting to treat smoke exposure from cooking fuels like smoke exposure from cigarette fumes and mount an anti-smoking campaign against both. In fact today, cooking smoke may be a more serious health problem than tobacco smoke but three differences must be kept in mind:
  • Cooking is essential for survival and not all households can afford clean fuels.
  • Those most exposed to cooking fumes are women and children but those who decide what cooking stoves and fuels are purchased are generally men.
  • People dislike cooking fuel smoke and do not choose to be exposed to it but do enjoy cigarette smoke and chose to smoke.
The need is for an educational approach rather than to scold women who use smoky stoves or fuels.

Reproduced from SKI Newsletter August 1994

[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 35: How Much Can NGO’s Achieve

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Scaling Up NGO Impacts - From Chulo Group to NGO in Nepal - Women and Energy Project - Kenya - Senegal Stove Success Story - The Senegal Diambar Stove Project - NGO Poverty Projects Evaluated - NGOs - Whats Behind the Initials - The Zambia Charcoal Industry - Trees For Fuel - The Foresters View - Fuelwood - A South African View - Energy and the Household Environment in Accra - Hoods and Chimneys to Reduce Indoor Air Pollution from Wood and Coal Fires - Testing of Charcoal and Coal Briquette Stoves



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Page created: 20 August 2007; Last edited: 02 December 2008; Version: 1
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