The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) in collaboration with the Ghana Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and fuels (GHACCO), a Non-Governmental Organisation has formally launched the Integrated School Kitchen Improvement Project (I-SKIP).

The technology, which was launched at the Tieku and Sakyi Agyakwa Osaebo M/A Basic Schools Cluster in the Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipality of the Eastern Region, sets the pace for Clean Cooking stoves to be introduced to other schools, households and other institutions in Ghana.

It is an initiative to transform the traditional cooking method to a modern clean one, which is affordable, efficient and healthy.

Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister for MLGRD who launched the stove said the adoption and access to affordable clean sources of energy for everyday life was the surest way to improving public health and safety, mitigating climate change as well as attract investment for job creation.

She said an estimated three billion people in the developing countries were exposed to smoke from traditional cookstoves and open fires out of which 17,000 die in Ghana.

The Minister said the world, including Ghana, had committed to ensuring improved adoption of affordable and clean energy by 2030 as part of the SDGs, adding that Ghana had signed unto the SE4ALL country action plan and developed a corresponding clean cooking country action plan.

Ghana, in collaboration with civil society organisations such as World Education Incorporated (WEI) and GHACCO, clean cooking had been introduced to Ghana’s Basic School Curriculum, she stated.

Madam Adwoa Sey, World Education Incorporated (WEI), in a presentation said the I-SKIP technology had been on pilot in the Northern and Southern parts of the country and after its success, it was to be rolled out to the rest of Ghana.

Capacity building was given to caterers, teachers and even students under the School Feeding Programme in helping to transform school kitchens to cleaner ones to prevent pollution, open-fire and efficiency in cooking.

She said though Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) had a special stove, all stoves were encouraged provided they met the national standards, adding that users would have to choose their own stoves based on the accessibility of fuels closer to them, which would be improved by CCA.

Mr Muhammed Amidu Lukumanu, Chief Executive of GHACCO said 70 percent of caterers providing foods were using charcoal and wood stove in in Greater Accra, saying the cooking scenes in the rural areas were characterised by open flames from clay stove, tyre rim, among others.

He disclosed that about 1.2million improved cookstoves had been deployed to households under various cookstoves’ promotion programme by both government and private sector in Ghana.

Mr Kwesi Sarpong, Country Director, CCA said, according to the World Health Organisation’s report in 2016, the inhalation of black carbon emission was the second highest killer disease worldwide.

The report said four million people died annually around the world for using the traditional ways of cooking, which produced such emissions and posed health risks to them making it the second highest killer among girls and women and the fifth for men worldwide.

Quoting the report, Mr Sarpong said a whopping 600,000 deaths were from the Sub-Saharan region, thus, Ghana was ensuring that by 2030, about 50 percent of the citizenry would adopt the new technology.

Mr Isaac Kwadjo Buabeng, Municipal Chief Executive of Nsawam-Adoakyiri Municipality said I-SKIP had given a facelift to the School Feeding Programme making the work of the caterers easier and provided meals on time.

Madam Vida Asafo Agyei, the School Feeding Coordinator for the area appealed that the stove be given to the caterers on credit and paid through the School Feeding Secretariat as a means to extend the technology to other caterers in other areas as it was faster and healthier.