Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
The Citizen’s Environmental Social Concern (CESCO) has called on the government to subsidize liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to make it more affordable in order to reduce the high charcoal demand in view of the current load shedding being experienced in the country.
Organization executive director Conwell Hakapya says the current long hours of electricity load shedding are rapidly pushing up the demand for charcoal, and subsequently pushing up the deforestation rate which is already bad.
Mr. Hakapya states that people have resorted to using charcoal because it is readily available and cheaper while other sources of domestic energy such as liquefied petroleum gas are scarce and expensive.
He says in comparison, a bag of charcoal is sold at k50 while the smallest gas cylinder which is only 6 kg is sold at k500; hence the more reason people resort to using charcoal.
Mr. Hakapya says LPG is used for cooking in many countries not only for economic reasons, but because it is also clean, convenient and environmentally friendly.
He states that if other domestic sources of energy such as liquefied petroleum gas are not subsidized, citizens will continue digging their own grave by rapidly turning the country into a desert and massively contributing to climate change which is already stressing the water sources due to inadequate rainfall.