South Asia Regional Workshop on Indoor Air Pollution, Health and Household Energy

27-28 February 2006, Kathmandu, Nepal

The South Asia Regional Workshop on Indoor Air Pollution, Health and Household Energy was held to exchange information on successful technologies, model and challenges in reducing indoor smoke and associated health burden in South Asia. The workshop was organized jointly by Practical Action Nepal and Indoor Air Pollution and Health Forum Nepal.

Participants at the workshop
Government officials, donors, practitioners from non-government and private sectors working in the area of household energy and health, academicians, researchers and medical professionals from South Asia met together and discussed about appropriate ways to mitigate the problem of the silent killer in the kitchen - indoor smoke.

The workshop was participated by more than 90 people representing countries of South Asia and Asia Pacific regions including Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia. The other participants were from Practical Action head office, United States Environment Protection Agency (USEPA), and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.

The killer in the kitchen

More than a third of humanity, 2.4 billion people, use biomass for cooking and heating. The smoke from burning the biomass in the home is one of the fourth leading causes of death and disease in the world’s poorest countries (WHO, 2002). Indoor air pollution (IAP) is linked to the deaths of over 1.6 million people, predominately women and children, each year.

This is more than three people per minute (Bruce N, 2000). In many instances, indoor smoke is responsible for acute respiratory infection (ARI), tuberculos, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), child birth complications and vector borne diseases. Illness caused by smoke kills nearly one million children annually than malaria or HIV/AIDS.

Indoor air pollution is strongly related to poverty, and it is the poor who rely on the low grade fuel and have least access to cleaner technologies. Moreover, in case of South Asia health hazards caused by excessive use of biomass fuel in poorly ventilated kitchen and inefficient stoves for cooking and heating rooms prove fatal.

Considering this context, a joint effort was made by Practical Action Nepal and Indoor Air Pollution and Health Forum Nepal by organising a ‘South Asia Regional Workshop on Indoor Air Pollution, Health and Household Energy’ from 27-28 February 2006.

Objectives

Planned to share and discuss on the existing policy provisions and best practices of South Asian countries, the workshop aimed to identify gaps and draw out possible ways to incorporate and build on them so that indoor smoke problem is mitigated from policy level throughout the region. Specific objectives included:

  • analysing policy gaps and generating recommendations
  • exchanging information on best practices, successful technologies and models and challenges
  • sharing on indoor smoke and associated health burdens
  • sharing about the expansion of knowledge on indoor air sciences and technologies in academic institutions and organisations governments and donors
  • strengthening commitments of stakeholders to address the issues and implement mitigating measures
  • building linkages within and between various fields such as engineering, medicine, architecture as well as social sciences

Target audiences

Organisations and individuals from South Asian countries participated in the workshop. Target audiences included:

  • Government officials from health, environment, energy and rural development departments
  • Representatives from donor organisations
  • Practitioners from I/NGOs, development programmes/projects, civil society and private sector
  • Academicians and researchers

Focus themes of the workshop

  • Indoor Air Quality Monitoring
  • Gender and Indoor Air Pollution
  • Poverty and Indoor Air Pollution
  • Health Impacts of Indoor Smoke
  • Economics of Household Energy and Indoor Smoke
  • Enabling Policy Frameworks
  • Awareness Raising on IAP and its Reduction Technologies
  • Scaling-up of Successful Technologies on IAP Reduction
  • Benefits of Improving Rural Energy Services in Relation to Reduced IAP

Knowledge product display

The participants brought with them knowledge products such as posters, technology models, brochures and other publications they wished to display and distribute. Display space was arranged by the organisers.

Workshop agenda

The following workshop agenda is tentative, the final one with details of programme sessions and participants was made available to participants in February 2006.

Day 1

  • Inauguration
  • Book launching on Smoke, Health and Household Energy: Experiences of Practical Action
  • Paper presentation
  • Display of knowledge products

Day 2

  • Group discussion on key policy gaps observed in South Asian coutries regarding indoor air pollution, health and household energy
  • Working session
  • Presentation on key findings
  • Closing

For more information contact:
jun.hada@practicalaction.org.np
min.malla@practicalaction.org.np
Tel: 977-1-4446015/4434482

More on indoor air pollution

Practical Action Nepal's Healthy Homes programme work

download this page as an illustrated flyer (PDF, 91k)  

Global Leadership Award March 2007
The Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA) has awarded Practical Action Nepal the Global Leadership Award for its vision, initiative and action to achieve the mission of partnership in improving people’s health, livelihood and quality of life by reducing Indoor Air Pollution. The award was presented to Jun Hada when she was participating in the international PCIA Forum workshop in Bangalore, India.