Did you know that worldwide one child dies every

• 15 seconds from unsafe drinking water?

• 20 seconds from uncontrolled and inefficient use of biomass on open fire?

• 1.6 million people loose their lives every year in third world to “the killer in the kitchen” resulting from uncontrolled use of wood fuel by cooking the traditional way?

• cooking 3 meals a day with traditional and inefficient stove is equivalent to smoking 3 packets (60 sticks) a days?

The invisible Killer in the Kitchen – The victims are mostly children and women

More than three billion people in the developing and least developed countries cook in their homes using traditional fire and stoves, burning biomass fuels like wood, dung and crop waste.

Next to carbon dioxide (40%), black carbon from such cooking fires accounts for 18% of today’s global greenhouse gas emissions.

Besides its significant contribution to global warming, the effects on the health and the lives of the users and their families are even more detrimental and devastating, causing an annual mortality rate of 1.6 million and the most affected are women and children (85%).

It is called the “The killer in the kitchen” because it is invisible and has managed to gain it position in the users homes as a daily companion. Replacing traditional cooking fires in these homes with improved cook stoves is seen as a “quick fix” that provides affected nations time to get a handle on CO2 emissions and the users, usual the bottom of the pyramid, immediate improvement of their health conditions for years to come.

In Ghana, national statistics reveals that 85.5% of the population rely on wood fuel and/or charcoal for their household energy resources and approximately only 6% percent of its population have access to improved cook stoves.

Are you interested in knowing your personal carbon footprint?
Here you go? Calculate your personal carbon footprint CookClean also recommends the use of the following climate calculators at:

 http://carboncalculator.direct.gov.uk/index.html

For Nordic countries try these versions:

Norway;  http://klimakalkulatoren.no/klimakalkulatoren/personer.aspx  Swedish version http://www.klimat.ivl.se/
http://www.climatecare.org/about/carbon-offsets-explained/

Improved Drinking Water

According to the World Health Organization, diarrheal disease kills an estimated 1.8 million people each year, the majority of whom are under five years of age - accounting for approximately 20% of all deaths for children under five. The majority of these deaths are occurring between the ages of six months and three years of age.

School children fetching water for their family need from a pond.

When asked if they would drink the water if they knew the water has been contaminated as shown in the picture next to their photograph.

They were all shocked and could not believe that could be true. They knew the water was not clean but had no idea it could be that worse.

New atlas shows Africa's vulnerable water resources in striking detail

Source: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Nov. 25, 2010

The major challenges facing Africa's water resources have been laid out in striking clarity in a new atlas compiled by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Africa Water Atlas uses hundreds of 'before and after' shots, detailed new maps and satellite images from 53 countries to show the problems facing Africa's water supplies, such as the drying of Lake Chad and the erosion of the Nile Delta, as well as new, successful methods of conserving water. Some of the most arresting images in…read moreNew atlas shows Africa's vulnerable water resources in striking details.

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