Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) merchants have asked the Government to streamline and tighten regulation on production and distribution of the cooking gas to protect consumers. One of them, Vivo Energy, that distributes Shell products, said it is important to have in place regulation that fosters adherence to specific health and safety standards by all market players to ensure customers are well-protected. In their appeal to Ruth Nankabirwa, the minister of energy and mineral development, VIVO’s commercial manager, Anthony Ogalo, said regulation would reduce LPG-related accidents, cheating of customers and boost competition and growth of the sector. Ogalo, who represented his managing director, Gilbert Assi, during the meeting noted that, said despite the existence of global standards for filling, storage, handling, distribution, transportation and subsequent sale of LPG, only a handful of players in the Ugandan market fully adhere to them. He said: “Unfortunately, the safety of gas in this industry is compromised as a result of unsafe activities in the market, like mobile cylinder refills, using substandard equipment and poor filling conditions.” He made the remarks during the launch of the Shell cooking gas safety campaign at their premises in Namuwongo, Kampala, last week.

The campaign is informed by the low uptake of LPG as a clean cooking solution in Uganda. LPG, also referred to as cooking gas, propane or butane, is a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances, cooking equipment and vehicles. The gas is prepared by refining petroleum, almost entirely derived from fossil fuel sources (refining crude oil), or extracted from petroleum or natural gas streams as they emerge from the ground. It was first produced in 1910 by an American chemist, Dr. Walter Snelling, with the first commercial products said to have appeared on the market in 1912. Ogalo said the drive to promote clean energy for cooking will reduce emissions from cooking, save the country’s dwindling forest cover and reduce household pollution related health complications across the country.

According to the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Uganda’s forest cover has slid by approximately 16% over the last two decades, from 24% in the 1990s to 8% in 2018. Nankabirwa said presently, the use of LPG as a clean source of energy for cooking only stands at 3.5%, which is still too low. She said over 90% of Ugandan households use biomass for cooking, even when it is more expensive compared to LPG.

Nankabirwa said the reliance on wood fuel has disastrous implications for the population and must, as such, be stopped, to reduce government expenditure on smoke pollution-related health implications. “In rural areas, women and children devote up to six hours daily, gathering wood or spend a third of household income on fuel. Overall, this is one of the world’s most pressing health problems, disproportionately affecting women and children,” she said. She said replacing wood fuels with cleaner and more energy efficient cooking solutions can reduce smoke emissions, provide cost savings and reduce the time and resources needed to procure fuel.

She said it is alarming to still see many trucks carrying charcoal to Kampala and other urban places, a thing that has partly contributed to the loss of approximately 100,000 hectares of forest cover annually. “I can see that there is a need for greater public sensitization towards the benefits of LPG as a safe, affordable and cleaner source of cooking energy and government will surely support these efforts,” Nankabirwa said. It should be remembered that in 2020/21, government exempted cooking gas from Value Added Tax (VAT), seeking to reduce the use of charcoal by making LPG more affordable.