The Clean Cooking Gap: Tanzania’s Slow Transition from Traditional Fuels

In Tanzania, the lack of access to clean cooking energy remains one of the most pervasive challenges our society faces today. Despite numerous advancements in technology and infrastructure, 90% of Tanzanian households remain tethered to traditional cooking methods, such as firewood and charcoal, because they cannot afford the existing clean cooking alternatives like electricity and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG). 

Air Pollution and Deforestation 

Our reliance on these traditional fuels has been a major contributor to deforestation. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, between 2015 and 2020, Tanzania lost an alarming 470,000 hectares of forest each year. The air pollution caused by the toxic smoke emitted from these traditional fuels causes respiratory diseases, claiming more than 33,000 Tanzanians annually. Former Minister of Energy January Makamba revealed that the number of people dying from this problem is far greater than those dying from HIV/AIDS and road accidents.

Governmental Policies 

The government’s attempt to address this problem dates back to the late 1980s with the Energy 1 Woodfuels Conservation Project (1988-1992) and as recently as May 2024, when President Samia Suluhu Hassan launched the National Clean Cooking Energy Strategy (2024-2034). Throughout this period, the government invested in increasing national access to electricity and created favorable policies for the adoption of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG). 

They sought to promote these as alternative clean cooking energies with the aim of displacing firewood and charcoal, but so far, these efforts have seen limited success. In a country with 61 million people, a little more than 41 million Tanzanians live in rural areas. According to Statista, as of 2022, nearly 26 million people in Tanzania lived in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 1.90 U.S. dollars a day. Therefore, affordability is the biggest factor considered when picking energy for cooking, driving people towards polluting fuels.

E-cooking 

E-cooking, or cooking with electricity, has been touted as one of the most energy-efficient clean cooking methods. The Tanzanian government has made considerable efforts to increase access to electricity over the past couple of decades to inspire the switch to clean cooking with electricity. As a result, access to electricity has more than doubled since 2010, from 15% to 40% in 2020, according to the World Bank Development Report of 2022. 

Urban Areas

Despite this encouraging progress, only 3% of Tanzanians use electricity as their primary cooking fuel, as per the Impact of Access to Sustainable Energy Survey of 2021/2022. It is more perplexing when you consider that 87% of households in Dar es Salaam, and 70% in other urban areas of the country, are connected to electricity. But less than 1% of the Dar es Salaam population uses electricity for cooking, and only 2% of the population in other urban areas, respectively.

Rural Areas

In rural areas, the problem is much worse. The Impact of Access to Sustainable Energy Survey of 2021/2022 also reports that only 36% of rural households are connected to electricity, but virtually none of them use electricity as they largely rely on traditional fuels such as firewood and charcoal. Cooking with electricity has failed to displace traditional fuels  mostly because of the high costs, high consumption and energy costs of traditional electrical cookstoves.

Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG)

Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) is the most popular clean cooking energy in the world. In Tanzania, LPG is perceived as the preferred ‘transitional’ clean cooking fuel, and the sector has experienced significant growth in recent years, driven by increasing demand for clean and efficient energy sources, economic development, and favorable government policies. As a result, LPG consumption grew from 5,500 metric tonnes in 2005 to 194,597 metric tonnes in 2020. 

LPG in Dar-Es-Salaam

In Dar-es-Salaam, LPG kiosks can be found less than a kilometer apart, indicating the growing adoption of LPG for cooking, especially among middle-class families. In many ways, this incredible trend has proved that Tanzanians are willing to pay for clean cooking energies. 

Similarly, this growth has been a product of favorable government policies such as the National LPG Policy (2013), removal of Value Added Taxes (VAT)  and import duties, and the National LPG Strategy (2018-2030). These policies have encouraged increased investment from major LPG importers and distributors such as Oryx Energies, Lake Oil Group, and Total Energies.

Low Adoption of LPG  

• Despite these efforts, only 5.1% of the Tanzanian population routinely use LPG for cooking. 

• Only 34% of the households in Dar es Salaam use LPG; in other urban areas, only 14% use LPG for cooking, 

• Whereas in rural areas, less than 2% of the rural households routinely use LPG according to the key findings from the Impact of Access to Sustainable Energy Survey of 2021/2022

The LPG High Costs 

The reason for these low adoption rates is the high upfront setup costs of LPG. 

• It requires a minimum of 45,000 TZS at once to purchase the smallest LPG tank of 6 kgs along with its cooktop. 

• After this upfront purchase, it costs TZS 22,000 to replace the smallest 6 kgs LPG cylinder once it runs out.

High set up costs coupled with the high costs of LPG stoves tend to discourage many potential users. Given that these are the minimum costs, they prove to be too expensive for low-income households in urban areas, let alone in rural areas. 

Given that cooking with electricity and LPG has failed to significantly displace traditional fuels in Tanzania, it is crucial for the government to consider promoting alternative clean cooking fuels like ethanol. Ethanol, with its affordability and suitability for Pay Per Use mechanisms, holds immense potential to appeal to low-income households. By focusing on ethanol and creating supportive policies to reduce costs and increase accessibility, Tanzania can make meaningful progress towards its clean cooking goals, ultimately improving public health and environmental sustainability.