It is estimated that indoor air pollution is responsible for nearly two million deaths annually in developing countries, according to the World Health Organisation, 2007.
The WHO estimates that more than 1.5 million people die each year from indoor air pollution generated by cooking with solid fuels in poorly ventilated homes or shelters.
Indoor Air Pollution as a result of solid fuel use has been reported as one of the 10 most important threats of public health yet we use solid fuels daily in our rural homes and even in towns.
In Kisumu County, biomass fuels being the main source of cooking energy for majority of the households, the health impact due to indoor air pollution is definitely high in the region.
A week ago I wrote about families cutting down trees excessively in preparation for the El Nino rains and that confirms that many people will consume polluted air during that period.
I still don’t understand why in this era, many people are still using the traditional three stone jikos which consume a lot of firewood, produce a lot of smoke, very cumbersome to use and probably requires one to ferry firewood from one point to another.
Within Kisumu County, it is obvious that a number of households have embraced improved jikos such as Rocket stoves, Moto Poa stoves, Moto Safi stoves and cook stoves just to mention but few.
I am pretty sure that majority of our people are still lagging behind. In order to save our forests, reduce the risk of desertification of the county and probably live free of diseases related to smoke and other pollutants emitted while using bio-mass fuel, our people should embrace the use of energy saving jikos and other renewable sources of energy for lighting homes and cooking.
Kisumu has a good environment for agriculture and it is important we reduce activities that enhance soil erosion.
Embracing renewable sources of energy will save our already endangered few forest which will in turn save our soil fertility leading to improved yields among farmers.
It is also evidence that indoor air pollution may also increase the risk of tuberculosis and asthma.
Solid fuel smoke poses particularly serious problems for patients within increased susceptibility to respiratory infections.
It is in this understanding that we need to embrace energy saving jikos and other renewable sources of energy in our county especially this time that we are anticipated El Nino rains and majority of the households are up with pangas cutting trees to stock firewood.