Clean eco-friendly cooking energy as sustainable approach and mitigation to climate change: A case study of Ankole, Western Uganda

Abstract

The study investigates how communities in the Ankole region, western Uganda are coping with a shortage of cooking fuels, climate change and what strategies they have set up to counteract its effects using innovative, sustainable, renewable and affordable technological methods. The objectives of the study are: 1) to investigate the type of cookstoves used in cooking that is being used in the area under study. 2) To suggest eco-friendly cook stoves that can be used for cooking to save the environment and reduce health hazards that are related to inhalation of smoke. It was carried out in the districts of Mbarara and Bushenyi which are diverse in their setting. The main objective was to investigate how traditional cooking fuels have become a health hazard to many mothers and children in Ankole, human activities and rural-urban migration, have caused hiking of prices for fuel for cooking; wetland drainage, bush clearing for farming, charcoal burning, brick making associated with social and economic developments have affected the environment. Traditional methods of cooking still dominate in Ankole, where three stones are still used. Charcoal has become a major fuel for cooking in many homes as an alternative to firewood, in addition to briquettes, biogas, LPG and volcanic rocks. A sustainable eco-friendly stove is proposed to mitigate environmental degradation.

Keywords: Cooking fuels, climate change, health hazard, black termite mound, beehive briquettes, volcanic rocks, affordable, reliable, sustainable, modern energy.