Lagos state government has introduced a fresh angle into the campaign for clean domestic cooking fuel. A report it published last week indicated that conjunctivitis (eye infection widely known as Apolo), bronchitis and heart disease were on the increase in the state.
The state government believes that the increase in the ailments might be traced to cooking with fire wood, charcoal and kerosene.
It has therefore started a campaign to persuade residents in the state to cook with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The programme known as Eko Gas scheme started with the distribution of 20, 000 units of the 3kg gas cylinders to deserving households.
Lagos state is not alone in the complaint about the health hazards of cooking with kerosene, firewood and charcoal. A recent study concluded that 91, 000 women die annually from ailments emanating from cooking with firewood. Besides the health hazards, the use of firewood for domestic cooking is depleting the country’s forest reserve and accelerating the Sahara Desert’s advance toward the Atlantic Ocean.
Lagos state government knows the basic reason why millions of households in the state cling tenaciously to firewood, charcoal and kerosene as domestic cooking fuel. The first reason is the cost of switching to cooking gas.
The cost of appliances for switching to LPG is beyond the reach of the lower income bracket of society which constitutes the larger percentage of the households in the state. The 3kg cylinder of LPG along with gas and cooker is about N10, 000. Those who dare to start the switch-over to LPG with the 12.5kg gas cylinder are into a cash-guzzling project. That size of cylinder with gas and the cheapest cooker costs a minimum of N30, 000.
That explains why Nigeria’s 170 million people consume only 150, 000 metric tons of LPG in a year. On the contrary, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), pumps 11 million litres of kerosene into the market daily and it is burnt up. No one has the statistics on how many tons of wood are felled annually for domestic cooking. Even charcoal is used extensively despite its filthiness. From all indications cooking with LPG is clearly cheaper than kerosene even as an odd combination of policy paradox and the tumbling value of the naira have escalated the cost of cooking gas appliances in Nigeria.
The second factor responsible for the low use of cooking gas is fear, borne out of ignorance. Many households abhor cooking with gas because of the fear of leakage and explosion. Ironically, more have died in Nigeria from kerosene explosion than from cooking gas explosion. However, even at the peak of the recurring incidence of kerosene explosion, very few abandoned messy kerosene stoves for sparkling gas cookers.
As the Lagos State government rightly observed, cooking with kerosene, firewood or charcoal is detrimental to human health. Lagos state is tackling the problem from the point of view of an incentive which amounts to a drop of water in a sea of demand.
The 20, 000 units of the 3kg cylinders of cooking gas being shared by the state government would have very little impact in changing an entrenched tradition. Despite the insignificant nature of the Lagos state cooking gas initiative, it is something that should be experimented at the national level.
With the right policy thrust, the trillions of naira ploughed into kerosene subsidy which has refused to reach the targeted audience, could make cooking gas and its appliances so pocket-friendly that millions of households would switch to it and reduce the pollution caused by firewood and kerosene.
The federal government can lure many in the lower income bracket into the use of cooking gas with excellent combination of incentives and public enlightenment. The trillions of naira in kerosene subsidy cornered by marketers, officials of PPMC and middlemen who smuggle kerosene to neighbouring West African countries, could be ploughed into the execution of policies that could crash the cost of cooking gas and its appliances.
Epileptic power supply and a hostile business environment forced Nigerian manufacturers of gas cylinders out of business. The cost of imported ones has escalated with the tumbling value of the naira. The federal government can provide intervention funds that would make the country self-reliant in cooking gas appliances.
Besides, the cost of cooking gas itself at N3, 000 per 12.5kg cylinder is about the highest in the world. Tumbling oil prices have driven the price below N1, 500 per 12.5kg cylinder even in poverty-stricken developing countries. However, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) sells the domestic consignment of its gas to Nigerian distributors at international price.
That explains why imported gas from Benin Republic is still cheaper than the one processed in Nigeria. With the massive devaluation of the naira in recent weeks, the cost of cooking gas would escalate.
Unless something is done at the national level to keep the price at the same level with neighbouring West African countries, the Lagos State initiative would pale into insignificance as escalating cost of LPG forces even the beneficiaries of Eko Gas Scheme back to the use of firewood, charcoal or kerosene.