KAURA NAMODA (Zamfara State) – Mrs Laurentia Mallam, the Minister of Environment, on Tuesday urged women to minimise the use of fire wood in cooking to reduce the high rate of health related issues among women.
Mallam gave the advice at the launching of the Rural Women Energy Security (RUWES) in Kaura Namoda Local Government Area of Zamfara.
RUWES is a project of the Renewable Energy Programme, launched by the Ministry of Environment in December 2013.
The project aims at providing rural women access to clean energy, with more than 1.36 million Nigerian women registered under the RUWES project.
Those registered under the project include the Nigeria Market Women Association (NMWA); the Federation of Muslim Women (FOMWAN); the Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) and the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA), among others.
Mallam, who was represented by Mr Jonathan Asake, her Chief of Staff, said the use of fire wood was dangerous to health.
She said apart from its health implications, the cutting down of trees for cooking has posed a serious environmental challenge to the Northern region.
The minister said that the ugly trend regarding desertification was exacerbated by increase in the rate of fuel wood extraction.
She said the RUWES initiative was to control high risk of health related issues from harmful energy practices among the rural women as well as to give them a financial benefit.
Mallam said the partnership with the Kaura Namoda local government council “is to bring the initiative closer to the grasp of the people of the community who needed the clean energy the most.
“It is a common knowledge that women spend several hours sourcing for fuel and return home to cook in very unhealthy conditions.
“With this initiative, women will no longer die while nurturing their families.
“This initiative is targeted towards the under-served rural women who is usually off grid, energy poor and has the highest incidence of health related issues from harmful energy practices.
“The RUWES/Kaura Namoda partnership is designed to bring the initiative closer to the grasp of people of this community who need the clean energy most’’.
The minister commended the Chairman of the council, Alhaji Lawal Liman, for embracing the RUWES initiative.
She said that the partnership was a tremendous opportunity to save lives, create businesses as well as protect the environment.
In a remark, Mr Daouda Troure, UNDP Country Representative to Nigeria, said that RUWES objectives were in line with the MDGs goals as they targeted both the environment and poverty reduction among women.
Troure, who was represented by Mr Shegun Adaju, Representative of Winrock International in Nigeria, said that UNDP would continue to support programmes that would positively affect the lives of the people. [eap_ad_1] NAN reports that Winrock International is an international organisation working in collaboration with the UNDP, with a branch office in Abuja.
Also speaking at the occasion, Alhaji Ahmed Kaura, the Emir of Kaura Namoda, advised the council chairman to defray 75 per cent cost of the items sold to the women to enable them access the new cooking energy initiative.
Kaura said that the present economic situation could impede the objective of mutual partnership between the local government and RUWES.
He commended the minister for launching the initiative in his domain, which he said was the first of its kind.
The traditional ruler said that those women groups within his domain would be encouraged to buy into the initiative.
RUWES packaged items worth N1.5 million to each of the women cooperative groups. (NAN)[eap_ad_4]