The gas cylinders were free. So were the first refills. Across 18 communities in Abuja’s six Area Councils, 10,000 households took home a cylinder and a voucher under Project Breathe Clean Air Abuja, a scheme the Federal Capital Territory Administration ran with IHS Nigeria. The closing event took place on Thursday at the Bwari Mini Stadium.
Here is the practical upshot, in plain terms. A home that cooks with gas instead of firewood or charcoal puts far fewer particles into its own air. The project’s own measurements bear that out. Handheld sensors went into 30 households in Kurudu and Pyakasa. Homes burning firewood and charcoal recorded fine particulate matter above the World Health Organisation’s recommended limits, according to Dr Adedolapo Fasawe, Mandate Secretary of the FCT Health Services and Environment Secretariat. Once the families switched to LPG, repeat checks found significantly cleaner air.
A message about firewood
ThisDay reported that the administration wants to stamp out firewood burning in the capital. Mariya Mahmud, Minister of State for the FCT, was represented at the finale by her special adviser, named in that report as Majidda Adamu Kuku. Indoor air pollution hits women and children hardest, the adviser said, because they spend the most time near the kitchen. The scheme, she said, has “drastically reduced” the use of charcoal and firewood.
Fasawe told the same event that many Abuja residents, even in the metropolis, cook with firewood. Her view was that cost is not the main reason. “This is not because they cannot afford gas, but because they don’t know the side effects and the bad effects of cooking with firewood,” she said. The project was founded under FCT Minister Nyesom Wike two years ago, she added, and its start involved background research, stakeholder mapping and a hunt for funding outside government.
She put the number of households that have replaced firewood and coal at over 12,500. The 10,000 cylinders account for most of that figure.
Cost and health cover
Dapo Otunla, an IHS Nigeria senior vice president who spoke for chief executive Mohamed Darwish, said the aim is to show people that cooking gas costs less than charcoal and firewood. In a ThisDay quote he said IHS Nigeria donated 10,000 cylinders to beneficiaries in different local government areas, and also enrolled over 2,000 people in the FCT health insurance scheme.
Fasawe said the monitoring results give the territory local evidence for decisions on clean energy, air quality and public health. Two outdoor air quality sensors have been bought, she said, to produce real-time data for planning.
Dr Ayuba Usman, a consultant clinical and radiation oncologist at the National Hospital Abuja, called the project a critical public health measure that could lower the number of lung cancer and other respiratory cases. She asked governments, development partners and private organisations to put money into similar preventive schemes.
Pupils and students received educational material on environmental sustainability and healthy living, and pregnant women were given baby care kits. Traditional rulers, security agencies and senior FCTA officials joined the audience, along with representatives of the Bwari and Abuja Municipal Area Council chairmen.
Sources
- FCTA, IHS distribute 10,000 cooking gas cylinders to households – Naturenews.africa
- FCTA, IHS distribute 10,000 LPG cylinders to curb air pollution
- FCTA, IHS Seek to Discourage Burning of Firewood for Cooking in FCT
