(more from my old diary)
The smog in Bamako has to be experienced to be believed these days. A pall hovers over the town making breathing difficult and exacerbating chest infections already prevalent this season. One major cause of this, apart from traffic pollution, is woodburning or charcoal burning. These are the main forms of cooking fuel for the majority of people here and other forms of cooking fuel are just too expensive for most. In the evening smoke from fires adds to the already polluted air from the evening rush hour traffic fumes.
Some sources reckon that between 1990-2005 Mali lost 4.9% of its forest and woodland habitat. You can find a detailed examination of this here. The main problem is that until alternative cooking fuels are available people will still cut wood. Solar cooking has been proposed as a solution but is very slow to take off as it requires a different way of cooking to that which people are used to. One project which tried to introduce solar cookers to Mali is evaluated in an article: Mali solar cooking project – one year later. They found that the solar cooker boxes were not used for main cooking, only used during the hottest hours of the day and mainly used for heating water.
Bringing wood into town
[Source: Jason Parker's Photos Flickr]
