Addis Ababa, 24 November 2015 (WIC) – The Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Eletricity announced that the distribution of energry saving ovens in rural parts of the country has saved more than 102 thousand hectares of forest from bieng used as firewood during the implimentation period of the first Growth and Trandsformation Plan (GTP I).
Minister of the Ministry, Motuma Mekassa, told Walta Information Center (WIC) that the country had planned to distribute 9.4 million energy saving ovens during the course of GTP I.
According to Motuma, the country has managed to dispatch close to 8.9 million energy saving ovens in the past five years of the first GTP. This has enabled the country to preserve more than 102 thousand hectares of forest from being used as a source of energy, he explained.
The Minister also said that the country has managed to reduce emission of carbon dioxide estimated to be more than 7 million tones in to the air.
Beside saving the forest and reducing carbon emission, the move to distribute energy saving ovens has created job opportunities to tens of thousands.
He also underlined that the Ministry has trained 10 thousand people on how to produce energy saving ovens. Out of all the trainees, 8 thousand of them are women.
Based on the information obtained from the Ministry, apart from distributing energy saving ovens, the Ministry also has built and handed over 11,618 bio gas facilities. Meanwhile, the ministry has dispatched more than 2 million solar panels in its bid to diversify the country’s energy source. The solar panels have lighted up homes of close to 1.7 million citizens.