Some locals claimed to have given up using petroleum products in favour of burning firewood or tyres as fuel
By Nwaobasi Chidinma Rosemary
March 6, 2024. 10:30 am
Prices for fuel, petrol and kerosene, which some Nigerians use to prepare their food, have recently risen, leaving many residents struggling to adjust. As a result, many remote residents who could not afford the prices resorted to using wood.
The Colonist Report Africa visited Amafor village in the Asa community of Ohaji-Egbema local councils in Imo State, eastern Nigeria, to learn about the alternative food preparation methods used by the locals. We discovered that many have long relied on wood cut from nearby forests, including premature trees.
Amafor village is well-known for agricultural production, including palm oil production.
Further investigation into deforestation in Ohaji-Egbema during the period of increased petroleum product prices in Nigeria reveals an increase in deforestation and aggressive cutting of premature trees for firewood.
According to Global Forest Watch, 1,150 deforestation alerts were reported in Ohaji/Eg between November 1, 2023 and March 3, 2024, covering a total of 14 ha, with 19% of them being high confidence alerts detected by a single system and none by multiple systems.
In 2022, Ohaji lost 3 ha of tree cover to fires and 148 ha due to other causes of loss. Over the course of this period, 2022 saw the greatest loss of tree cover due to fires, with 3 hectares lost to fires.
When The Colonist Report Africa visited Asa village on November 29, 2023, we met some locals who own a palm oil mill, where local traders come to process their palm fruits before selling them at one of the nearby Imo State markets.
The Asa community is remote, taking The Colonist Report Africa two hours to reach from the city. At the time of the visit, the road leading to the community was unpaved, with stagnant water and potholes.
While some decide to self-medicate as a preventive measure to mitigate the effects of carbon exposure from wood and tyre burning, others are completely unaware of the negative consequences.
Barry Marcel Iwuoha, a local palm factory owner, told The Colonist Report Africa that firewood was still a better option for him because it was readily available and less expensive than other types of fuel, which are “fast becoming unaffordable.”
Iwuoha spends between N2,000 and N3,000 on firewood from locals to cook a portion of palm fruit, which may cost more if cooked with kerosene or another petroleum-based fuel. In Imo State, one bottle of kerosene costs N700, and Iwuoha would need more than five bottles to cook a portion of palm fruits.
Chika Emmanuel cooks her food and palm fruit using condemned vehicle tyres and firewood. “We use tyres to catch firewood, and sometimes we use fuel or even diesel.”
Although Emmanuel has previously used both tyres and wood, she is now looking for other alternatives that will have a lower impact on her health while remaining readily available and affordable.
“If I see any other means, I will do,’’ she said.
When firewood is burned, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, and studies have found that using wood to cook not only harms the environment but can also cause illness.
According to research, people who cook with firewood have 9.4% less lung capacity than those who cook with cleaner fuels. This impact is greater for women and children than for men.
A third of the world’s population, or about 2.3 billion people, cook over open fires or inefficient stoves powered by kerosene, biomass (wood, animal dung and crop waste), and coal. This leads to dangerous air pollution in homes, which the World Health Organisation estimates will cause 3.2 million deaths annually in 2020, including over 237,000 deaths of children under the age of five.
For Emmanuel, who suffers from hepatitis and experiences frequent bouts of catarrh whenever she uses wood or tyres, cooking has not always been an easy task. “We do not apply anything to ourselves; the smoke produces catarrh. “Runny nose, itchy eyes, and sometimes I fall ill of malaria, she told The Colonist Report Africa.
“As a hepatitis patient, I just treat myself; I take drips, and sometimes I get rip pain.’’
Another resident, Sara Chukwu, usually had reddish eyes following exposure to the smoke generated when cooking with wood. ‘’sometimes my eyes do hurt me when I get in the smoke, it causes my eye to pain.’’
Unlike other locals who use wood to process their palm oil and suffer the consequences, Iwuoha claims that in his fifteen years in the palm oil industry, he has never had a negative outcome from cooking palm fruits for his customers with wood. Drinking a tin of evaporated milk every day, he claims, keeps him from getting sick.
Iwuoha said: “The smoke is not a dangerous one; it is pure smoke. It is already known to everybody in this area that, after milling, you can take a tin of milk.
Editing by Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi and Woke Kevin
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