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ePaper created 2015-01-29, 17:46:37 | version 1.34.01
RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY STATUS REPORT 2014 | 25 FIGURE 7 | Deaths per Year from Household Air Pollution Source: WHO, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves In some ECOWAS Member States, generation capacity and related infrastructure have been destroyed during periods of armed conflict, creating a need to rebuild functional systems. Liberia’s civil war (1989–2003) resulted in the destruction of the country’s major hydropower plant and other generation facilities, as well as of the transmission and distribution network, and resulted in the national utility temporarily ceasing operations.45 Sierra Leone’s electricity system faces a similar challenge; ECREEE estimates that in 2012, a decade after the end of that country’s civil war, the functional installed capacity was just under 53 MW, compared with a demand of 125 MW.46 Damage to the WestAfrican Gas Pipeline infrastructure has resulted in significant supply disruptions in Ghana, prompting extended periods of load shedding.47 In Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, aging and damaged pipeline infrastructure has led to major supply disruptions and unplanned outages of 500,000 barrels per day.48 Heavy reliance on traditional biomass resources creates additional energy security challenges. In some countries, dependence on fuel wood for cooking has contributed to significant deforestation, driven predominantly by demand from urban and peri-urban centres. Ghana projects domestic consumption of more than 25 million tonnes of fuel wood between 2012 and 2020, more than half of which will come from standing stocks—leading to increased deforestation and a dwindling supply of biomass resources.49 Increasingly, the combined effects of deforestation and climate change are making it more difficult to collect traditional biomass, requiring women and children to venture farther from their homes to collect fuel wood and contributing to shortages and rising prices in urban markets.50 Health and Environment The region’s reliance on traditional biomass and solid fuels has enormous negative effects on health, particularly for women and children, who tend to spend more time near open fires and traditional cook stoves. Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 4.3 million people die prematurely each year as a result of household air pollution from the inefficient use of solid fuels. The WHO also estimates that exposure to household air pollution doubles a child’s risk for childhood pneumonia and accounts for more than half of all deaths among children under five from acute lower respiratory infections. Roughly one-quarter of all premature deaths due to stroke are tied to chronic household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels.51 Other injuries, particularly burns, pose additional severe risks.52 REGIONAL INTRODUCTION 01 Togo Sierra Leone Guinea Ghana The Gambia Côte d’Ivoire Cabo Verde Burkina Faso Benin Guinea-Bissau Liberia Mali Niger Nigeria Senegal 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 AdultsChildren Total ECOWAS population Affected Population Number of deaths 173,396 334.6 million 257.8 million 01000020000300004000050000600007000080000