Songwe: It has been stated that the use of unclean cooking not only endangering health but also stimulates environmental degradation where approximately 400,000 hectares of forests are lost every year in the country due to deforestation for wood and charcoal, which contributes to increased drought and climate change.
Tanzanians have advised to move to the use of clean cooking energy and to stop the use of pure energy such as firewood and charcoal due to its effects on humans and the environment.
The call was issued on August 16, 2025, by the Geological from the Ministry of Energy, Mr. Nsajigwa Maclean, while providing fresh cooking energy for entrepreneurs in Songwe.
Mr. Maclean said according to the Census and Housing Census statistics by 2022, only 16 percent of Tanzanians use fresh cooking energy, so there are still diseases caused by wood and charcoal smoke that cause more than 33,000 deaths a year in the country.
At the international level, he said 2.1 billion people do not have access to clean cooking energy, with more than 3 million people dying each year due to the health effects caused by unclean cooking energy while in the sub -Saharan Africa more than 960 million people do not have that energy.
He said there is a misconception among communities that food cooked with gas or electricity is not good, which he said is not scientifically basic and continues to prevent many citizens from making changes to the use of clean cooking energy.
He said the Ministry of Energy has put in place a national strategy for the use of clean cooking energy to ensure that by 2034 80 percent of Tanzanians are using clean cooking energy, with the strategy highlighting the achievements from other countries such as India and Ghana, which have taken steps to promote the use of clean cooking energy.
He said the biggest challenge for citizens is not to want to use clean cooking energy but they need education about the use of that energy and has called on stakeholders to cooperate with the government in implementing the clean -up energy strategy.
At the seminar, women and entrepreneurs were encouraged to be ambassadors for change by encouraging the use of clean cooking energy not only for health, but also for the protection of the environment and the next generation.
