DODOMA, Tanzania, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania is undertaking measures aimed at connecting 80 percent of Tanzanians to clean energy for cooking by 2033, a senior official has told parliament on Friday.
Judith Kapinga, the deputy minister for Energy, said the government has developed a special national strategy for the production and rolling out of the use of clean energy for cooking to discourage the use of firewood and charcoal for cooking.
"The use of firewood and charcoal is detrimental to the country's already degraded forests," she said.
Kapinga said the special national strategy was also aimed at stabilizing prices of cooking gas cylinders to enable a majority of ordinary citizens to afford environmentally friendly cooking energy.
Currently, a national task force headed by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa and coordinated by the Ministry of Energy is working to end the use of charcoal and firewood for cooking which caused environmental destruction and health hazards.
The creation of the task force is the brainchild of President Samia Suluhu Hassan who assigned it in January 2022 to ensure that 80 percent of Tanzanians use clean energy for cooking in the next ten years.
"Forests are being wiped out at an alarming rate in Morogoro, Lindi, and Ruvuma regions for making charcoal and firewood. This must stop," said President Hassan when she opened the first Clean Cooking Conference in Dar es Salaam in November 2022. ■
