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Clean cooking in Rwanda

Millions of women in Rwanda cook over wooden fires, sitting in smoky conditions which damage their health. We meet the companies trying to create a safer cooking environment.

More than seventy percent of households in Rwanda cook over wooden and charcoal fires. This means women often sit for hours every day in smoky conditions which can damage their health, increasing the risk of respiratory infections, heart disease, strokes and lung cancer. These traditional cooking methods are also the cause of widespread deforestation.

The Rwandan government is aiming to halve the number of people using these cooking fuels in the next six years. They're investing in infrastructure and offering tax incentives to try and support businesses to entice customers to other products which could give them a cleaner and safer way to cook.

In other countries who鈥檝e made this move though, changing from traditional stoves to modern clean cooking took the best part of a century - can that really be achieved here in just six years?

Producer/Presenter: Kate Lamble

Picture: Lady cooking meal in pan over an open fire in Rwanda
Credit: Wayne Hutchinson/Farm Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

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27 minutes

Last on

Sun 29 Dec 2019 19:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 28 Dec 2019 08:32GMT
  • Sat 28 Dec 2019 09:32GMT
  • Sun 29 Dec 2019 01:32GMT
  • Sun 29 Dec 2019 19:32GMT

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