Global Alliance for Clean Cook-stoves, an initiative hosted by the United Nations Foundation has unveiled H.E Samira Bawumia, Second Lady of the Republic of Ghana as its ambassador.
Speaking at the event, Mrs. Bawumia described lives lost as a result of air pollution as unfortunate and said it was therefore prudent to put measures in place to save lives.
According to her, the World Health Organization puts the global figure at 4.3 million people a year who die from health problems attributable to exposure to smoke from solid fuel stoves.
“In Ghana alone, 17,000 people die annually, it’s unacceptable. And out of this seventeen thousand, 2,200 are children. They die of all sorts of avoidable diseases so I’m passionate about this. We want to help this nation and by helping the nation, we want a healthy nation and no death that is avoidable should be allowed to occur,she stressed.
On his part, Kwesi Sarpong, Regional Marketing Manager, Global Alliance for Clean Stoves reiterated the need to use clean cook-stoves to avoid harmful diseases and pollution of the environment. He said the initiative has plans of supplying about 1.2 million households in Ghana with clean, new and improved cook-stoves by 2030 at a subsidized cost. Funding and support will come from the UN Foundation and other partners.
Mrs. Bawumia adds to a good number of world icons such as UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan; Academy Award-winning actor, Julia Roberts; and Grammy Award nominee, Rocky Dawuni to work with the Alliance and itsh partners to raise awareness on household air pollution and encourage broader adoption of clean cooking solutions in developing countries.
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves , is a UN Foundation project aimed at promoting the adoption of clean cooking solutions through universal adoption of clean cook-stoves and fuels.
Story by Malise Otoo
Ghananews247.com