NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Dr Tulia Ackson at the weekend received a clean cooking champion award on behalf of President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Dodoma during the World Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) day marked on June 7 each year.

Oryx Energy (T) Ltd (OGTL) and women MPs worked together on the clean cooking solution award, with the Speaker remarking that there is every reason for President Samia awarded by the women parliamentarians.

The energy firm was involved as the president has championed the clean cooking energy drive for Tanzania, Africa and the world in general, she stated, affirming that current data shows that more than 80 percent of sub-Saharan Africa use dirty energy sources for cooking.

This shows the need to sensitize people on the importance of shifting to clean energy sources, she stated, underlining that the president is assisting Tanzanians to make the transition to cleaner sources of energy.

Upwards of 90 percent of the country’s population still use charcoal and firewood, she said, reiterating the president’s target of reducing dirty energy use to 25 percent by the end of the decade.

Environmentalists say on average, each year more than 33,000 people, mostly women; die from breathing smoke caused by solid fuels used for cooking, including charcoal and firewood. Such deaths follow long periods of disease and weakness worsened by continued dependence on the same fuels, she said.

The use of dirty energy results in serious environmental impairment, with acute social effects for women and girls, spending a lot of time searching for firewood in the bush, she stated.

“President Samia is determined to relieve women and girls from searching for firewood in the bush, thus enabling them to engage in other economic activities,” she told the audience.

“We congratulate our President for the steps she is taking to ensure women cook in a convenient manner but also protect them from a number of health risks including respiratory illnesses,” the parliamentary leader declared.

Data has for some years shown that Tanzania is losing 469,000 hectares of woodland per year, far higher than an estimated 300,000 hectares that use to be lost annually in the 1990s, she said.

She profiled the ten-year national strategy for clean cooking energy (2024-2034) being rolled out during the new financial year, praising MPs for advisory initiatives on the government to allocate funds to support efforts by stakeholders such as OGTL. 

The energy firm has so far provided more than 35,000 gas cylinders and stoves to different groups countrywide, she stated, with OGTL managing director Benoit Araman stating that the award is intended for recognition of President Samia's zeal in the clean cooking energy drive.

 Oryx energy facilitated arranging that award to the president in recognition of her unique leadership in promoting the use of clean energy for cooking in Tanzania and Africa, he said.

The firm has provided 35,000 gas cylinders and stoves to various groups and expect to pursue that effort to help ensure that the president’s dream to see 80 percent of Tanzanians using clean energy for cooking by 2032 is achieved, he specified.

Shally Raymond, who chairs the lady parliamentarians, earlier said the MPs resolved to engage with OGTL to offer that award, being well aware of the efforts President Samia has put up in encouraging Tanzanians to use clean energy sources.

“We commended the president for coming up with the ten-year national clean cooking energy campaign,” she stated, highlighting the MPs’ intention to take the theme to civil society and respective constituencies.

Cooking with LPG frees a lot of time for women as they can cook quicker and in a more efficient manner, solving threats of gender-based violence arising from cooking time inconveniences, she added.