P
atricia Mussa of Kambalame Village in Machinga District walks out of her smoky grass-thatched kitchen while sneezing and scratching her itchy, teary eyes.
“I am choked by smoke from the open fireplace when cooking meals for my family,” says the mother of five as dark smoke ooze fills the confined kitchen, with soot tarring its walls.
This is also a typical sight in Malawi where nearly all households cook using firewood and charcoal.
The smoky cooking routine fuels indoor air pollution, which kills almost 13 000 people in Malawi annually, according to the Ministry of Health.
According to the World Health Organisation, indoor air pollution kills more people in the world than HIV and Aids, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Energy Poverty
According to the Ministry of Energy, almost 98 percent of households in Malawi use biomass for cooking and about 86 percent having no access to electricity.
Despite Malawi’s vast renewable energy resources and potential, the ministry’s spokesperson, Austin Theu, laments cultural, economic and technological barriers.
“For instance, there is a belief that nsima cooked on firewood tastes better than done on electricity. Sometimes liquefied petroleum gas [LPG] becomes scarce and its distribution network is limited,” he says.
Oxfam in Malawi Clean Energy Project national coordinator Kondwani Mubisa says Malawi remains energy-poor due to financial, infrastructure, policy and technical challenges.
Mubisa says high dependence on biomass is a barrier to transitioning to clean energy.
“Biomass is widely available and affordable, unlike alternatives such as LPG, biogas, and electric cooking, which remain expensive and inaccessible for most households,” he says.
Mussa says the smoky cooking fuels worsen deforestation, which exacerbates energy poverty.
“Nearby trees have disappeared,” she says. “These days, I walk longer distances to fetch firewood.”
The woman and her neighbours leave for Chikala Hills at 2am and return home around noon, staggering under the weight of bulky firewood bundles.
Mussa says forest reserves are waning at an alarming rate of three percent annually in Malawi.
Every six months, Chrissie John in Machinga, says she is walking further to collect enough wood for cooking.
“We spent over eight hours in the mountains searching for firewood. This steals the time we need to take care of our homes and income-generating activities,” she laments.
The national strategy to combat charcoal reads: “With alternative fuel sources underdeveloped, firewood and charcoal will continue to form a significant part of Malawi’s energy mix for the next few decades.”
Peter Maluwa, a charcoal seller from Mgona Village in Phalombe District, says they have run out of trees to burn into charcoal.
“We buy charcoal from Mozambique because our trees are long gone,” says Maluwa.
Three times a week, the charcoal sellers cycle over 80 kilometres to Blantyre City with three bags of charcoal. Each sells at K25 000. They leave Migowi, Phalombe around 2am to arrive in Blantyre at 5pm.
Despite the huge demand, the charcoal traders say the illicit business traps them in a vicious cycle of poverty.
“We get low prices after the long cycle and the business has contributed to environmental degradation, making us vulnerable to effects of climate change such as prolonged dry spells, drought and floods that frustrate our food production,” he says.
Possible cutbacks
In 2012, Malawi embraced energy-efficient cookstoves to protect forests and human health. The country pledged to put five million cookstoves in use by 2030.
Clean energy advocate Kenneth Mtago says: “We have to do away with three-stone open fireplaces because the cookstoves are crucial in reducing pressure on trees and save up to 30 percent of the household budget for energy, but we should be planting more trees and ensuring they grow,” he says.
Chief energy officer Theu says Malawi requires about $596 million to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030.
For women and children who bear the brunt of energy poverty, quick access to clean cooking technologies could be life-saving.
